Chapter 002: Tyrant’s Hold

“So… Ramshiran’s fucktoy didn’t make it." Said Leria after we entered the cult leader office. "Shame. We could have sold her, would give us some money to start over. Besides, we could have played with her in the meantime." O...kay, so my 'sister' has bisexual tendencies. Or is a sadist. Damn murder-cults. "What is it? You made a funny face.”

"Well, to be honest I'm... lost a bit. Ramshiran wasn't the only one to get swallowed by the gateway. I think I made a trip into Beyond, but whatever I met there seemed to have other plans than just devouring me. It kicked me back into reality, but I'm kinda... shaken. I didn't even remember your name and face before I ran into you, I only remembered that I had a sister." She gave me a WOW face.

"That's wonderful!" Come again? “Something from Beyond might have marked you, we should tell Ram... Damn, I forgot he is dead. Still, that is something to be proud of. Do you feel somehow different?"

I was about to say I felt normal beside my 'amnesia', but then I remembered that I gained the ability to respawn via Gore Altars.

"Well, I... THINK I can't die." Spare me the WTF face, dammit. "The summoning changed the altar in the ritual room into something called a Gore Altar. Whenever I die, I will resurrect there. I also think I can share this blessing with others, but I didn't figure this part out yet."

"That's awesome! The Beyond must favour you, Av." She seemed amazed. I wasn't 100% sure being favoured by eldritch abominations from some trans-dimensional place of horror was something to be happy about, but...

"Yeah, but I'm still rather lost, and I forgot a lot. Most of the things to be honest. Explain everything from the start. Where are we? I remember this place being called Tyrant's Hold, but... this doesn't look as awesome as it should considering the name."

"Well, it is supposed to be some ancient dungeon or something, but we didn't find another layer. It is behind one of collapsed tunnels, but the cult left it like that. Last thing we want is an army of creatures from the depths overrunning the place." I was about to ask shouldn't she consider this an honour - the 'creatures from the depths' seemed like this cult’s department - but I decided against it.

"I see. Well, expect more questions about obvious things.”

“Sure, just give me a second.” I gave her a questioning look, but she disregarded it and searched through the drawers in Ramshiran's desk. Soon she took out what looked like a small stone. After she touched her collar with it there was an audible 'click'. Then she took it down. "Much better now." Oh, right. The key to her collar.

"Well, I'm still curious what happened to that slave." I changed the subject. "I mean, there is nothing here to kill her, and I doubt that the killer was kind enough to close the door behind him."

She glanced at the dead slave for a short while.

"I think she did it to herself." WHAT?

"She... scraped her own face off and then slit her throat?" She nodded.

"This might seem stupid or crazy, but I can see bits of flesh behind her nails. There are creatures in Beyond whose influence might cause self-mutilation and make people commit suicide, especially those weak willed... and she wouldn't be a slave if she was strong willed." I thought about it for a second.

"That would explain why we do not feel the sudden need to mutilate ourselves." I decided not to ask her why she worships creatures like that and yet is ok with slaying creatures that crossed into Reality and became a problem. This might trigger her. Let's observe her and her approach to Beyond for a while, without saying openly that I think this is stupid. “Now, the eldritch presence I told you about seems to be there." I pointed towards the door behind the study.

"That's Ramshiran's library and alchemical lab. Hmph. Closed spaces, lots of potentially priceless volumes and alchemical ingredients that can catch fire. You know no fire magic spells, right?" I've shaken my head.

"No, I know arcane magic, life magic and doom magic. As far as I know nothing that can cause fires. Let's hope it's nothing strong." She nodded and unsheathed her sword.

"Follow me and cast magic from the safe distance. If I tell you to run, turn around and don't stop until you leave the caves, got it?" I gave her a determined nod. Well, it probably wasn’t going to be anything that powerful, since it was still pretty much a part of the tutorial, but… DFI games were unpredictable at that matter. In most matters, to be honest.

She walked forward and opened the door. Her roll at using stealth must have ended with a critical failure. A second after she opened it, something lunged at her - only to get sliced apart.

Screecher

Category: Eldritch/Beyond

Type: Daemon/Servile

Threat Grade: Copper II

Screechers are interdimensional pests. They commonly use summonings (especially those failed) to cross into Reality, hoping to devour flesh. They present no serious danger unless in great numbers and against unprepared opponents.

The biggest problem with them is that they can multiply almost endlessly when left alone. They can draw their own kin from Beyond quite quickly, and where one screecher is, soon a dozen will be.

Well, from what I could see, they looked like a rabbits. Big, almost bloated, surprisingly fast, and packed with razor sharp teeth. Interdimensional rabbits. Wonderful.

Leria pushed forward, with sword and shield in hand, slashing them in droves. I walked behind her, keeping safe distance, and finishing the job. She slayed most of them, but here and there she missed a screecher and I had to use a Life Tap spell. It was the most efficient. Didn’t cost much. That stopped them from sinking their teeth in her back. She was rather thorough, though - and thank God for that, because my mana pool was rather abysmal.

Library was a mess. Screechers ate most of the books. Half-eaten pages and books lied scattered everywhere. We almost made it through to the alchemy lab when we ran into... something else.

Spirit of Pain

Category: Eldritch/Beyond

Type: Daemon/Spirit

Threat Grade: Copper V

The lowest grade of creatures loyal to the lords of Beyond. They are a nonsentient gateway through which the raw powers of Beyond enter Reality. While it is incapable of direct attacks, watching it for too long can destabilize a mind, causing a slow descent into insanity. They also project an aura that strengthens pain, while inducing a growing tendency for sadomasochism and self mutilation, especially in those of weak will.

Yeah, so we found the culprit. It looked like a ball of unnatural blackness that seemed to swallow light around it. It floated maybe a meter above the ground in front of what I presumed to be a ruined alchemical workplace. Surrounding it was a large group of Screechers, and... did something in that darkness move?

Alright, so that's what the sanity damage feels like. I'm creeped. Let's kill this thing and be done with it.

I wasn’t sure if it was alive, so rather than using a Life Tap on it I fired an Arcane Bolt. A volley of swirling violet energy materialized before me and moved forward, hitting the Spirit. Or just touching it. Did it dissolve on cont... oh, there is a lifebar above it, and it lost about 10% of it.

If this world was like the older games of DFI, then supernatural creatures had a set amount of power they could use on self-regeneration. Stronger ones could survive decapitation and just regrow their heads. Screechers were daemons as well, but I guess that Leria killed them in single hits so there was no need to show the lifebars...

Leria was strong, but now she was outnumbered. A lot of Screechers jumped at her. She bashed most in-flight with her shield, but two were so close to its edge they tried to munch the shield. Which was a problem because this additional ballast made using her shield much harder.

But another made a more accurate jump and latched onto Laria’s calf.. Damn, I almost felt that, it had to hurt. I cast Life Tap, and it died, so at least it couldn't jerk around, causing even more pain and making the wound worse.

Another Screecher jumped from nowhere, this time straight at my face. I made a step back, and I stumbled upon something, falling back. Thankfully, that kinda saved me from having my face eaten by a trans-dimensional murder bunny. It flew above me, and I killed it with another Life Tap before rising.

Yeah, Leria had it covered. The two Screechers that latched into her shield were dead, but several more tried to to flank her. I lifetapped another one to death, and she decided that if I have her covered, she could focus on those on the other side. She activated an aura technique and two bunnies disappeared under a flurry of slashes that seemed too fast to be possible.

Another one tried to jump on her back, but yet another Life Tap put it in place. Yeah, I think we are winning. It wasn't a real fight, more like pest control, as long as you didn't look at the Spirit.

A pile of books exploded with Screechers that tried to jump at Leria. One died mid-flight (praised be Life Tap, a hex with 100% accuracy), another one was slashed when it got in her range. Two more came in direct and painful contact with her shield and were pushed back. Two more she dodged. I killed one with Life Tap, the second got slashed by her. Then the two that were bashed back returned, but it wasn't a problem.

After they died, the library was silent. With the exception of quiet but unnerving humming of the Spirit.

Arcane Bolt. Arcane Bolt. Arcane Bolt. Arcane Bolt. Arcane Bolt. Arcane B... shit, end of mana. Leria was there, and she finished it in several slashes. It dissolved uneventfully.

Quest Finished!

Type: Main Quest

Name: Aftermath

Difficulty: Iron I

You rescued your sister from her predicament and decided to free her afterwards. Then, together, you vanquished the things that creeped inside during the failed ritual.

The first level of Tyrant’s Hold now belongs to you, just es everything that remained of the sect.

Rewards:

NEW PROPERTY: Tyrant’s Hold (lvl. 1)

Soo… I got myself an abandoned hideout of a murderous cult dedicated to indescribable terrors that dwelled outside of Reality. After cleaning it of murderous trans-dimensional bunnies and an emo-inducing ball of floating darkness. Great. Lovely tutorial. I think I love this game, huh.

"So... looks like it's the end,” I said. Leria nodded, while sheathing her sword. "How's the wound?"

"It's fine, it barely got through my Aura." So, aura was still a thing. Eastern martial arts in a western sauce, essentially. She probably reinforced her skin to make biting through it harder. "The question is, what now?" Yeah, right.

"No idea, actually. Considering the fact that most of the books ended up eaten and I'm far from Ramshiran's level of prowess, I guess reestablishing the cult isn't an option." I wasn't sure if I wanted to become a head of such a cult.

"Too bad." Really, Leria? That smells of a Stockholm Syndrome. Ramshiran nearly turned you into his slave, people you know ended up changed into a gruesome pile of eldritch magic-charged remains, and yet... sigh.

"Well, any idea what we could do?"

She seemed to think for a while before answering. "Well, Dragonspine Mountains are a place ripe with opportunities. Places such as this are valuable. It could host a marauding warband, a cult, a slaver band... we could use it as a base for many, many things." ... all of which seem downright nasty. Sigh.

"Dragonspine Mountains?" I raised an eyebrow. She gave me a questioning face, then she remembered my 'amnesia'.

"Well, a massive mountain range that no country laid claim to. Where all sorts of outlaws live. Place dreaded for its vicious marauders, depraved slavers and crazy cults." She chuckled. "Also filled with many interesting things. Dungeons, abandoned lairs of ancient evils, treasures and untapped resources. A haven for all who don't feel right in the so-called society."

Oh Jesus. I’ve started my game in one of DFI’s Doomplaces.

DFI always added them to their games. They were essentially a lands were normal rules of society were cast aside and replaced by a social darwinist ‘might makes right’ mindset. Domains of darkness, where pursuit of power long ago kicked all sorts of ethics into the garbage. Lands of dark magicians and warlords, where drug production and the most abusive forms of slavery thrived.

To think I started my game there... Jesus, this was going to be tough.

“Well, we can think about this after we clean this place up a bit."

It was then that I found out the details about the interface. Status, stats, and so on. I got so busy with the fight, I almost forgot about it.

***

STATUS

General Information

Level

1

Aura Conductivity

5/100

Race

Amalthian

Class

Cultist

Achievements

Morality

Titles

Traits

Affiliations

Sexuality

Active Effects

Quests

Inventory

Property

Religion

Character

Health

Modifications

Followers

Recipes

Skills

Spells

Rituals

Techniques

Statistics

Strength

4

Intellect

6

Endurance

4

Willpower

5

Resilience

4

Faith

3

Dexterity

3

Charisma

4

Agility

3

Mental Resistance

6

Recuperation

5

Sanity

73/100

LOGOUT

NOTE ON USING STATUS

After opening Status window, you can inspect by using appropriate voice command, for example: OPEN TITLES or OPEN SKILLS. While most of them will have next to no interesting information, some - especially those written bold and with underline - might be different. Try it now.

Alright, that’s a DFI game altogether. Sadistic level of details, dozens of submenus that most people visited once a year at best. Half of them literally described what you achieved in the game and was used mostly for showing off.

Only Active Effects, Quests, Inventory, Property, Followers, Recipes and the lowest row that described your combat abilities really mattered. I took a brief look at the others, just in case there was something interesting there, but nope.

Even those important pages had only things I expected since they were mentioned in the introduction to my backstory. Only in “Active Effects” was there something I didn't expect.

ACTIVE EFFECTS

Marked by Something

[Unique]

A ritual you took part in went horribly wrong. However, when you were pulled into a Place Beyond, your soul drew the attention of some eldritch power that dwells there.

You returned to the real world, but… something changed. It is hard to say what, but you are sure that something is different.

So there is a long and potentially deadly quest chain, but it’s inactive for now and will likely jump out of the bushes and kick me in the ass when I’ll be strong enough to not die immediately. Sure, fine, whatever. After you played DFI games as long as I did, they started being predictable. All you had to do was expect the worst - it was almost always true.

In “Property” I discovered a map of this place… and that I could switch on a protective barrier that made average uninvited NPCs and local fauna unable to enter. Stronger beings could still pay you an unexpected visit. I switched it on while adding Leria as an invited person. Yeah, now I could feel at home here. At least if I could call a place with its own torture room my home.

The worst part was that I couldn't play a righteous good around here. Not only Leria would probably stab me, but being such a person as a 'citizen' of a Doomplace was bound to hurt. You were either evil there, or at least neutral but strong enough to make people think twice about pissing you off. Trying to play against the rules of this place was a guaranteed bad end. I could try to run away to more civilized places.... it was an option, but this wasn't a trip I could survive as a lvl 1 cultist.

Considering the almost sadistic ways of DFI I was sure that making another character wasn't an option. Even buying another Infinity would not work. Sigh. Damned roleplay & immersion junkies of the Demiurge’s Forge. Oh, well, if I trigger a bad end I can just abandon GoE and go play Long War, the science fiction game, for a change. This time I would certainly pick the most boring way to create my character, that's for sure.

Unfortunately, Tyrant's Hold was a starting/tutorial location and the loot that could be found there was great for level one characters. So I could forget about getting rich. We saved around one fifth of the volumes in the library - but selling the rest would be stupid as we didn't even know their exact value. Screechers devoured most of alchemical ingredients as well. The Alchemical lab required investments and repairs to be of use. Storeroom had stuff used for repairs of furniture, which might be useful when we expand the place, but not now.

We had a decent supply of food, drinking water and cheap wine. Lots of useless cultist clothing and short swords of low value used by cultists for self defence against weak creatures that came too close to the Hold. Jewelry and money stashed beneath Ramshiran's bed (who might have guessed). Also, a set of silver earrings, nipple rings and a nipple chain that Leria... 'looted' from the dead slave. The details of it are too gruesome to describe, and the images I saw there would haunt me forever.

In short - not good. But not terrible, either. We had only a tiny amount of jewelry to sell, but it was more than most of the players had on start. However, we were in the middle of one of the DFI's Doomplaces, which probably made the difficulty higher... let’s hope it’s ‘only’ Hard in GoE, rather than Nightmare or Ultra-Nightmare.

"Alright, so we should decide what to do next." I said after we finished the cleaning. We were in the middle of a meal in the cult's dining room. Nothing exquisite, but it was satisfying. "For now, we should focus on getting stronger, even before we try to use Tyrant's Hold. Best bet would be either joining some preexisting group or becoming adventurers."

"That should work." She agreed to this quite easily ."There is a town nearby. We could search for work there. "Oh dear, a town in the Doomplace. This will be fun. That's for sure. DFI’s last game had them so hardcore that they had to actually censor it down a lot… or risk getting banned pretty much everywhere.

"Town, you say. Well, I don't remember it but I guess we had to take provisions from somewhere." Not to mention slaves and offerings... "Is it far?"

"Maybe half a day away from here. We send groups of eight or ten men there though." She frowned visibly. "Lands around here aren't exactly safe. Most of the bandits keep away from us, fearing the sect, but wild daemons and beasts don't care for allegiances."

Wild daemons and beasts, huh. I found it weird that DFI changed so little since their last game. On the other hand, why change something that worked well and allowed them to fit pretty much everything their twisted imagination conjured into the lore and world’s mechanics?

“Well, I guess we should start it safe. You know, scout the area, ambush some weaker beasts, just to train ourselves. We have enough food and water to last for a year, so it shouldn’t be hard.” At least if we are ready to keep eating dried meat for several months in a row. Sigh.