“Yladia” Roland muttered to the lazy snakling curled into a ball on his shoulder as he trotted through the northern section of Adecus Forest. The trees in this zone were already large, but the further one moved north they became even larger as their colors began to turn to hues of red and purple. He had come to this area soon after he had started playing the game and found himself unable to proceed forward after a certain point. An invisible wall stopped him dead in his tracks prompting a warning to appear on his HuD telling him he was leaving the playable area. Sure all games had to end, somewhere, but it was odd that a game such as Terra Sphere had such an abrupt wall. Disappointed he had simply left the area to do other things, forgetting about it almost completely. That was until he had heard a rumor of a land beyond it. Apparently, the lore in the game had been updated, and now the NPCs referred to an ongoing war with the lands north of the Adecus Forest. The entire thing smelt of an upcoming large-scale event, and when he caught word of Falderen war council commissioning adventurers to scout the area he was one of the first people to sign up. Apparently, there had been a rash of human abduction cases at the edge of the border. Whether that included player characters remained unclear. “I wonder how the game would handle that.” Roland thought as he plotted his way down the trail, “Being trapped in game for hours, or even days…” He forcibly pushed the thought out his mind with a shake of his head, which drew an angry hiss from the resting reptile on his shoulder, ignoring it he turned inwards on the trail. He hadn’t signed up for the scouting alone, in fact, the moment he saw the mission a name popped up in his mind, Ortix. The roguish Feris had shown his tenacity in the mini dungeon he had found nearby and seemed a good fit as a scout. Likely more so than Roland himself, he had been fiddling with his character’s masteries lately removing some more combat oriented skills in replacement of ones that could make him some much-needed gold, but they had yet to take effect. Still, the one thing that would remain unchanged was his ability with a sword, that seemed to be a staple in his mind as he dumped more and more points into wielding it. A wooden sign on the side of the road marked that he was reaching his destination. It was an odd tavern out in the middle of nowhere, populated mainly by local lumberjacks. His reasoning for wanting to meet here was two-fold. The most obvious reason was that it was the last tavern this far north that was easily accessible and readily found on the local map. The second reason was that they might be able to collect information regarding the disappearances since supposedly, they were local to this area the tavern master, and possibly the lumberjacks should know at least a basic idea of who was being kidnapped, where and how. A few minutes later he arrived in front of the wooden door of the tavern and leaned to his side speaking to his companion, “Ok buddy let’s see what we can find,” before pushing his way through the door. @Ortix Farlin Thrown die: 67
Ortix logged on happy to see a notification from Roland, a friend he met in a dungeon. It was an invitation to help out in a quest called "Ghost Scouting." It seemed interesting enough to accept, he was looking to hanging out more in game anyways. Another surprise was that the egg in his inventory had hatched. It had hatched into a miniature Arachna. Ortix withdrew the pet from his inventory to get a first look, but the moment it appeared before him he involuntarily gagged. His death affliction, Arachnophobia, was making it very difficult for him to come to terms with his pets appearance. Every glance he made towards it gave him the shivers. Spiders were no match for him out of game but in game it was hopeless, it's not like you can kill your own pet, right? Ortix tried to take his mind off of it and looked at the map instead. He was on a direct route north through Adecus Forest. The meeting location was some tavern near a lumberyard. The last time Ortix logged out, he was in Adecus Forest so he was pretty close already. He just had to travel in a straight line through some trees. Seeing the trees, Ortix could only help but to wonder how long it would take for trees in the real world to grow that large. They were colossal, it was a botanists wonderland. As far as the eye could see was countless types of greenery and animals - mainly greenery though. Just when he was finally getting used to the ambient skittering from his half-spider pet, the voices of several burly men could be heard echoing in the distance. "TIIIIIMMMMBBBBEEEERRRRRRRRR!" Followed by a series of large crashes. Ortix was nearly there, the lumberyard was the only thing between him and the tavern. With every step, a loud crunch ensued. Brush filled the area on and alongside the road. As the tavern came into view, the brush became more and more sparse. It was a homey-looking place with faint glow of life about it. A shoddy wooden sign welcomed him while he trotted over to the door. He nudged it open to be exposed with the mixed scents of alcohol, sweat, and pine needles. Sure enough, there was Roland, talking up some of the locals. Being only a minute or two late, Ortix waited for Roland to finish before tapping him on the shoulder to alert him of his own existence. Thrown die: 38 @Roland Rutledge [
Roland opened up the door to find that the tavern was surprised to find it rather sparsely crowded with local lumberjacks, each seated at the large oaken tables that dotted the central space of the bar. The smell of low-quality beer and smoked meats wafted to Roland as he passed through the threshold of the door, it seemed he had beaten Ortix here. Moving to the middle table, Roland sat down flashing the men gathered there a smile. Thier guarded looks betrayed their feelings on his presence there. "I guess it makes sense," Roland thought, "With all the kidnappings I wouldn't be too trusting of strangers either. " Roland suppressed his thought process while he turned to a red-bearded man that seemed the friendliest, "Ho there friend, I've come in regards to the complaints of missing people, I wouldn't suppose one of you or your friends can point me in the right direction in regards to this." As Roland spoke, the door opened once more, revealing Ortix. Roland waved him over before turning back to the man who was about to reply. "Well," the larger man said, "It's been a happening north of here, where the trees turn a bit of a different color. We don't usually go that far due to the poor lumber so I can't tell you much more than that." Roland nodded with a grimace, it wasn't anything he hadn't already known, and it wasn't enough to go by for this mission. He shot a glance towards Ortix. Hopefully, the man had found out some more information about them. Otherwise, this might be a dangerous and quick trip. He let Ortix pry for any additional information he wanted, and pushed himself up from the table nodding at the barkeeper. The sun was on their side for now, but they didn't have additional time to waste here. If they wanted to make it to the edge of the zone before sunset, they'd need to leave now. Once Ortix was ready to go Roland would lean towards him and say, "Ok, Ortix scouting is your territory, you tell me what to do, and I'll follow." Thrown die: 3
Ortix listened in on Roland's conversation and heard that the disappearances were happening north of their current location and that the trees would be a different color when they had arrived. He then turned towards the door and left with Roland, who had just given him leadership. "Well, I don't actually know anything about scouting so how about we just walk north like the friendly lumberjack said and then go incognito when we get there?" Ortix thought this was going to be an easy quest, the lumberjack told them exactly where to go and what to look for. All they had to do was see if it really was the elves that were kidnapping people or find out whatever it really was. Ortix assumed it was most likely the Elves; that was probably the reason why Elves weren't a playable race (because they're evil). Instead of worrying about the quest, Ortix wondered how Roland would react to his half-spider companion. He liked Roland's pet much more than his own. Ortix had had a pet lizard when he was younger, it made good company and was a valuable conversation piece. Thinking of conversation pieces, Ortix decided to use Roland's lizard as one while they passed the time during the journey. "So what's his name and when did you get him? The lizard I mean."
