The entrance cut into the side of the stone tree led to a long circular staircase. It grew dark quickly as they descended, but Benjamin cast a partial Flame Bolt and held the spell in his hand, illuminating the path in flickering reds and oranges. Each step, expertly carved from the stone, had interlocking spirals and swirls engraved on their surface.
The stones were damp and slick, but the grooved patterns worked as a non-skid surface. Elijah ran his fingers across the wall as they descended. The stone was smooth as if polished after this tunnel had been carved.
“It must have taken decades at least to carve this tunnel,” he remarked in awe.
“Not carved, grown,” Benjamin answered. “This isn’t normal stone. It’s petrified wood.”
“Grown? Then it would have taken what? Centuries for a tree this large to grow.”
Bo snorted loudly. “Are you nerds forgetting we’re in a video game? It didn’t take centuries or even decades. They probably knocked out the modelling for this tree in a week.”
The group went silent until Sasha came to the rescue of the more awestruck members of the party. “This entire world feels so real that sometimes it’s hard to remember that it’s a video game and not real life.”
“Speaking of which,” Benjamin spoke, his voice quiet and conspiratorial. “This would usually be the point in a game where the tree sinks and we have to run away as water starts pouring in.”
Benjamin crashed into Nicholas as the large man stopped to stare at the mage. The spell flickered out as he lost concentration on it.
“Benjamin,” Nicholas spoke, barely contained rage seeping through. “Why would you speak something like that into existence?”
The whole group waited, expecting the dungeon to rumble, or the roar of water to fill their ears, or some other cliché video game thing to happen. After half a minute, they let out a collective breath of relief while Benjamin recast his modified spell.
The air grew colder and damper as they descended, finally coming out into a large room at the bottom of the stairs.
The room itself was empty save for a pool of water in the center. Barely ten meters across at the widest point, gentle waves emanated from the center and lapped against the shallow bank. There was no dripping of water, nor anything they could see below the surface disturbing the water; it simply created the ripples of waves without cause.
Inset into the wall on the far side of the room were three doors, each one glowing with a faint grey light. The room had a scent that mixed fresh sap and the smell of an ocean.
The ground in front of them shifted as if a whirlpool had somehow taken on the appearance of stone. Another dryad pushed its way upwards from the ground. Whereas the ones above had been a dark brown, matching the trees, this one’s rough skin was a mottled pattern of greys and whites. It lurched towards them with the same jointless gait as the others.
[TARGET INFO]
Mother’s Keeper (Level 15)
HP: ??? / ???
Elijah leaned over closer to Bo. “Bo, what’s it mean when the health bar displays question marks?”
Bo gulped loudly. “It means the game is hiding its stats, usually because it is cheating.” Bo spoke a little louder so that the entire party could hear him, hoping that this NPC wouldn’t react. “We need to be very careful if we have to fight this thing. It’ll have a constitution stat, and probably others, that are significantly higher than anything it should have at its level.”
The Mother’s Keeper didn’t appear to hear him as it came to a stop just a few feet away from Nicholas. “Are you here to search for the bones of my mother?”
The rough, feminine rasp of the others remained in this one’s voice, but now every word included a heavy breath. As if this dryad had to empty a lungful of air for every word—yet it spoke as quickly as if it did not need to breathe at all.
Nicholas stood firmly, embodying the role of the party’s tank and leader.
“That is what we came down here for. Though we had little choice.”
The dryad gave a half nod of its head. “There are three challenges. You must face each of them in turn. The order you choose is up to you, but important nonetheless.”
It gestured towards the three doors, then slipped back down into the petrified wood of the floor.
“Wait, if the order is important, can you at least advise us?” Elijah called to it. No answer came, as it vanished into the floor as if it had never been there at all.
Nicholas turned to the party. “Does anyone want to back out?” His question was simple, but his voice held both caution and enthusiasm. It was clear he felt excited about this challenge. Their first proper dungeon crawl since their glitched run-in with the Dragontooth Fort.
He smiled as the party shook their heads, as on board for this adventure as he was. For the moment, they could forget that they were stuck here in the game—being hunted by maniacs and their overpowered leader.
They approached the three doors, giving the pool of water a wide berth. The Keeper had said nothing about it, and that obviously unnerved Nicholas. He kept glancing towards it as they walked.
“No directions on which door to go through first. So let’s just take our chances on the one on the left.” There was a slight lift to his words as he spoke, showing he wasn’t completely certain of his choice, but the rest of the party made no sign that they disagreed. Elijah felt it was a solid choice. At least without the benefit of anything suggesting they do otherwise.
As they approached the first door, the pattern of swirls lit up and changed shape. They danced around the door before settling into words, each letter locking in like the natural swirling grain of wood.
A mother is a leader and a protector.
Her path is one of hardship and struggle.
But a single tree does not make a forest.
“What do you think it means?” Sasha asked, her hand tracing over the letters of the door.
Nicholas grunted and stepped forward. “It means that we’re going to have to stand together. As one party, our own mini-forest. Elijah, I want you at the back to protect the rear. Bo, right behind me. Sasha, Benjamin, you two between Bo and Elijah.”
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The party voiced their agreement as he pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The world shifted, colors bleeding into each other before snapping back into place in different places. They were transported to an overgrown forest. Unlike with Benjamin’s teleport, there was no nausea or disorientation. The path ahead of them was thick with vines and fallen branches. The entire party’s eyes glazed slightly as they received a pop-up.
[Trial One]
The Maze of the Heart
Description: The Maze of the Heart. Find your way to the exit, but beware the Mother’s heartbreak. Collect three memories to proceed to the next trial.
All party members will receive the Mother’s Burden debuff.
~~~
[Debuff: The Mother’s Burden]
Description:
The party member at the lead will take constant 1 HP per second of damage while moving.
Elijah grabbed the debuff with his Reality Warp skill and changed it. Adjusting it so that it would only damage him every sixty seconds. But the moment he changed it, it snapped back to its original form. At the same time, Sasha attempted to cast ‘Remove Disease’ on herself, but the defeat in her eyes told him it hadn’t worked. The dungeon was constantly refreshing the debuff to make sure it was in constant effect.
With seventy and seventy-five health points respectively, Elijah and Nicholas were the only ones who could handle the damage for any length of time. Even so, Elijah didn’t think Sasha’s mana would hold up if only one of them tried to lead the whole time.
“What do you suppose the memories are?” Sasha’s eyes continued to stare at nothing, reading the notification over again.
“Going by game logic, they’ll be orbs, or jewels, or some form of energy.” Elijah answered her, having coded a similar challenge in the past for one of his games. “They could be behind traps or enemies, depending on what the game means by the mother’s heartbreak.”
“Alright, team, let’s move.” Nicholas said, stepping forward into the maze. His health immediately started dropping as he moved forward.
“Wait, Nic, don’t you think we should discuss the debuff first?” Elijah called after him. The party was moving in behind Nicholas, not wanting to let him get too far ahead.
“Nothing to discuss, Elijah. We both have the highest health. I need you at the back in case something sneaks up behind us.” Nicholas gritted through the pain. At every step, a vine lashed out, striking him, taking off a single point of health. “That means I’ll take the pain.”
Death by a thousand cuts.
Brutal.
Elijah wanted to yell at him for being stupid, but he held his tongue. He doubted any enemies would come from the rear in this type of challenge, but he couldn’t know that for certain.
Half a minute of travel and constant damage later, Nicholas fell to one knee. Sasha rushed forward to help him up. The soothing white light of a healing spell washed over his body and stitched up his wounds.
“I’m fine. Just need a moment. Sure do miss that enchanted gear though.” Nicholas’ voice came out raw and angry. Even in his anger, he made it clear that his irritation was with the challenge and not with anyone in the party.
“Soon as we make it to the next city, we’ll get new gear.” Elijah tried to console him, he felt useless right now. He couldn’t even feel the steady thrum of the dungeon core ever since they’d entered the maze. He hadn’t noticed its presence when they’d entered the great stone tree, but now that it was missing, it felt like there was a piece of him missing as well.
They came to the first intersection, Nicholas stopping to rest once more while Sasha refilled his health. She had a healthy pool of mana, but it wasn’t infinite, and didn’t regenerate nearly quickly enough to keep up with the pace that Nicholas was trying to keep.
“Alright, which way? Left or right?” The pain was getting to Nicholas; his usual casual humor was absent from his voice.
“Right hand on a wall, keep going right until you get out,” Elijah suggested. “That’s the way we always handled corn mazes when I was a kid.”
Bo scoffed at him. “You’re supposed to do it with your left hand, not your right hand. You Ohioans can’t even get through a corn maze correctly.” His words were hurtful, but Elijah saw the cheesy grin on the rogue’s face. He wasn’t trying to be mean. It was just meant as friendly rivalry.
“No, Elijah is correct. ‘Right hand, right’ is what I was taught when I moved to California. Who only goes left through the corn mazes?” Sasha interjected in Bo’s casual rivalry.
Benjamin cleared his throat. “Guys? What’s a ‘corn maze’?” Sasha, Bo, and Elijah all stopped and turned towards him. “What? What’d I say?”
“What do you mean: ‘What’s a corn maze’? How have you never experienced one?” Elijah asked him, awe written large on his face. “Farmers grow a bunch of corn, cut out pathways, then every fall hundreds of people all try to get lost in it.”
“Seems like a waste of good farmland. We don’t have much farmland in downtown Berlin.”
“Okay, that’s it. As soon as we get out of here, you’re coming to America, and we’re going to take you to a corn maze.” Bo told him while Elijah shook his head in agreement.
“But guys, I---” Benjamin started, only to be cut off by Nicholas’ sharp voice.
“Enough! We don’t have time for useless bickering. We’ll go right.” Nicholas commanded, pushing through the dense foliage once again.
Sasha struggled to keep up with his rapidly draining health. Elijah set a hand on her shoulder, pulling open her debug menu so he could monitor her remaining mana. Each cast of ‘Cure Wounds’ drained ten mana, but she only regenerated about two every minute.
They came to an open clearing with paths leading out of it in each of the four cardinal directions. In the center of the clearing stood a plinth made of wood, not the petrified wood of the mother tree or the walls of the maze.
Atop the plinth floated an orb of glimmering orange light. Nicholas let out a sigh of relief as he entered the clearing. The constant debuff wasn’t affecting them here.
Elijah felt the draw almost immediately once he stepped out into the clearing. His Core Guardian class seemed to call towards the orb, though he could tell that it wasn’t a core itself. This was something different, but with a similar feeling.
He moved towards the orb, but Nicholas put his arm out. His large hand pressed against Elijah’s chest to stop him. “We don’t know what awaits us. We have to proceed cautiously.”
Bo groaned and stepped forward past Elijah. ”We haven’t seen any sign of enemies the entire time. You need to stop treating us like children.”
He reached the plinth without issue, but as his hand touched the gem, the whole clearing went pitch black. Elijah could still see the rest of the party, but everything around him, including the sky above, was pitch black.
“What’s going on?” Benjamin asked, his voice warbling in fear. His voice sounded distant and hollow.
Out of the darkness stepped a dryad, her skin white as fresh snow, and she radiated light around her. The glow illuminated the ground beneath her, but where there had once been dead leaves and mud, there was now pristine green grass.
She stumbled as she ran from something, her jointless gait not meant for running like a human. She tripped to the ground, barely catching herself from face-planting. From the direction she had come walked three bulky humans. Elijah could see they had player tags above their heads—John, Zed, and Michael.
“It's about time we caught up with her. This quest has been going on too long.” Zed stepped on her back, stopping her attempts to get up. Her arm shot backwards at an inhuman angle to fight him off. But he swung his hatchet and, with a deep thud, lopped her arm off at the elbow.
Nicholas sprang forward with a ‘Dash’ attempting to stop the man, but phased through them like a ghost.
“We’re in a memory, Nicholas.” Bo called out to him. “The only thing we can do for her is bear witness.”
Elijah fixated on the white dryad’s arm. The outside was hard and rough like tree bark, but the inside was soft and flesh like a human body. Dark yellow sap oozed out from the wound.
“What was the quest again?” Called Zed to his accomplices.
Michael stepped forward. “Bring the guard an arm of a dryad.”
Zed smiled down wickedly at the creature beneath his boot. “Well. She’s got two. And I always strive to go above and beyond.”
The party watched the memory as Zed hacked the dryad’s other arm off. Her screams echoed through the clearing, punctuated with each meaty thump.
Elijah felt his blood boiling. It was one thing to kill an enemy, to end a threat. It was something completely else to hold a creature down and torture it like this. He was powerless to change these events; they likely happened years ago. That knowledge did little to settle his rage.
Action Adventure Comedy Fantasy
