19 days remain of contest A, Wednesday

I wake in my bed thinking of last evening, of how we came out of the water in clouds of steam. Each of us surfaced blistered and smiling like we had just gotten away with the biggest heist in history. We moved farther downstream and pulled the boats into a small side area where we could get them out of the water and rest and heal up. Everyone had their bathroom icons flashing so we decided to call it a night. This next part, we all expect to be the end of this instance.

In my room at home I look around at my bookshelf, which is filled with reference books and little knick-knacks I had picked up on occasional trips into town. All the rare little things I had spirited away to be just mine. My school stipend was small and would scale with my age, but as a ward I generally have no need for money. I just let it collect in my account to use on trips we seldom go on. Our school only takes occasional breaks, and someone brings us wards on special trips whitle the others go to families they barely remember.

It seems like another life now, far away, not even mine.

I use the restroom and go down the empty wooden hallway to take a shower. The smell in the dormitory is ripe, and people are clearly foregoing showers for the game—I couldn’t take it anymore; I’ll be a little late getting in.

After my shower I put on a set of comfy pajamas and climb into my bed and log in.

Each login is almost unexpected, it is the familiar feeling of the world shrinking to nothing and then expanding back but in a different place, in a different body.

I appear, taking physical form, and see I am the last one to log in.

"I had to take a shower, I couldn’t take it anymore.” I say, to knowing nods.

“I logged in to not smell myself,” Briar says, lifting and arm and sniffing.

We get the boats back into the water and begin the trip down the narrow cavern. The water speeds up more and more to the point that it feels like we are going to break apart as the boats bounce against the cavern walls. Our little beat-up boats somehow stay together though, despite the abuse.

The cavern widens, and the water gets deeper and then slows. It is still fast moving here, and there is a bridge over the water ahead. To the left is a sand and pebble beach. Ahead I can hear a roaring sound and stand to see, causing Morrigan to take flight and caw.

“T-there is a waterfall ahead!” I say as I start using an oar to paddle to the shoreline. The other boat follows, and we beach out boats and pull them up out of the water. Looking around, I don’t notice anything specifically interesting besides the bridge, which Morrigan is sitting on while pecking at it. This bridge, like everything else here, is old and worn with runes and steps that appear to have had a thousand years of use. It crosses over the stream, just before the water disappears into a chasm with a cloud of mist. If we had not been paying attention, I don’t know if we would have been able to survive that fall. I flick a pebble over the side and Morrigan hops closer to watch it.

We continue over the ancient bridge and along a path which enters a hallway. It’s not a natural cavern like before, but an actual built hallway with columns and painted walls. Each painting is the next step in a narrative. The story of a people who had been peaceful and then encountered both undead creatures and creatures of shadow who corrupted them, causing them to kill one another.

In the narrative, a great horned and winged god took notice of the people and came down to enslave them. A small group resisted, and after many sacrifices they tricked the demon god into a pentagram of five crystals, which sealed it into a sixth center crystal. The next paintings show they placed this crystal beyond a tomb in a large cathedral, and then they broke the key into three pieces which they scattered across the land.

“Why doesn’t anyone ever destroy the keys completely?” I mutter to myself.

The people in the final paintings are shown to stay outside the cathedral to protect it from anyone who would wish to break the final crystal. These defenders look pretty serious about it all. One image is of a man who became a living shadow. The image shows him maintaining an eternal vigil.

“What does this mean?” asks Kian, who looks at the painting showing the last crystal that has a shadow of the demon. “We destroyed the other crystals, so what are we supposed to do now? It looks like this last crystal will release a massive demon if we break it. I am not a good-aligned character, but that seems like a bad idea for anyone.”

“I think we are going to have to defend it,” I say.

“Where do you get that?” Kian waves at the pictures. “Why did we break the other five crystals, then? Ginga! If you are hiding stuff—”

“Listen,” I cut him off. “I don’t know, I just have a pretty good feeling that this will work. I could be wrong, I could be really wrong.” I don’t want to tell him that I am just following what I know of the defenders of The Shard of the Herold. I have started to think of it as Harry, the nickname they gave it in the old MMORPG called Asheron’s Call. I don’t want to tell them because I will have to explain about the SAINT and about Dr. Friend.

Briar looks at the both of us. “We need to get through this. What are we going to do?”

“Once we get there, I think we will need to defend it so nobody breaks it. But we need to see what happens.”

“H-how would you know that?” Kian sputters, but then stops as Briar steps between us.

We continue through another great hall with more paintings of an earlier, peaceful time of the people, where there is no war or death or demons. The path continues on and enters a much larger cavern. There is a chasm to my right that has a narrow bridge with no railings and a painted wall to the left which has a hole smashed in it. There is a handprint of fresh blood to the right of the entrance in the wall. Across the bridge I can sense a creature of shadow. Because of my class and my abilities to manipulate shadows, I can detect when one is near. I can sense this one is formidable and will attempt to fight us on the bridge.

Roll summons his Djinn, which helps the party with light, and I suggest we check to the left through the hole in the wall. I feel like there is something there that may help.

Examining the entrance, I can hear a weeping man, he is muttering between sobs and miserable. Signaling the others, we enter a cave area behind the wall and spot a large man, a fighter. He is pacing past a two-handed sword leaned against the cave wall. Bumblebzz lights up the room as the Djinn enters, and the man looks up. Upon seeing the Djinn and Bumbebzz he steps back to the sword. I can see his nails are long and his eyes are red; an odd fear is painted on his face, a fear—and a hunger.

“This man is cursed,” Bumblebzz says. “He is a half-vampire.”

“I—I… am,” the fighter says. “My name is Wren, and I accepted the curse for strength, but it was still not enough.” He looks at the blood red sword. He then asks Bumblebzz, “Can you help me?”

“Of course!” Bumblebzz exclaims, his face brightening up as he opens his bag and begins pulling out scrolls, chalk and vials of strange looking liquid.

“This is going to take some time,” Bumblebzz says while drawing a circle and directs the fighter to lay down. “Can you guys make sure I am not interrupted, maybe scout the area?” he asks. I watch him chant for a few minutes and start looking through the passageway and finally I end up reading the bulletin boards to try to see if anything is happening in the game world that we need to be aware of, but there are far too many posts clearly trying to provide false information or trying to get information.After thirty minutes Bumblebzz is complete with his spell. Wren looks like an entirely new man, but avoids the sword and asks the other fighters for another weapon to use instead, FaydeOut provides him a new two-handed sword from his bag.

“I will join you, if you will have me?” Wren says, testing his new sword on the air. “I am a capable fighter.”

Through the mountain (story) : Objectives 13/15

“Are you a member of the party the Mayor mentioned who went looking for the lost miners and villagers?” I ask and he nods with a grunt.

Briar walks over and reaches for the sword.

“I don’t know if you want to do that,” Bumblebzz says sharply, stopping Briar. “That is a cursed sword that will turn you into… something… eventually.”

Briar shrugs and grabs the sword, and I see his eyes light up as Wren shivers and steps back, trying to avoid looking at the sword. Briar stands for a minute, apparently reading the item description. Occasionally he looks as if he is in conversation, and then he places the sword in his bag. Finally, he notices everyone watching him.

“What?” he asks.

Back at the narrow bridge, I move forward and step one foot on the bridge, I can see the eyes of the shadow creature light up on the other side. The shadow’s flaming sword lights up. Upon inspecting it, I see I face Hamud the Corrupted. This creature, what was once a man, left forever to guard this narrow approach. With my night vision I can see that there is a mound back beyond where he appeared—a grave, if I am not mistaken.

“Creature of shadow, listen to me and let us pass,” I say, trying for a bluff or maybe to see what kind of power I have in the shadow realm with my low-rank shadow powers. It should recognize me as a fellow creature of shadow; I don’t see this Hamud as a combat target in my display.

“You … alone … may passsss,” It says with a voice like sheets of paper in the winds.

“I could not get by this corrupted creature,” Wren says, looking down and away he adds, “not even as one cursed with evil power.”

I step back off the bridge and to my group.

“Bumblebzz, do you happen to have any holy water?” I ask

He digs in his bag and produces a vial. I take the vial from him and say, “Give me a second.” Then, I pass beyond the shadow Hamud, who is good for his wordthough I am prepared to teleport if he turns on me. I go to the mound beyond him, which has rocks on the top and a square stone with a seal on it. My guess is that this is the seal keeping our friendly shadow man anchored. I uncork the vial of holy water and douse the grave.

The stone cracks, and a palpable amount of power is discharged. Then Hamud dissipates and floats away, nothing remaining of him as the wisps curl and fade to nothing.

“Okay, let’s go. I probably won’t have many chances to take advantage of my class like that, but I would say that made things a lot easier. Also, I put him to rest, so that is a good thing, right?” I ask to blank looks from the party.

We continue on through a long cavern with a floor of paving-stones and unlit and empty braziers every thirty feet. They are presumably used to light the way, but now are just good as markers for distance. I can see a light much farther down the cavern. Ahead it looks like the path is exiting to outside, where it is night. Then I feel a wind that blows fresh air. Clearly, we are leaving the mountain.

We walk in silence, and the darkness presses in on each of us. Even with being a shadow it hits me; I pull my comfortable cloak tight. This cavern looks to have once been a market of some kind. It feels like it should have people in it, that it is designed as a lively place. It’s builders did not mean it for this quiet and dark contemplation. We each walk with careful steps, deliberate so as not to disturb the ghosts of this sullen bazaar.

Exiting the market cavern, we enter into a valley at dusk. Sheer cliffs rising in an oval shape line the valley, easily as long as the previous valley with the lake and equally impossible to climb out of. There is a paved road for us to follow this time, and we walk with quick steps, as being in the open in the final stretch makes us all uncomfortable. The only sounds are little huffs and noises of shifting gear, the audio track for our march. Wren nervously coughs every so often, I guess he is still not fully healed from his curse. I see that he is not making eye contact and trying to keep distance from Briar.

The road follows along the right cliff face, and as we walk, we see caves and hollows carved into it with crumbled bricks which acted as walls at one point. Some of the dwellings are two or more floors and have the remains of yards in the front, the telltale arbors and rows of long-dead, petrified wood.

This side of the valley is elevated in parts, which provide a view of large grasslands with animals grazing and many birds of all variety. There are areas which at one point may have been farmlands, but have become overgrown marshes full of wildlife and the smells of compost and occasionally the odor of weeks-old death.

We proceed with no resistance or even interest. After walking for what feels like too long, we come to a huge side pocket of the canyon, where we see city walls and an open gate. Beyond the gate are the remains of a city, though there are no signs of life as we approach. I can’t detect that any wagon, horse, or person on foot had tread this road in recent memory.

At the gate there is a sign on the ground. I stoop down and pick it up, wiping dust and caked dirt from it. I read the name of the town. I know we are in the right place.

At the far end of the town, carved out of the cliff as a single piece, is a tower which looks as if it was recently created. It has none of the wear and ruin of the rest of the town—clearly it is our destination. It is where we will find the final and sixth shard, the one from Asheron’s Call called The Shard of the Herald. Its original defenders affectionately called it Harry. In order to protect it they discovered that they could sacrifice themselves to it endlessly so it would level up. They leveled it up so incredibly it became nearly indestructible. In-fact, they leveled the shard so much with their own blood that the devs could not de-level it due to an error, as it was so far out of normal range. The devs themselves died trying to destroy it, the defenders victorious. The employees of the game even joked that that the shard had become sentient.

Approaching the perfectly round tower, I see it has six floors and the door lays open. From outside the tower, the lower floor is empty save for a single stairway up. In diameter, the tower is approximately eighty feet. It looks to be perfectly clean, not a blemish.

“Well, this is it … I think,” I proclaim with a smile.

“Let’s buff up and get ready. I assume I should summon the Colossus, as we will most likely need a tank. What kind of plan do we have once we are in there?” Roll asks as he begins to summon.

“Tank and spank,” Briar says while doing little excited hops.

Morrigan won’t come close to the tower, and her icon is greyed out in this area. This is a problem, because I don’t have her as an option to scout out the tower. Pulling my cloak tight around me, I leap forward into the shadows inside the door and steal through the blackness to the stairs. The stairs follow the inside of the wall and ascend to the floor above. Peeking into the second floor, I see bodies of undead and remnants of shadow creatures—like chalk on the stone—from a fierce battle that took place here. The smell of sulphur and signs of fire and other spells on the floors, walls, and the bodies of the undead show that this was a recent fight.

I continue to the third floor and see much of the same until the fifth floor, where I hear ragged breathing above me. I continue up the stairs along the wall. I am being careful to look over the edge of the sixth and final floor, and I see several badly mangled bodies. I see the crystal we are here for, and resting near it I see a wizard, covered in blood and breathing slowly—his life clearly draining away.

I move up closer to him. Upon inspecting I see his name is Rytheran—he is listed simply as a ‘Protector’ and nothing more. He looks at me approach and I call the others up. He opens his mouth slowly, and as Roll and FaydeOut come up, he looks at each of us.

“P-protect the shard at all costs … These fools,” he waves a hand at two bodies, “destroyed the other shards. They released the Dark Master ...” He shakily reaches for his broken staff, and then is still.

I look at the bodies he had indicated.

Through the mountain (story) : Objectives 14/15

Through the mountain (story) : Objectives 14/15

Through the mountain (story) : Objective complete.

Quest: Through the mountain (story finale)

Rytheran, a dying mage, requests that you protect the shard from the Dark Master instead of destroying it as you have the other five shards.

Success: 25000xp, the shard remains intact.

Failure: The shard is broken.

“We need to get ready,” I say as the remainder of the party get to the floor with the summoned Colossus gs are about to get rough. Protect the shard at all costs. Ready spells and have items handy.”

I slide into the shadows as a purple and black rift opens on the far wall, near stairs to the roof. The rift shudders with vibrating energy, which claws at the ceiling and the floor with cruel snaps of energy. I see a shape forming and use my Inspect skill. A female Dark Master named Vidorian steps foot through the gate. She is wreathed in wispy black cloth that moves with an otherworldly wind. She drops down with silence and grace, wielding a two-handed sword, a knife on her hip.

A subtle vibration and rising anthem of background music begins. Right before the first bass note in the battle music, Vidorian raises a gauntleted hand and drops an anti-magic zone on the floor, a counter appears in my display. Ginga! Fifteen-seconds of no spells, which will be a problem if anyone needs healing fast.

Vidorian charges forward, crashing into the Colossus as they begin to trade blows. Roll throws a vial of oil onto the Dark Master who uses a skill and webs him. She then does a spinning slash which knocks both Roll and the Colossus back.

I see Briar charging up a heavy attack called “Thunder rumble” and FaydeOut charging an attack called “Deep hitter” I need to give them time, so I dash forward slicing at her leg before blinking back out of range.

Briar and FaydeOut unleash their on her and I visibly see the air distort from the impacts.

I maneuver into a position to flank, I slip farther back and wait for another of her Spin-slash attack. The Colossus charges in with rocky arms swinging around its center like a buzzsaw. Vidorian does another Spin-slash attack which knocks the Colossus away, and then I leap forward with a flanking attack.

You miss Vidorian the Dark Master. Damn! I’m not doing anything in this fight.

Kian uses a specialized hammer ability called Sonic-boom and lands a deafening smash knocking her back. I can see she is at 75% health after that attack. My perception shows a translucent red area on the floor in front of her where I assume she is about to attack. This is some kind of a boss attack telegraph, we have to avoid it. Panic-diving to the side, I barely get out of the way of the attack. She drops to 70% health and crouches down, invulnerable, and a wind I can’t feel rushes condensed black wisps of energy toward her. I immediately open voice chat.

“Move back!” I shout.

Everyone leaps back before a massive purple burst of energy explodes from Vidorian. I see the shard take damage—it is at 84%. The Dark Master places her hand on the floor and a wave of green washes over her, bringing her back to 78%. The anti-magic zone dissipates—it’s been fifteen seconds. Bumblebee casts a healing aura and the ground pulses for thirty feet around him with a white healing energy, giving slow heal-over-time effects on the party.

I use my cloak skill and summon the spider. A level eighteen Dire Spinner forms from the shadows and immediately webs the boss. The spider jumps forward, attacking, spraying a yellow poison. I re-enter the shadows and move to the side to try for another flank and I quickly have a chance.

You hit Vidorian the Dark Master for 58 (+9 flank) damage.

You apply poison to Vidorian the Dark Master.

That is a nice hit, but my happiness is short-lived as Vidorian spins and I take a two-handed sword hit to the chest. It knocks me back applying a stun for three seconds and bleed effect.

Vidorian the Dark Master hits you for 72 (+0 shadow) damage.

Bumblebzz’s Aura of the Divine heals you for 15 damage.

Bumblebzz’s casts Heal (2) and heals you for 50 damage.Stunned, I lay there watching the party unload on the boss. Wren is down, everyone is damaged. I see Bumblebzz slinging healing spells as fast as he can.

The crystal is at 56%

Vidorian reaches 40% health and does another area attack, which heals her back to 48% health. The crystal’s health drops precipitously, now only at 40%. No longer stunned, I notice that the Colossus is doing admirably, with two Clerics keeping it alive it is able to box Vidorian in, limiting her movement. Dropping to 35% Vidorian leaps back, summoning by a deep black aura, and all the bodies on the ground rise. I also pick up sounds from the lower levels and realize the battle music just changed to a faster tempo.

Not good!

“I’ll work on the adds!” I shout as I run for the stairs to the lower levels and begin furiously slashing at the undead and the shadow creatures. On my screen I see the Colossus crumble as the undead from this floor, including the dead wizard, Rytheran, attack Roll was ready, though, and finishes a Djinn ifrit summoning which burns the undead and catches the Dark Master on fire. The oil that Roll threw earlier is sizzling on the boss as the Djinn rapidly charges an attack, I see it in the interface it is called “Entombing blaze”. An explosion of fire, with delayed sound engulfs Vidorian.

I am forced back by the number of undead, so I use my Shadow Web skill and ensnare all enemies on the floor. I lift my dagger as if to strike and leap into the air toward the boss and I use Blink, teleporting just above her back.

You hit Vidorian the Dark Master for 84 (+15 backstab) damage.

You kill Vidorian the Dark Master.

The undead and shadows all fall to the floor.

Completed quest

Quest Through the Mountain - final Experience gain 25000

Quest Through the Mountain Experience gain 3500 (500 of 7500 possible bonus)

Experience gain 2000 shard destroyed (3/6)

Experience gain 2000 shard destroyed (4/6)

Experience gain 2000 shard destroyed (5/6)

You have reached level 25!

New ranked skills available to learn from your class trainer.

Your familiar: Morrigan (raven) becomes rank 4!

Hide skill +4

Slash skill +3

Searching Vidorian I get a ring, a shadow skill book, and a bag of dice, all epic.

Before I have a chance to look at my loot, a circular dias appears in front of me, rising from the stone floor. I step onto it.

As defenders of the Shard, you are granted a [ranked] alliance boon. (Pick 1)

- Flame aspected, gain powerful fire skills

- Air aspected, gain powerful air skills

- Water aspected, gain powerful water skills

- Earth aspected, gain powerful earth skills

* aspected means all attacks can gain the aspected damage type if aspect stance is set. Ranked aspect skills additional skills available at levels 20, 30, 40, 50, 75, 100

“Wanna be airbenders?” I ask with a smile on my face.