Lost Lands: The Game - Atlantis (2 page)

“I agree. Any suggestions?”

“Only one…are you a basketball fan?”

Arieal’s
laughter echoed over the raid chat. “Nope, I prefer football but I can guess your plan.”

Mac
turned back to the dwarf and said over the guild chat. “Give it to me.”

Guessing
what he had in mind, Gamble passed off the pulsing orb. “Here you go.” Free from the orb and the attention of the chasing mobs, the dwarf used his rogue skills to slip into the shadows and fade from sight.

“
Arieal, on the count of three; One…two…”

“Three…” came
her response as she pitched the white orb toward the gaping hole in the center of the room.

Mac threw the
black orb.

E
veryone watched in fascination as the two halves collided and exploded into a brilliant flash of light, destroying the cloaked monsters. Mac’s screen flashed white, rocking him backwards in his chair. Judging from the gasps and curses over the raid chat, he guessed everyone’s monitor had done something similar. As the screen refocused on to the room they saw the fuzzy image of a very large beast glowing with an inner light in the direct center where the orbs had collided.

Mac glanced
at the health meters of the raid members on his interface. No one was dead but everyone was injured and their power levels were critically low. If it came to another fight, it was going to be a slaughter, short, brutal and very lopsided against the gamers.

Once the image cleared up,
they were confronted with a huge beast with the face of a man, the body of a lion and the wings of an eagle. Mac recognized the monster as a Sphinx, a creature from Greek and Egyptian mythology which typically parlayed wanderers with riddles. When it spoke, its words echoed across both voice channels and scrolled up the chat windows also.

“Greetings mortals
. Only the cooperation of the twin forces of Law and Chaos would allow such as you to reach this point. You are not the first but only the latest. Now, you must pass my tests to gain your reward. The challenge shall be three; one for the Light, one of the Darkness and one for all. Answer the first or second and gain a great reward. Answer the third for a chance at immortality; fail all and your lives shall be forfeit.” Without waiting for a reply, the Sphinx turned his body to face Mac’s avatar and spoke. “Taote Ching, you are the leader of the Keepers of the Flame. It shall be you who gives the final answer for the followers of the Law.”

The Sphinx shifted his body to face his counterpart
. “Arieal De’Morte as the designated leader of the Society of Night, you shall give the final answer for the minions of Chaos.”

Once more turning h
is gaze back to Mac. “Taote Ching as raid leader it is your responsibility for the final answer. You shall have one minute to answer per riddle.”

Unsure if the Sphinx would respond to a voice chat answer, Mac typed his answer
as he spoke. “I understand.”

Arieal
did the same.

The Sphinx looked at Tao and said, “I am four letters and can be seen in the sky, yet I cannot fly. I am found in the ocean, yet I cannot swim. When you are down I am around. What am I?”

The Sphinx
switched his focus to Arieal and continued, “I’m as smooth as any rhyme, I always fall but never climb, what am I?”

The
two guilds began to talk amongst themselves over the guild chat channel. As raid leader, Mac could actually listen in to the Society’s chat if he wanted to but didn’t. He needed to focus on his guild’s riddle. Bjǿrn suggested ‘fish’ but wasn’t truly convinced that was the answer. Mac had panned his camera controls to stare at the image of the Norseman. There was something in his image that tugged at Mac’s subconscious. Suddenly, it hit him. Bjǿrn’s kilt was a blue tartan and his surname was ‘Bluebear.’ He had named his avatar after a character in one of his favorite books and the answer came to him. Mac typed his answer. “Blue. The answer is blue.”

“Correct,” replied the Sphinx.

It was about that time when Arieal’s answer was seen on the local chat channel, “A waterfall.”

“Correct,”
answered the Sphinx.

Turning his attention back to Tao, the mythical beast spoke again. “This last riddle is for everyone and for a chance at immortality. F
ail and spend your days in mediocrity.” The Sphinx paused for a moment before asking, “I walk on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon and three at night. What am I?”

The raid voice-chat channel went wild with answers, ranging from a cat to a bird. Mac just sat back in his chair and let them guess. Finally he leaned forward and asked, “Hasn’t anyone ever read Greek Mythology?”

There was a chorus of nays and only a few ayes but only Matthew elaborated. “I did back in High School but that was many years ago and only because it was required reading.”

“I did too but mythology was always one of my favorite subjects in school. As a matter of fact, it got so bad that I was forbidden to do another book report on mythology while in High School.” Mac grinned at the memory.

Kaslene
asked, “Interesting but what does that have to do with this situation?”

“This is the original riddle of the Sphinx from Greek Mythology. I can’t remember
which hero it was who confronted the Sphinx, I want to say Oedipus but I could be wrong. However, I do remember the answer…Man.”

“What?” came several responses over the raid chat channel.

Mac typed his answer. “Man. The answer is man. He crawls on four in the morning of his life; walks on two during middle-age or the afternoon of his life and three, with a cane, during old age or at the evening of his existence.”

“Correct,” replied the great beast and w
ith the completion of the riddle game, the Sphinx bowed his head once before fading into nothingness.

The
sound of clapping echoed through the empty chamber as a red robed figure appeared in the center of the room next to a large iron bound chest. One feature of the game that was consistent with every character or monster was a nametag floating above their heads and this one read: Al Shaytan <
G
ame
O
perations
D
esigner>

“Outstanding….absolutely outstanding
.”

Since he wasn’t in their raid or guild voice chat,
it was odd that they heard his words on both voice channels while his words scrolled up the chat box. Al Shaytan was thin of frame with pale skin, black hair, red robes and had the unmistakable look of a wizard. However, after his opening remark the wizard fell silent and waited.

Unsure of
what to do, Mac fell back on his default action and decided to be polite. Many situations in real life and in the game could be diffused by a simple conversation. “Well met Al Shaytan. I am Taote Ching, a humble Ronin and speaker for the Keepers of the Flame.”

Al
Shaytan pivoted to face him. “I know much about you Taote Ching. Actually, I know much about all of you. I am here because you managed to defeat this dungeon.” Gesturing to everyone gathered. “You are the first, both server wide and game wide, to do so. Your names shall become legend.”

“Anyone ever heard of this guy before?” asked
Arieal over the raid chat.

There were a great many nays but
Whitney spoke up. “I think I’ve seen his name on some of the game forums.”

Mat
thew agreed. “Now that you mention it, I think I’ve seen it also. He must be legit, look at his nametag. I’ve never seen that before…ever.”

Al
Shaytan continued speaking as if he hadn’t heard their exchange. “This particular dungeon has been my pet project for several years. Many have made it to this room but only one other group has ever made it past the orbs but they didn’t make it past all three riddles. You are a special group and I have need of your skills.”

Mac moved his avatar forward slightly
. “Pardon my directness but who are you and what are you talking about?”

Al
Shaytan pointed at the nametag floating above his avatar. “I thought this would explain who I am but you are a straight speaker, so I too will be blunt. I’m one of the designers of
Lost Lands
and I have an offer for you.” He gestured at the chest before him. “Here is your reward for completion of the Tomb of Immortality; one legendary item of your choice. You may take it and depart.” With a wave of his hand, the chest opened to reveal sixteen glowing items. “Or you can choose not take it and bet on a chance at an even greater prize but you must make your decision before we go further.”

John, the gamer who played
Marrok the Knight, moved forward and pulled forth a new sword which glowed with a yellow light. Sparks of electricity could be seen as they raced up and down the blade. “Sorry guys, I have to go. The wife is calling. Good luck if you take his offer.” He turned to face Whitney and the two avatars hugged. “Princess, tell your mother hello for me and make sure you do all of your homework.”

Whitney
stepped back. “Dad! Tomorrow’s Saturday, I don’t have any homework.”

“Okay. Love you girl.”

“Love you too Dad.”

Stepping away from the rest of the group,
John used his recall stone and disappeared. Recall Stones were a magical device which all guild members carried that would teleport them back to their respected guild halls. Several members of the Society of Night followed suit, grabbed their prize and departed to their own guild hall. In the end, there were only ten left. Seven of the Keepers and three from the Society: Arieal the Necromancer, Tariq the Assassin and Cozad the Dreadknight.

Al
Shaytan smiled. “I’ve been developing a new expansion for
Lost Lands
and I would like you to Alpha test it for me. If you agree, each of you will receive the new expansion disk tomorrow morning.”

Whitney
typed quickly. “Will it cost us anything?”

Al
Shaytan shook his head. “Negative. It is my gift to you for your accomplishment.”

Marvin
asked, “What’s the expansion called?”

Al
Shaytan grinned. “Atlantis.”

“What is it you want from us?” asked
Arieal.

“Simple. Install the disk and enter the game normally. Tomorrow
shortly before noon, Eastern Time, a portal will open in your respective Guild Halls which will bring each of you to the gateway. I will reveal the rest of the quest at that time.” Al Shaytan gestured to the chest and added, “Go ahead and keep these. They may aid you in your quest and I will see each of you at noon tomorrow.” With that, the wizard faded from view.

Mac moved over to the chest and pulled out his reward. It was a katana of immeasurable beauty.
Drawing the blade, it flared to life with a pale-white light and radiated an area of frost. “Wow! A Frostbrand and look at the stats on this thing.”

As each of the remaining raid members pulled forth their weapons
and chatted about the possibility of exploring a new expansion. Mac only vaguely listened. Now that the raid was over, he once again felt the loneliness of the real world pressing in at the edges of his consciousness. Realizing that someone had asked him a question, he turned his attention back to the group. “What was that? I’m sorry, my mind was wandering.”

Earl
asked again. “Do you think Al’s offer is on the up and up? I mean, we’re supposed to have the expansion disk tomorrow morning? Come on, get real. Kaslene and I are in Alaska. Snail mail isn’t the quickest reaching us.”

“
I don’t know. Only time will tell but either we will have the disks tomorrow and the chance to explore Atlantis or we won’t. It seems pretty simple to me.”

Tariq
said, “Now I see how you chose your name. You sound like some sort of Chinese fortune cookie.”

Mac had his avatar shrug his shoulders
. “Could be one reason but it is true. Either we will or we won’t. There is no use worrying about it. But it’s late here and I need sleep, so I’ll see everyone tomorrow.”

Arieal
said, “Good idea. Goodnight Tao. Thanks for the fun.”

Everyone else said
their farewells and teleported back to their guild halls and logged out.

As the screen went dark, Mac looked around his empty apartment and felt the loneliness of his existence once more.
Glancing over at the framed photo of his late wife, Mac fiddled with the gold band that he still wore on his left hand. With everything that had happened to him over the past four months only the game kept him going…only in the game did he truly feel alive.

Chapter 2

It wasn’t
his alarm clock which awakened Mac but the ringing phone.

He
stared bleary eyed at the annoying device and wondered if he should answer it. Looking up from the phone to the clock on the nearby mantle, he saw that it was a quarter past eleven. He knew that it was sometime around sunrise when he had finally fallen asleep. Of course, the empty bottle of bourbon laying on the floor had helped him chase down that elusive prey.

The insistent ringing finally stopped
.

Mac laid his pounding head back on the pillow
and was about to close his eyes when the phone began again. He realized that whoever was calling wasn’t going to leave him alone until they talked to him, so he picked it up it.

“Hey
mate!” came the voice of his best friend. Leave it to Marvin to be cheerful in the early hours.

“Morning
.”

“Did you check your mail yet?”

“No dammit, you woke me up. Why?”

“It’s here.”

Mac bolted up fully awake. “The game? It’s here? Then it’s true?”

“Yep. I already have it loaded up and so does everyone else. We are just waiting for
noon to roll around before using the portal.” After a brief pause Marvin added, “And our fearless leader of course.”

Mac g
lanced at the clock. “I’ll be there in thirty minutes. Gotta go!”

S
lamming down the phone, Mac rushed over to his apartment door and found a small brown shipping box sitting on his doorstep. Ripping open the package, he was greeted with a DVD jewel case with the artwork of an island dominated by a shining crystal city and with dragons flying around its many spires.

The t
itle read:
Lost Lands: Atlantis
by Infernal Online Entertainment.

Mac sprinted to his computer and
inserted the disk. He clicked the agree buttons without taking the time to read any of the agreements which popped up until he got to the prompt to begin the install and glanced at the clock.

E
leven twenty-seven.

Stripping off his clothes
, he tossed them on the floor to join the other discarded garments and hopped in the shower. Five minutes later, he was in the kitchenette slapping together a few peanut butter sandwiches, starting up a pot of coffee and grabbing a bottle of water before returning to his desk. By eleven fifty-two, he was logging into the game.

Mac felt the pressures of reality fade from his mind as the graphics of the game filled his senses. He felt his pulse
quicken at the excitement of the unknown.

Everyone was in the Keepers of the Flame guild hall when he arrived including the three members
from the Society of the Night who had chosen to join them on this quest. One of the first things Mac noticed was that they were able to form everyone into one group of ten, not the normal limit of eight. This would make things easier for everyone, especially him as leader. Trying to juggle two groups in raid-mode was frustrating and tended to pull away from the enjoyment of the actual game.

A few minutes later the
chatter of small talk died when a shining white portal opened in the center of the guild hall. Without hesitation, Mac maneuvered his avatar to the portal and stepped through.

T
he rest followed.

Al
Shaytan <
G
ame
O
perations
D
esigner> was waiting for them. Dressed in his now familiar red robes and leaning on an onyx staff capped with a glowing red orb, he was standing in front of a huge ebony archway which was filled with swirling smoke. Ivory letters marked the face of the arch which read:
‘Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here.’

Seeing the group pause to stare at the archway,
Al Shaytan gestured to it and asked, “Too much?”

The game automatically executed the emote of Tao shaking his head as Mac typed
. “No...very mythical and dramatic.”

Arieal
said, “I kind of recognize the saying but I can’t place it.”

“Dante’s Divine Comedy. It was over the entrance to hell
,” replied Whitney. She might be the youngest player in the guild but past experiences had taught the guildies that she was very worldly for her age and rarely wrong when it came to literature.

Al
Shaytan clapped his hands to gather everyone’s attention before beginning his speech. “First off, there will be a few changes in
Lost Lands: Atlantis
. The first being the graphics. Let me just say that they will be very, very intense. Yet they will not in any way slow down your system.”

Everyone smiled at that thought. Anytime the game creators can increase the gaming experience without affecting performance, it was a good thing.

“Secondly…death,” Al continued. “Since this is a special test phase if you die, you are out of the game. There are no respawn points and third, money.
Lost Lands: Atlantis
has the standard conversion rates but I have strived to make it more of a free-market economy.”

Whitney
asked, “What does that mean?”

Mat
thew answered. “The law of supply and demand, the more something is in demand the higher the cost. Simple real world economics.”

“Oh,” was all she said.

“And lastly, your quest. There’s an ancient artifact known as the Dragon Orb and it’s missing. The High Mage of Atlantis was the last known possessor of this item. Perhaps he knows what became of it, perhaps not.” Al Shaytan looked around at the group for a moment before asking, “Any other questions?”

Mac nodded
. “Yes. How long do we have to complete the quest?”

Al
Shaytan’s smile was fleeting when he answered. “Time is a relative thing. How can one truly measure time?” The red robed wizard shrugged his shoulders. “But suffice to say, you will have plenty of time on the other side of the gateway to complete your quest. Nothing else?” Stepping back, Al Shaytan gestured to the ebony arch. “Then enter brave souls, your destiny awaits.”

Mac
typed several commands onto his keyboard which activated his normal pre-quest macro, a set of preprogrammed game commands which executed two emotes and a group message. On screen his avatar held up his left hand over his head and gestured in a circular motion before pointing dead ahead. “All right people, let’s roll.”

Taking his own advice, Mac moved his avatar to the smoke filled archway and stepped through.

If his group
mates followed he didn’t know or care at this very moment, because the world went black and his ears were filled with the roaring of the wind. Mac felt his gut churning as the world began spinning incredibly fast, almost as if he was caught inside a tornado and then nothing.

*   *   *   *   *

When he awoke, he felt the warm glow of the afternoon sun on his face. That’s when it registered to him that he was laying on his back. The after effects of the spinning were quickly fading and the roar of the wind was gone. As a matter of fact, the birdsong off in the distance and the cool breeze on his face was very relaxing. Only the slight tap-tap of metal on metal marred the perfection of the moment.

Tap…tap.

Tap…tap.

Suddenly
alert, Tao kicked his feet into the air rapidly which in turn catapulted his body upright. Landing lightly, he drew his katana and assumed the stance of the mountain; the posture of ultimate defense.

Blinking away the sunlight, Tao looked around
only to find himself standing on a dirt road at the top of a small grassy knoll. There was a slight breeze coming from the fog shrouded lake to his right. Glancing down the road, his eyes followed it as it cut through the rolling hills. It disappeared and reappeared numerous times as it traversed the region until it disappeared into a dark forest several miles away. Turning around, the road ran along the crest of the slope as it wound its way toward an ice covered mountain in the distance.

A
ll around him, there was only one indication of civilization and it was the origin of the tapping sound that had awakened him. Several yards away on the side of the road was a gallows-style gibbet with skeletal remains of its last occupant still inside swinging in the breeze.

Glancing down,
Mac noticed that he was dressed in red and black Japanese armor and holding a razor sharp katana with frost visible on the blade.

“Holy
Shit!”