I woke up warm. I can not remember the last time that I had actually woken up warm and comfortable. It was so strange that I felt a moment of panic and forgot where I was. I quickly checked to make sure that my hood was in place only to discover that my entire head was covered by blankets, as a matter of fact, I was covered by more blankets than I remembered going to sleep with. Holding onto my hood I sat up slowly and saw that there were four blankets on top of me, I only remembered going to sleep with one. I curiously poked my head out from under the blankets, making sure that my hood stayed in place, and looked over where I remembered Flint lying down and saw the priest laying on his bedroll with nothing over him but his cloak. I did not remember getting up and stealing the blankets while Flint slept, I mean it is not out of character for me to do something like that, but nobody would sleep in this chill air with only a cloak covering them on purpose. I shrugged to myself and dropped a few twigs and logs onto the fire to get it burning again. It was still dark out and the sun was just beginning to peer over the horizon to the East behind the Cadfael Mountains. The mountains were still some distance off and capped with snow but they were quite a sight. The Cadfael Mountains were, according to local lore, part of the same chain of mountains to the south. The southern stretch of mountains, which were also visible but even farther away, was called the Cloudhome Mountains, but some cataclysmic event obliterated a strip of them and set the Dragon Peak aflame.

I dropped my gaze from the mountains stretching across the horizon and stood up. I began sorting through my haul of loot from the bandits, while the priest said that he was forbidden from plundering them, I wanted to go ahead and pick through the finer items in case he woke up and changed his mind. In all, there were several swords that were incredibly well maintained, six longswords in total. There were six equally well-maintained crossbows, close to sixty finely made bolts for the crossbows, and six shortswords. All of the weapons were well crafted, and though I was not incredibly well versed in the many cultures across Taleria, the design of these all looked unfamiliar to me. All of the blades had a back-facing hook at the end of them and a wavy pattern on the backside of the blade near the hilt. They were squarish overall with the end of the blade slightly wider than the base but they did look like they were incredibly efficient for killing. The armor was equally interesting, the make was almost dwarven in the sharp lines and squared-off pattern, but they were not of any dwarven make that I had seen before.

I had traveled extensively across Taleria, I had met, begged, and stolen from just about every race on the surface of the globe but these designs were new to me. The “Bandits” were all human, common to this area, and their overclothes that hid their armor truly did look like bandit attire. Though once you peeled away the surface coverings it became apparent that there was nothing common about them.

All of the bandits looked like common men from the area, sure. You could find men that looked like any one of them in just about any market, guardhouse, or farm in Tamden. Their weapons and armor told a different story, and the way that they fought added to that story, but the small curious medallions that he found on a couple of them were the strangest thing of all. Three of the bandits were wearing the small golden medallion in the shape of a five-pointed star that had been carved with elegant filigree. That star was held in a silver band and was crossed by two silver lightning bolts. They were roughly the size of a Silver Moon, about half again the width of his thumb. Between the armor, the weapons, the medallions, and their willingness to attempt to kill a Peacekeeper of the church of Shada’Val, there was so much more going on here than mere bandits.

To add to all of that, the men carried a surprising amount of coins. Each man carried a purse with three Gold Suns and five Silver Moons. I had sold “my” sheep and chickens for only four chits four days ago and now my purse contained thirty-six full Gold Suns and seventy full Silver Moons. I now had more than one thousand times the silver chits that I had just the previous day. I could eat well for a day in most towns for just one silver chit. I could now have a full belly for the next ten years and still have money left over for a warm bed. That crazy priest did not even want a single chit on top of it all, according to the strange man “The church of Shada’Val dares not stain their faith with the likes of blood coins.” All the better for me, if I could drag the weapons and armor to one of the nearby towns I could probably get double or triple what I already had. Who would have thought that saving the life of a priest would be such a lucrative endeavor?

I sat back down next to the fire and let my mind wander, thinking of all the ways that I could spend his newly found wealth when I again noticed that persistent blinking in the corner of my vision. Damn those stupid boxes! This time the red number in the small box read sixteen. Great, more of the damnable things! I focused his mind on the small grey box once again and it expanded into the center of my vision. The boxes were the same ones that were there before except that there were even more of them now. There were also several different colored borders now. Some of them were orange, some red, some blue, and some of them golden.n My frustration was to a tipping point and grumbled, “What in Taleria is a PIP?”

My vision darkened a bit and I saw a smaller box pop up. “Would you like to view the Tutorial?” Yes/No”

This time I thought “yes” and the window expanded larger.

I nearly jumped off the bedroll when a musical fanfare played in my head and a soothing female voice followed it.

“Welcome to the Tales of Taleria new player tutorial. Here you will find all of the beginner information needed to survive in this vast new world. Let’s Begin!”

There was an image of some stylized words saying “Tales of Taleria” and beneath the text were a group of individuals in heroic poses standing before an enormous tree and a rising sun. Below that was a paragraph with more text.

“To find out more about the user interface, select the “Continue” button below.”

At the bottom of the window on the left was a grey rectangle with the faded out word “Back” inscribed on it and at the right was a blue button with the word “Continue” in white.

I focused on the word “Continue” and the rectangle changed and there was new text at the top.

In larger letters at the top of the new image were the words “The Primary User Interface” and below that, in slightly smaller letters it read “The user interface is the main source of information for all inhabitants of Taleria. Below is an example of the full interface.”

In the center was an image of a small field with rolling hills and a giant mountain looming in the distance. Overlapping the image were several strange shapes. At the top left of the image was a hex with what looked like a lead border and an image of a dwarf male face in the center and to the right were some other groups of hexagons. The first hex had a red metallic border and a grey center with a white number “8” and below it was two other smaller hexes filled with red and with the numbers “13” and “16” in white writing. The middle hex had a blue border and the number “5” and the two smaller hexes connected to it were filled with blue and had the numbers “10” and “10” in them also in white writing. The last hex had a green border with a white number “6” and the two smaller hexes connected to it were filled in green with the numbers “5” and “12” in white text. At the top right were the words “Active Quest” and beneath it in smaller text were two lines of text, the first larger line said “Protect the Village” and the line below in even smaller text said “Kill 5 Goblins – 4/5”. At the bottom left of the image was another hex shape with the image of an axe inside and curving around the hex were six other smaller hexes with various smaller images in them. On the right bottom side, mirroring the left was another hex with the image of an axe inside and also another six smaller hexes around it as well. Above the right hex was another rounded square like the one that appeared in his vision that also had the number “8” in red.

As I focused on each of the elements of the “User Interface”, whatever that meant, small boxes popped up with information about what that element was for. When I looked at the face of the Dwarf a “tooltip” appeared and the female voice read “This is your Portrait. Concentrate here to view your character information, inventory, and other vital details.”

I then focused on the red-bordered hex with the number eight and another tooltip came up with the female narrator's voice again “This is your Physique Level, below it is how many Wounds that you have remaining and how much Trauma you can sustain.”. He wondered what Physique was and focused on the number eight and received the following tooltip. “Your Physique Attribute is the overall physical capability of the character, it includes strength, coordination, and constitution. Your Body is an Attribute that determines the amount of physical damage you can take and is equal to your Physique Attribute multiplied by two. There are two types of physical damage that can be taken, subdual (Wounds) and lethal (Trauma). Each character can take a number of Wounds equal to their Body Attribute. Wounds are superficial damage caused by blunt or light damage. A character can also sustain an amount of Trauma equal to their Body Attribute. Trauma consists of more serious wounds from deep cuts to elemental damage. Characters who take a number of Wounds equal to their Body will be rendered unconscious and any further Wound damage after that will be taken as Trauma damage. Trauma damage is lethal to the body and heals more slowly than Wounds, once a character takes a number of Trauma damage equal to their Body, they will die.”

A “character”? What did this mean referring to me as a character? I had been accused of being a character in the past, but that was in reference to my outlandish personality and appearance. The way this lady referred to it implied a lot more. It almost made me think that I was a person in a play or a story rather than a real person. That’s it, I was absolutely positive that I had been cursed by someone and was slowly losing my grip on reality. I had always feared that my living situation and nearly a century of solitude would drive me over the brink of sanity eventually, but I certainly did not feel like it would manifest like this. I guess I might as well continue on with this delusion until I managed to get the curse removed. A thought struck me, priests remove curses, right? I wonder if Flint could remove it. He was a priest, and if he couldn’t remove it he would surely know someone who could. I’ll have to ask him about it when he awoke.

Next came the blue-bordered hex with the number five and the tooltip that followed said. “Your Intellect Attribute is the overall mental capability of the character, it includes knowledge, reasoning, and deduction. Your Mind is an Attribute that determines the amount of mental damage you can take and is equal to your Intellect Attribute multiplied by two. There are two types of mental damage that can be taken, subdual (Fatigue) and lethal (Horror). Each character can take a number of Fatigue equal to their Mind Attribute. Fatigue is a tiring of the mind which can result from lack of sleep to certain types of attacks. A character can also sustain an amount of Horror damage equal to their Mind Attribute. Horror is caused by witnessing something horrible and certain types of magical attacks. Characters who take a number of Fatigue equal to their Mind will be rendered unconscious and any further Fatigue damage after that will be taken as Horror damage. Horror damage is lethal to the mind and heals more slowly than Fatigue, once a character takes a number of Horror damage equal to their Mind, they will die.”

Maybe that was it, maybe I saw something last week that drove me insane. My mind must have repressed the memory of the event and this is the result. Walking around Tamden thinking that I was just a character in a story. I definitely needed to talk with Flint now.

I moved on to the green bordered box with the number six. “Your Spirit Attribute is the overall mystical capability of the character, it includes personality, will, and discipline. Your Soul is an Attribute that determines the amount of spiritual damage you can take and is equal to your Spirit Attribute multiplied by two. There are two types of spiritual damage that can be taken, subdual (Morale) and lethal (Essence). Each character can take a number of Morale damage equal to their Soul Attribute. Morale is a weakening of the spirit which can result from repeated failures and severe losses. A character can also sustain an amount of Essence damage equal to their Soul Attribute. Essence damage is caused by attacks from some undead as well as types of magical attacks. Characters who take a number of Morale damage equal to their Soul will be rendered unconscious and any further Morale damage after that will be taken as Essence damage. Essence damage is lethal to the soul and heals more slowly than Morale, once a character takes a number of Essence damage equal to their Soul, they will die.”

I scratched his chin under the hood and thought for a bit. All of this made sense, in an insane “I’ve lost my entire mind or I’ve been cursed” sort of way. As I was sitting there pondering when Flint began to stir across the fire. The sun had now started to rise over the mountains to the east so I decided to hurry and finish the rest of the tutorial.