World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (30 page)

Seeing that all members
of The Strangers are finally present, Wesley puts his feet down to
start the meeting. "Thoughts?" he asks simply.

"I think it would
be better if you tell us what that official said," Lucious
replies. "Only one of us could understand him," he reminds
the leader.

"Not much of an
exchange, actually," Wesley replies. "Basically, the guy,
whose name is 'Gatekeeper Kang' by the way, refused to permit us to
pass through their checkpoint and enter We Tang, the First of the
Three Great Kingdoms. He called us 'barbarians' due to our different
clothes and said this reflects our barbaric ways," he explains.

"What a minute!"
Conrad interrupts. "The guy gave you grief because I like to
show off my chest?" he asks incredulously while pointing a thumb
at his impressive chest.

"Different
cultures have different values," Diana answers. "It may
well be that in Kang’s culture, frontal nudity is really, really
offensive. It would be just like the game developers to throw this
kind of curveball at us," the academic notes with interest.

"Indeed,"
Lucious agrees. "This is exactly from the EDE playbook: dangle a
carrot in front of us, and then make it impossible to reach," he
frowns. "The message in our players' inbox said that we will get
bonus experience points for developing relations with this newly
discovered kingdom. Obviously, EDE had no interest in paying us that
bonus, and be forced to raise the level cap again."

"To be honest,
experience is the least of our worries. I'm more concerned about the
miscast of the divine spell," Wesley steers the conversation
directly to his primary concern. "Any theories on what
happened?" he asks.

Lucious immediately
jumps in to cut off Diana. "I have two theories. One is that
Diana simply miscast the simple spell," he offers.

The priestess
immediately shoots him a dirty look.
Wait
'til I come over to your place next time,
she fumes
silently.

The elementalist grins
in response; he knows exactly what she’s thinking. "Yeah, I
know it is very unlikely for that to happen. Unlike elemental spells,
spells from the divine sphere has like a zero percent chance of
failure, unless the priest has fallen out of favor with his divine
patron. That’s why Wesley offered to have Diana demonstrate instead
of me,” he throws a nod in the leader’s direction.

Wesley nods back in
confirmation of the reasoning behind his decision to pick Diana for
the impromptu demonstration.

“I think the most
likely explanation is that magic works differently in that
dimension," Lucious speculates.

Wesley rubs his chin as
he considers Lucious' explanation. "Yeah, that would explain why
the gatekeeper claimed that there are no gods in their world,"
he notes. “Maybe there are no gods in We Tang.”

“Shoot!” the spell
caster replies with a frown. “That was the big clue right there
from EDE. The encounter and dialogue were obviously scripted by the
game developers, and the gatekeeper provided you with a BIG HINT that
divine spells won’t cut it in that world. Talk about a big miss!”
he hisses.
Unfortunately, the
"Comprehend Language" spell is the province of the divine
sphere of magic, or else I would have listened in on the
conversation,
Lucious thinks to himself.
I
think I will need to drop by the Magic Guild and look for a scroll or
a ring to get around the divine limitation,
he notes.

The cavalier puts a
hand over his heart. “I apologize. I should have realized that was
an important clue from EDE to get past the checkpoint. Put the blame
for this mission’s failure squarely on me,” Wesley says solemnly
in taking responsibility for the oversight.

“Don’t worry about
it, Wesley,” Diana offers reassuringly. “This is the first time
where our party has ventured beyond the world of Eternia, and we
didn’t know what happens when we left this realm. I get my divine
abilities from the Gods of Eternia, and they exist ONLY in Eternia.
Their blessings don't extend to different dimensions; so it makes
sense, from EDE’s perspective, that I wouldn't be able to make my
cross glow or cast divine spells," Diana explains. "I'm
glad that we decided to retreat rather than fight these guards. I
certainly wouldn't be able to heal our injuries even if we manage to
defeat all of them," she adds.

"This would be a
huge problem if King Richard decides to invade the We Tang Kingdom,"
Conrad notes.

"Actually we would
be at a severe DISADVANTAGE," Wesley corrects the big man,
"because we lack intelligence on the combat tactics and magical
resources of the We Tang Kingdom. If a decision is made to invade,
then I would push for secret reconnaissance missions first. We could
send thieves through the portal during the evening hours to sulk
around in the dark." He conveniently leaves out the fact that
the portal will glow during use, and signal the arrival of parties to
the other side anyway.

“Who wants to inform
the King?” Lucious asks, and looks directly at Wesley.

Diana and Conrad
immediately swivel their heads in the leader’s direction as well.
Not all of them have to be present when the King is informed
officially of the result of the mission. Any one of them will be
adequate for this task.

Wesley turns his head
slowly from left to right and sighs in defeat. All of them want to
avoid contact with the insufferable King Richard, whether in-game or
in real life
. I guess this is
part of the price I pay for being the leader,
he thinks.
“Fine, I’ll inform the King,” he replies. “If there are no
further issues to discuss, then this meeting is adjourned.”

Wesley leaves the
party's headquarters fully decked out in his steel plate armor, his
sword at his side. He decides to leave the shield behind, but fastens
a blood red colored cape around his neck. Only officials of the
Kingdom, presumably on official business, are allowed to wear this
cape and there is only one single supplier of this royal cape. The
pieces of his plate armor have been polished and cleaned from top to
bottom.

Since this is a formal
meeting with royalty, Wesley decides to wear his helm as well. The
piece is more of a gladiator style headgear, with his face wide open
and unprotected; the metal covers from temple to temple behind his
head, and from his scalp down to his eyebrows. A true helmet would
cover his face entirely, with a mere slit for his eyes to see.
However, this sort of helmet, while offering greater protection,
would impede his vision tremendously, and dull his razor sharp
senses. Therefore, Wesley chooses a less protective headwear in order
to retain his vision. As a side bonus, the helmet allows other
players to recognize him by face; thus Wesley is often delayed to
chat briefly with other players as he walks along a rickety dirt road
that constitutes the main street in Starter Town. With multiple stops
along the road, Wesley slowly makes his way up the hill to the Lion
Castle, home of King Richard the Lion.

Castle Eternia had been
the former home of royalty until the Curse of the Regent forced the
living out of the Castle, and the monarch had to construct a new
castle with due haste. A castle is more than just a home for the
king. It is seen as a symbol of strength and power amongst his
subjects. It is unparalleled in size and height within the borders of
the Kingdom. Thus, a lack of a castle reflects poorly on the
monarchy.

The Lion Castle is
situated on a small hill overlooking Starter Town. A dirt road from
the main street leads to the foot of this hill. A winding path, some
twenty foot wide, has been carved into the hill. The path forms an
ever tightening spiral around the hill until it reaches the hill top.
Behind the hill is a sheer drop of a cliff and beyond is the open
sea.

The Ambassador takes a
steady march along the path; he politely nods to passerby who
immediately notices his blood royal cape and either bows or curtsies
deeply.
I wonder what the breeze
would smell like
, Wesley thinks as he gazes at the open
sea in admiration of the serene horizon beyond the shoreline.

Although World of
Eternia is a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role
Playing Game that incorporates a heavy virtual reality element, the
technology is still very limited as it is unable to duplicate the
sense of smell or taste. To truly duplicate all five senses of sight,
sound, touch, smell, and taste, the user's brain would have to be
directly connected somehow and fed these stimuli. And Wesley isn't
sure he would ever sign up for
that
. It is one thing to
simulate reality via mechanical means. It is quite another to blur
the lines as to remove the distinction in the perception of the user
directly through his mind. In Wesley’s view, the simulated reality
may as well
be
the new reality to the user. At what point is
virtual reality real enough?

After a long, quiet
trek the cavalier finally reaches the hill top. He sees the Lion
Castle looming beyond a high stone wall. Along the wall are openings
at eye level with steel bars running vertically. A defensive measure,
the openings are wide enough for bolts and arrows to pass through. In
the middle is an open gate just ten feet wide. As Wesley approaches
the opening, the fully armored guards on either side of the gate
lower their halberds so that their weapons intersect and bar entry
through the gate.

“Halt! State your
name and business!” the guardsman on the left side of the gate
demands.

The cavalier keeps a
straight face at the demand. The project manager, Mark, had once
explained to Wesley that the NPCs are designed to automatically
distinguish between players and non-player characters, because each
NPC has his own script of regular daily and weekly activities, and
the normal script is interrupted only during interaction with
players.

In addition, the NPCs
need to identify the player that they are encountering in order to
run the appropriate script or dialogue. Each player has a profile of
flag checks, with each flag identified by a numeric code that tells
the NPC program what quests the player is doing currently. If the NPC
has a quest or related item to offer the player, then that script
will run automatically. The whole setup is dependent on identifying
the individual player in order to pull out his profile.

Thus, Wesley knows that
the demand from the guardsman is rhetorical in nature, but decides to
play along anyway.
Ah, the curse
of foreknowledge
, he muses silently. “Well met, sir. I
am Wesley, a Special Ambassador to the Kingdom of Eternia who has
returned from a special mission ordered by the King himself. I need
to deliver my report to His Grace right away,” he replies.

“Well met,
Ambassador,” the guardsman acknowledges the player’s identity as
he withdraws his halberd to allow admittance into the castle. “You
may enter.”

The companion guard on
the opposing side of the entrance quickly pulls his halberd back as
well.

Wesley salutes the men,
and the two guardsmen respond in kind. The cavalier walks at a
leisurely pace, expecting to be accosted by a young page. After a few
steps, a young man runs up to the ambassador. “Sir Wesley,” the
young man begins, “I regret to inform you that the King is
indisposed at the moment. His Grace has ordered Count Zeensoon to
accept your report in His stead. I will take you to the Count now, if
you will follow me please.”

The player smiles wryly
at the King’s refusal to see Wesley. “Please lead the way, young
man,” the ambassador replies, keeping his tone pleasant.
Richard
is unhappy at the failure of my mission, and showing his displeasure
by ordering me to meet with Count William Zeensoon, the Preeminent
Templar of the Holy Church of Eternia
, Wesley thinks while
stifling a groan.
The man is a
zealot, a warrior cleric who believes in spreading the teachings and
wisdom of the Gods of Eternia. Once I provide my report, the Count
will undoubtedly push the King to invade the land of the godless
infidels and force them to convert. I guess this will be the
storyline to introduce the oriental expansion
, the player
muses as he gains significant insight into the scope of EDE's plans.
Perhaps my mission was
designed
to fail after all
, Wesley suddenly realizes to his
chagrin.

Not surprisingly, the
young page leads the Ambassador directly to the small chapel, located
in the center of the castle. The chapel is very sparsely furnished,
with a large metal cross protruding from the floor in the center of
the ten foot by ten foot room. The cross consists of two iron poles;
the vertical one is standing six feet tall while the horizontal one
is four feet wide, and intersects the vertical pole exactly three
feet down from the top.

Along each wall are a
dozen candles on the ground or forty four candles in all; each candle
represents a god or goddess of Eternia. The theologians have debated
endlessly as to whether there exist twelve separate divinities, or
one divine with twelve different aspects. They don’t know the
god(s) by name but the sign of the twelve is present and felt in
various ways. For example, it is agreed that each month of the twelve
month calendar year is blessed by one specific deity, and creatures
born on a specific month receives a special blessing or
characteristic.

The young page gets
down on one knee before the single entrance to the small chapel.
There is no door to the chapel; this signifies the open door policy
of the Gods of Eternia to all comers of Faith. All members of the
Faith are welcome to worship. There is an opening three feet wide at
the southern wall to the chapel.