The game room was paneled with dark wood and dark tones, it was one of our father’s favorite places in the house. Most summers when father was home we would find him sitting in one of the giant stuffed chairs, smoking his pipe while reading some thick leather-bound tome. This and the library were the only rooms in the house that father allowed smoking, a leftover from mother’s rules. The scent of the smoke had impregnated itself into the chairs, and the rugs, even the thick oak card and chess tables had a faint whiff of the thick pipe smoke. The scent reminded me of Father making this a difficult room to stay in, it was like he hid in every chair, but was nowhere to be found.

Ms. Northrop was on her knees, her ankle-length dress disheveled and untucked laying around her as she screamed and hid her face in her hands. Her screams were interspersed with gasping sobs, her voice cracking in distress. The Colonel and Robert were both standing over her with careful, watchful eyes, Annie was sitting listless and confused in one of the stuffed chairs. The oddest part of the scene was not the screaming, it wasn’t Annie’s glazed gaze at her cupped hands, it wasn’t even the Colonel’s unsheathed sword. The oddest part was the words hovering over each of their head.

The Colonel

Markus Collingwood Annie Blythe Robert Collingwood Rebecca Northrop

As I slowly moved around the room, my gaze focused on the words, the text over each of their heads shifted and turned so that it was always directly over their head and visible to read. At one point, the words over the Colonel’s head should have moved through a support pillar, but the text didn’t, it remained in front of it and readable.

The text was odd, but it appeared to be harmless. It was interesting that the white words over the Colonel’s head had his title. Looking above I noticed that I lacked any kind of floating text which confused me.

Ms. Northrop eventually stopped screaming and was reduced to whimpering and crying about the rat.

“It just kept biting me. It hurt, oh god, it hurt!”

I realized that Ms. Northrop had fought a rat the same as I had. Both the Colonel and Robert seemed unsurprised which had me turning to Annie.

“Did you fight a rat also Annie?” I asked.

At my question, Annie seemed to come out of her confusion and looked me in the eyes. With a slow nod, my sister held up her left hand in a cupped motion. Before I could ask her what she was doing, her eyes narrowed in concentration, and a ball of glowing flame appeared over her hand. The ball of flickering death slowly rotated above her hand, the air roiled away from the fire, but Annie remained unmoved. Smiling at me while holding the ball of flames outstretched in front of her, she closed her hand and snuffed the fire out.

“How did you do that Annie?” Robert asked, his mouth hanging open in astonishment.

My sister’s face was beaming as she stared at her hands and at Robert's approach she looked up and answered, “The text said I was a wizard. I…have spells for the elements. I just…knew how to throw a fireball. I wanted it burnt, and I just did it. My important event was lighting the lamps in the morning. I’ve always liked to light the lamps since I was a little girl; I love the warm glow. So now…now I’m a wizard.”

Annie sounded both excited and concerned. I matched her concern. Seeing my sister, thin and weak, fearlessly handle a ball of fiery death with a near-manic smile of discovery had been deeply disturbing. Before I could ask further questions, Emma appeared in the door of the game room. Emma was pale and upset, but she still wore her usual reserved look. Once she noticed Robert was there and unharmed, she moved forward but stopped next to me and assessed if everyone else was alright.

Emma also had the bright white text floating over her head, it was odd that everyone had the floating words except for me. When I mentioned the disconcerting difference to Robert, the following discussion became even more concerning. Everyone could see the name floating above everyone…except for their own text. While discussing the weird text, our voices were starting to rise, the confusion and upset being evident among us. When Owen walked in, our voices again moderated down to a lower tone. Owen had always brought a sense of calm to a room, and since his decline, no one had wanted to cause him distress by being loud or boisterous.

During our discussion, the Colonel stalked around the room, his limp exacerbated by his speed and his failure to sheath his sword-cane. His movements were hypnotic, back and forth, his actions like the lion in the cage at the London fair I had seen as a girl. My staring caused a new text window to appear before me.

The Colonel

Markus Collingwood

Warrior - Lvl 3

This would be a difficult opponent.

The final line was in a bright yellow text. Experimenting, I focused in the same way on Ms. Northrop, and the results left me surprised.

Rebecca Northrop

Rogue - Lvl 1

This would be an even fight.

The last line was given in a white text similar to the rest, but the real question was why Ms. Northrop was a rogue.

“Why are you a rogue?”

I hadn’t meant to ask out loud, but my question could have been a pistol shot for the sudden silence it caused. Ms. Northrop silenced her mutterings, her surprised eyes staring into my own then glancing around at everyone as they stared at her. I could tell the moment that the Colonel had figured out how to get the same information window to appear. He marched forward like an unleashed beast, his sudden grip on Ms. Northrop leaving the woman gasping as he yanked her to her feet.

“I’m a warrior, I think of my battles every day. Annie lit lamps to become a wizard. What. Did. You. Do?”

The rage in the Colonel’s voice was unlike anything I had heard from the man I thought of as an unofficial uncle. This voice was the sound of the military man I had always known him to be. This was not the boisterous and cheerful man, the loud and jolly cheer which signified safety. This was the sound of violence made manifest.

“I…oh god…it was…Owen wasn’t taking care of things, so I did it,” Rebecca said, her voice starting frightened and ending with the usual confident self-assurance in her own righteousness.

“So you steal from the Lieutenant-General while you were supposed to be protecting and teaching his daughters?” The Colonel asked as he threw Rebecca away from himself.

The Colonel leaned over Rebecca, his large frame seeming to grow even larger as he hovered over the prone woman. Without warning a deep tone strummed out as if a giant bell was struck within my chest. For a moment the world hung in silence, then a new text appeared in front of me. From the edge of my vision, I could see everyone else shift or straighten, telling me that they got the new text as well.

Start of New Event - The Great Cleansing!

The Veil has torn, mana has entered the world again. Collecting at points of importance to the collective unconscious, mana forms into the creatures of myth and legend. These monsters and agents of chaos have been tainted by the malignant aura of the Old Ones to act against humans and further weaken the veil. The Old Ones have focused the first tide of mana to create an initial wave of death and destruction. Will you survive the Great Cleansing?

Objective:

Survive three waves of monsters. Levels and numbers depend on the density of the population in the Zone.

Wave 0/3 Survived.

The words ‘Wave 0/3 Survived’ flashed for a moment then shrunk to hover directly below my compass. Each of us stood silently, waiting for something to happen. The calm was broken with the sound of breaking glass and the howling coming from the entrance hallway. The Colonel lunged to the doorway, pulling me unceremoniously behind him as he strode forward. He cast a quick glance down the hall which had the sounds of screaming rising in volume. Robert grabbed one of the giant stuffed leather chairs and shoved it into the doorway while the Colonel backed up to make room, his eyes flashing around the room before he returned to staring at the door.

Unconcerned with the stuffed leather chair, a warty green little man grabbed the back of the chair while nearly vaulting over the back and through the door. The green man thing landed awkwardly, one leg on the seat and the other on the armrest. In one arm he carried a crude sword with notches in two places while in the other he held a small buckler made of wood. His body was distorted, with arms too long, legs too short, head too broad, and bald with large ears. Above the monsters head was the floating text the same as everyone else.

Goblin Raider

When I focused on the monster, as I had when looking at Rebecca, an information window opened.

Goblin Raider

Warrior - Lvl 1

This would be an even fight.

While I was confused trying to make sense of this new world, the Colonel stepped forward and drove his blade into the eye of the goblin. A red number fourteen popped from the goblin’s head and floated away. The disgusting creature screeched then fell, but his death failed to slow his brethren. The next monster appeared much like the one before, his head slightly different in shape but generally he seemed a clone of the goblin before him. His actions also mirrored the first, grabbing the back of the chair he tried to throw himself over only to receive a slashing cut from the Colonel’s sword. This time a red ten rose from the Goblin, the injury leaving no mark and seemingly wholly ignored. Before the Colonel could recover from his initial swipe, the goblin swung his own sword into the Colonel’s side. Grunting the Colonel reached for his wound, but finding no injury, he roared out his anger and returned the blow to the goblin.

While the goblin had caused a red three to leave the Colonel, the Colonel’s return blow delivered a red eleven and death.

Three more monsters attempted to climb the chair, now overloaded by corpses, but before they could vault the obstacles as the others had Robert chucked another chair at the entrance. His makeshift barricade was lodged awkwardly into the door, but it’s usefulness was unlikely to last. The monsters wildly swung at the chairs, their blows leaving leather slashed, wood breaking, and bits of the cushion flying.

All I could do was stand there watching as the Colonel fought as a man possessed. I was frozen in fright, entirely unlike with the giant rat. I had no weapon, no spells like Annie, and no armor. This wasn’t like the ring of darkness and light where I could pretend to be someone else and act out my dreams, this was my family home, and monsters were fighting through the door to kill us.

Robert looked as frightened as Annie, Rebecca, Emma, and if I was honest, as frightened as I probably looked as well. The difference was that Robert was doing something. It wasn’t as helpful as the Colonel, but he was doing something. With a wild look on his face, Robert reached into his double-breasted waistcoat and pulled his Webley pistol and took aim. When Robert pulled the trigger, the gun and his hands flashed red, and the weapon fell through his hands and to the ground. Robert’s mouth gaped wide, his eyes staring, his hands held out and clenched while the pistol sat on the rug. Robert repeated the action twice more while the Colonel struck at the small creatures as they pried their way through the blocked doorway. After the third time pulling the trigger and the gun falling from his hands, Robert cursed and reached for the card table which he lifted into the air and slammed into the ground until the table broke. Grasping one of the broken legs he joined his uncle at defending the doorway with heavy blows of his impromptu club.

After a few more minutes of battle, the monsters were dead, most of the bodies faded while two remained. When Robert touched one of the corpses, a crude shield appeared in his hands before the body faded and disappeared. The Colonel looted the other corpse, it’s body yielding a small hard leather cap.

The sudden silence was loud, each of us breathing quickly in fear, the sound of our panting the only noise any of us could make. Before we could calm, the quest objective updated, the zero becoming a one. The moment dragged out, each of us looking to the others as we recognized what the change in the objective list meant. Our fears were confirmed when a roar, louder than the howls of the goblins, broke through our stillness.