I awoke to the sound of Sebastian and Komhether spreading out a cloak and placing a large amount of food on it. It smelled great and within seconds I was sitting at the edge of the cloak reaching out and grabbing food to stuff myself. After a brief pause to thank them I continued to eat, once I was finally finished I rubbed my belly and said, “Thanks, I really needed to eat and that hit the spot.”

Sebastian nodded and said, “Glad we could help you and now would you please tell us how you have wings and why you arrived here looking like a beggar about to drop dead?” Thinking about it I realized I had probably looked pretty bad. I had been pale with bags under my eyes and wearing filthy faded clothing that was several sizes too large.

I told them what I had been up to, explaining the abandoned terminal and the need to get to the island. Once I was finished we all sat and thought for a minute then I spoke, “Komhether you have the ability to remain undetected unless you want to be seen?” As he nodded I smiled and then said, “That is perfect, I have a mission for you, I need you to find out what the King and the leaders of the Guilds and Houses are doing.”

“I need current information on their plans, and I think you are the man to get it, if you could do a spying mission and then meet back here in three days that should be enough time to learn what is happening with the kingdom.” Seeing the little messenger nod his head, I turned to Sebastian and asked him to do the same thing, only, this time, to try to find out what Banhammer and the Hammerytes were up to. I did not believe he was going nonstop building things for no purpose. What really concerned me was the fact that all he did was being kept secret.

“What are you going to be doing,” Sebastian asked. It was a good question and I wanted them to know what and where I was going. “I will be going to the island tonight and retrieving the pub master mothers bag, hopefully, I might find some other items worth bringing back. I also will do some exploration once there, I am interested in why the island was abandoned so suddenly. So gentlemen, why don’t we relax for a few hours and then get another bite to eat and then we will be off.”

The afternoon passed peacefully the sun warm and the small brook bubbling away in the distance, I closed my eyes and napped as Sebastian and Komhether went for a stroll. Eventually, I awoke and walked down to the stream to wash, afterwards, I sat on the bench and cast Metamorphosis on myself, this time, the process happened quicker and in a couple of seconds I was just an ordinary Elf. I was super hungry but it was livable.

Gathering the men we left and Sebastian led us to a nice little Inn located near the third tier. As we entered I could see that it was crowded and had a pretty active group of customers, mainly Drawfs but some Humans and Elfs were also present. We waited at the bar until a booth became free and then made our way over. Once the barmaid had taken the orders and brought us out drinks, we began to talk.

It was a fun feeling being with people that you like and get along with, I enjoyed it. Sadly all good things do come to an end and after several hours and a few drinks we made our way outside to the street. “All right boys, you know what to do, and I have a lot of confidence in you doing it. Let's meet in three days at the park. If I am not there then you two fly over to the island and see what has happened to me.” With a friendly pat on the shoulders for luck, off we all went.

I walked slowly down to the abandoned terminal, it was getting close to curfew and I did not want to be seen heading in that direction, I really did not want to be seen at all. Once I arrived at the terminal I metamorphosed the wings out, it was even faster and while I was hungry it was a lot better than it had been in the past. Reaching into my bag I pulled out the four extra orders of pigeon wings I had brought along.

Munching on them I walked to the boarding platform and then with a jump and a snap of my wings I was standing on the cable. Slowly I began to walk out and across the sea wall and then I was finally over the ocean proper. The journey was not hard with the wings, and the winds were not as strong as I had feared, still it was something I would not have wanted to do without wings. They really made balancing easy and that enable me to cross without falling down the thousand feet to the ocean.

Once I arrived at the island I saw that the building there was the twin to the one on the mainland. I simply kept walking into the building and then jumped down and made my way to the door to the work area. Again I saw papers left where they had been dropped, all the signs of a hasty exit. Making my way through the interior door I stopped on the small landing and waited.

I always have Dragon eyes activated and the gloom and dimness did not bother me. But I could feel sense something, not in the building but somewhere. I slowly made my way to the lockers every noise or flicker causing me to stop and wait for several minutes. The normal night noises of the island were going strong, there was no sudden silence, but I had that tingle between my shoulders, the last time I had felt this way was the morning I had gone to the Temple mount and banished the Gods. That had been a terrible day, I had lost my family, my trust in a friend and my life.

I continued to slowly work on the lockers, nothing untoward had occurred yet and I had the fruit of my labors in my bag. I also had made about one hundred gold and some silver and copper, as well as seven soul bound bags that belonged to players that stopped me from opening them. Another hour passed and I had all the lockers opened and had looted everything, my pack was crammed with purses and bags.

Slowly standing I made my way back through the building eventually emerging on the boarding platform. I stood there looking at the terrace that I was standing on. Some picnic tables scattered around, and then several paths leading through the underbrush into the islands interior. Seeing nothing on my mini map or visually that could indicate danger I began to tread down the nearest path. My curiosity was like an itch, I had to know what had happened here that had caused this place to be abandoned.

As I walked down the path I was struck by the lush foliage and the abundance of things growing, it reminded me of Roundland in some strange way. Eventually, the path curved around and I saw that I was at the far edge of the island there was a natural plateau here that had been developed into a rest area. I sat at one of the tables and watched the predawn light begin to appear at the edge of the sky where it met the sea.

Suddenly it changed and it was light. I shook my head and stood up I had seen nothing to warrant the evacuation of the island and that made me suspicious. I walked over to the railing and peered down, the drop was nearly vertical with the sea crashing all along the island no beach present just some large rocks and then the face of the cliff.

I continued my stroll along the path eventually arriving back at the terminal area, picking another pathway I went for another walk. This one meandered a bit more but eventually I ended back at the terminal. It was mid-morning by now and I only had one more path to walk. Opening my bag I pulled out the leftovers from the Inn, they were greasy and too salty without a draft to help wash them down but they still tasted good.

The middle path went towards the center of the island whereas the other paths had followed the coastline. Once I reached the center I saw that the mountain peak in the middle of the island was where a stream descended down into a picturesque small lake. Again there were picnic tables and benches around the lake and even a small beach on one side. Knowing I was alone I stripped off the clothing I was wearing and sauntered into the water.

The brief feeling of coolness passed as I began to splash around and I soon began to dive under the water and then tried to use my wings. With one stroke I shot forward at great speed, after some trial and error I realized that I needed to do one stroke of the wings and then fold them against my body before using them again. I am sure it had something to do with drag and resistance but for me, it is what felt the most natural and right.

Eventually, I just floated in the lake with my wings extended and looked up at the mountain with the water coming down from near the summit. As I looked I noted that the sun seemed to be glinting off something, shaking my head I moved a few feet to the side and had another look.

It was there, a sparkling glint next to the waterfall. I was lucky to have seen it, if the wind had been up the spray from the falls would have hidden it, also the position of the sun helped in shining on the object at just the right angle.

Swimming towards the shore, I realized that I was going to climb the peak and have a look at what this thing was. I could tell already that there was no easy way up there, it had not been meant to be on the tour. Snapping out my wings I beat the air for a minute and found the I was pretty much air dried by the wind buffeting around my body.

Getting dressed I stared at the mountain, there was no obvious way up the cliff that the waterfall was descending from. I began to walk around the lake looking up and studying the slope. Eventually, I saw a small trail, that meandered its switchback way up the easiest slope. I began to push through the underbrush until I reached the base where the trail began. Seeing the steepness of the slope I swore and then began the ascent.

After about an hour of steep climbing, I reached the end of the trail, the only way to continue was to climb a steep slope freehand. Having no experience with climbing I could not tell if it was an easier climb or a hard one. Trusting in my nano-enhanced muscles and the fact that players are usually in much better shape and stronger than there were in real life I reached up and grabbed a handhold and then started pulling myself upwards.

I had used my wings several times to give me an extra lift and a boost to reach handholds just out of my reach. Finally making it to the small terrace, I stopped and caught my breath, I was now at least fifteen hundred feet above the ocean and I had a view of the whole island and the surrounding ocean. It was magnificent and I was glad that I could take in the view.

I also noted that there were a couple of buildings on the east side of the island, the trails did not go anywhere near them. Once I was down I would be having a look at these structures. Glancing up I saw that while no trail existed it would be relatively easy to get to the area I had seen the sparkle from. Standing up I made my way to the small open area near the stream just before it began its descent.

Sitting on a small carved platform was what looked like a large carved set of dice, I recognized the script written on them, it was what had been burnt into my chest by the mirror in the underground temple. I slowly walked around the artifact noting that it was given off tremendous emanations of astral power. I was at a loss I had never seen anything like that nor had I heard of anything like it.

I sat with my back to the mountain and opened up my interface, then I logged into one of the backdoors I had left with Gnet and began to search the game forums. A couple of hours passed with no results until I found a small thread in a discontinued forum.

As I read the summary I began to get excited, if what it said was true I might be sitting on top of a legendary quest line with some of the most amazing rewards available Ingame. The forum basically summed up that in the beta version of the game, legendary treasures had been placed to help the top players advance more rapidly in order to bring about the wars that the Gods had decided that they want Men to engage in. Only an advanced player would be able to find and retrieve the treasure and even then it was something that was not repeatable, only a handful of these artifacts had been scattered all over the game world.

Eventually, the lead game designer some guy named Broth had decided to not implement the artifacts or the quests lines, but instead of pulling millions of lines of code and rewriting all kinds of scenarios they had just buried all the information on the subject knowing that without gamers actively looking the artifacts would remain hidden. This information had never been officially released, but someone had heard of it and had posted it in a beta forum that had become closes as soon as the moderator saw what was posted.

There was a good likelihood that I alone in the game world knew of these artifacts and the facts that they existed. Standing up I approached the dice and reaching out I grabbed them, suddenly the ding sounded and the interface window opened, scrolling down I read,

Legendary artifact discovered

The dice of the Goblin King

These dice were created by the Goblin King and his mightiest mages

They are rolled once and then the pathway appears

If you start on the pathway it must be finished

Once the pathway has been walked the dice will bestow a blessing upon the bearer

Accepting ownership of the dice makes them soul bound

Do you accept ownership

YES of NO

The rewards were too great to even think of refusing and so I accepted ownership of the dice. Holding them in my hand I wondered if they had anything to do with the abandonment of the island. It might be how the programmers had made sure that these artifacts would remain hidden forever. As much as I wanted to roll the dice I wanted to check out the two building hidden amongst the trees first and then report in with my men.

Looking at the sun I realized that it was getting late, looking around I saw that I had a little bit of an overhang to sleep under and that the air was warm and dry. Looking over the view once again I decided to stay here for the night. Spreading my cloak I pulled out my wine skin from my bag along with the remains of all the food I had brought.

Taking a drink I leaned back and lit a smoke, softly breathing out the smoke I thought of Ama, who had been pregnant with my child, who would be five years old now. Twink being forced to be in the company of the Eldest. Raik and Gluzzie and Ama’s sisters all helping Oaktree with the orphans from the Kradula and Reona the new tenant at the haunted place.

Wrapping my cloak around me I ate supper and then finished my wine, then putting my head down I slept.