Of Sending Messages and Dungeon Mechanics

((As previously announced, I'm taking the 24th and 31st off, so this will be the last chapter this year. If you would like to support my work, or just can't wait until January to read more, feel free to check out my Patreon))

Tuesday lunch break, Christie didn’t meet him at the stair to the roof either. He had already checked that she was at Ashcroft via text earlier in the day, making this a concerning development. Except that he had only just started to worry when he received a text.

[Unknown Number]: Hello John, this is Archibald. My daughter is currently at her locker, as am I. While I generally approve of your rooftop lunches, there is something I believe she needs to witness in the school cafeteria today.

Well, that was altogether rather mysterious, but at least he could rule out that she was getting sexually harassed again.

As he got to the proper hallway, it turned out to be not just Lord Chastain-Wessel there for Christie. The Abyssal Noble was accompanied by an absolute behemoth of an African American man in an old school chauffeur’s uniform.

Bart Gerulf
Black Andre
Chauffeur Lvl 23

Being a Level 23 Chauffeur with the title of Black Andre, likely referencing Andre the Giant, he could theoretically have been a mundane with gigantism. Even so, his sheer size and being built like an action hero, or WH40k space marine, would’ve had John suspicious of Abyssal connections even without considering his employer.

Despite being a bit above average himself, Lord Chastain-Wessel didn’t come up to his employee’s chin. Christie clearly knew the guy though, judging by her body language. In fact the only times he had seen her this relaxed at school before was when it was just the two of them on the roof. And, to John’s inward celebration, she was in a correctly sized uniform again, despite yesterday’s events.

John joined them and they exchanged basic pleasantries, then moved to the cafeteria. John and Christie took out their respective packed lunches, while Lord Chastain-Wessel glanced at the cafeteria offerings and seemed to make the understandable decision of not getting anything. Mr. Gerulf remained standing behind his employer, despite said employer having offered him a chair.

John was a few bites into his lunch, and starting to wonder what Christie was supposed to witness, when coach Conroy stepped up in front of the food counter holding a microphone. And looking like someone had pissed on his poptart, as Grandpa Sam had once put it and made John promise not to tell his mom that he had overheard.

“Ehrm. Yesterday, an incident occurred where two members of the football team acted inappropriately towards one of the female students. It has been decided that the seriousness of the incident warrants that the team members issue a public apology. Calvin, Derek, get up here.” Speaking into the microphone, the coach’s voice rang from the announcement system.

Conroy’s tone was dripping with disdain and restrained defiance, making it extremely obvious that he hated what he was being made to say. The two jocks looked just as unhappy with this, glowering at the crowd as though trying to cow them into taking no amusement, satisfaction, or feeling of justice from events.

Which made it all the better when their wandering glares reached Christie’s table and, especially, the absolute unit of a chauffeur standing next to it. Their aggressive demeanor vaporized, if possible, even faster than when John had surprised them yesterday. Suddenly, they were tripping over each other’s words to apologize into the mic, “We’re very sorry. We promise it won’t happen again.”

Despite having a less imposing physique than the footballers, Conroy was not as easily cowed and merely focused all of his unspoken ire over the situation towards the table where John and Christie sat, though mainly at Lord Chastain-Wessel. “Additionally, in light of-”

The Gamer was distracted from whatever Conroy was saying next by the Abyssal nobleman saying, “It appears this won’t quite do,” in a low volume, seemingly to himself. Then Lord Chastain-Wessel’s nameplate changed.

While John’s attention to Conroy had lapsed somewhat, it hadn’t lapsed so far as to not register that the coach faltered in the middle of a word. Looking in his direction again, the PE teacher was pale as a ghost now. For a long moment, it seemed like he was going to keel over, but then he managed to avert his gaze and croak out, “Will be suspended from playing in the next game.”

The coach and the suspended jocks hurried to the exit while the room erupted into angry conversation. John cared even less about sportsball than he did, say, lawn ornamentation regulations in Italy. Still, it had been impossible not to pick up on that Frank was benched due to repeated concussions. This had changed the expectations for the upcoming game from guaranteed victory to a toss up, which John guessed had just changed further to a likely loss.

More importantly, Christie was visibly very uncomfortable with the new noise level, the generally angry tone of said noise, or both. John wasn’t the only one to pick up on this though; in fact Lord Chastain-Wessel, whose nameplate had returned to normal, preempted John with a kind smile towards his adoptive daughter. “I believe that will be everything, so I’m sure you and John would prefer the peace and quiet of the roof.”

Christie nodded and they packed up and left. On their way out, they overheard Vanessa declare Derek and Calvin morons for getting themselves suspended from the game to a cadre of cheerleader sycophants.

That she would blame the jocks, rather than Christie, surprised John for a fraction of a second before two details clicked. One was that with the din of conversation in the room, Vanessa would have to be deliberately loud in order to be overheard. The other was that there had been an undertone of… something beneath the haughty superiority in her voice. Nervousness, or anxiety, or something else in that family of emotions.

Vanessa had made sure that Lord Chastain-Wessel overheard her direct the blame away from Christie, because this had all been a message from Christie’s father to the popular rich kids and she was signaling that the message had been received. Obviously, this all had to have happened with some level of approval, or at least acceptance, from Wentworth too. If any of the bullies overstepped towards Christie again, they were going to find themselves a lot less untouchable than they were used to being…

“Everything ready?”

Qhila nodded even as she quickly patted down her gear. In addition to her crossbow and satchel, she was wearing a pair of new bandoliers filled with injection darts. The combination of the darts and the crossbow in modern composite materials with her outfit being tough leathers made her look like a hybrid between a modern no-kill hunter and a fantasy adventurer. And as per usual, no amount of practical outfit could stop her wide hips and thick thighs from making the bottom heavy kobold look sexy as hell, and her amethyst eyes remained as breathtaking as ever.

On his part, John was in the disjointed mix of armor that was a cowboy hat, biker jacket and heavy duty workman’s pants. Rounding out the messy gear situation typical of a low to mid level character in many RPGs was a single gauntlet and sleeve of articulated plate and a water gun. Not visible, but a mere thought away in his inventory, were a selection of alchemical items, some Molotovs and a shotgun.

Without further ado, he opened the Instant Dungeon options. Between Sunday and Monday afternoons, they were as ready as they were getting with short term preparations, and between skipping PE and Brenda working late today, Tuesday afternoon was the longest chunk of time for it they were getting outside the weekend.

“No prizes for guessing which one is most likely to produce an alchemical recipe.” Qhila commented drily. “Are the colors the same as with Arenas?”

“Yep.”

They left the ‘nest barrier’, which John was still amused to know was officially named “Keep Out. Trespassers will be blown up”, and John hit the ‘Alchemy’ theme option immediately.

The barrier transition left them in a torch-lit room with timber frame walls. It was furnished with a double bed, a desk with a chair, a dresser and a, thankfully empty, chamber pot. All in all, it gave the impression of a room in a medieval fantasy inn. Not that he got long to take in the atmosphere before the door opened.

“Please, brave adventurers, I implore you! The village of Innsville is being attacked by strange beasts, please save us! Most of the villagers are gathered here in the Crossroads Inn, but the Miller family, Cora the Crone, Fred Farmboy and Hubert the Hunter are still out there!”

The middle aged woman in a woolen dress of varying shades of brown and gray seemed real enough at a glance, and the fear and **** plea in her voice and expression was perfectly lifelike. The notion that she was an actual person and not an NPC was completely undercut, however, by the fact that her words were repeated in a speech bubble, complete with the yellow exclamation mark that was universal gamer language for an available Quest. And also by the part where she followed the plea up by passively awaiting John’s or Qhila’s response.

“Where do you think these missing people could be?” Qhila lowered her crossbow again as she asked the question, but the NPC whose nameplate just identified her as “Innkeeper’s Wife” simply repeated her initial statement, causing John to chuckle and Qhila to facepalm.

“Looks like the [Developer] is doing this like a really old-school cRPG. See how ‘strange beasts’ and the names are underlined?” John gestured at the speech bubble. “I bet if we say any of those keywords to her we get a bit of explanation, if we answer with an affirmative the Quest starts, and if we say anything else to her she just repeats the initial message. That said, it’s probably easier to do this.”

He proceeded to tap one of the underlined words, causing a tooltip to pop out, then opened the other tooltips by mental command.

Strange Beasts
Some sort of mutated abominations, like bits of multiple animals were mashed together into chimeric monsters.

Miller Family
They live in the house adjoining the windmill on the Milltop Hill by the East Road.

Cora the Crone
The village wise woman lives in a cottage on the west edge of town.

Fred Farmboy
This orphan boy lives in the attic over the stable of the large farm by the North Road.

Hubert the Hunter
The hunter lives in a cabin on the edge of the forest. Leave the village by the South Road, then follow the trail westward along the forest boundary.

“Looks like we’re going on a round trip,” John commented, entirely unsurprised by the placement. Why make a level and then only take the players through half of it?

“Since this was supposed to be an alchemical thing, I’m guessing the beasts are animals that got dosed with mutagens somehow.”

That made a lot of sense. Enough for John to try something, looking at the NPC, “Alchemy, Alchemist, Mad Scientist.”

While the Innkeeper’s Wife repeated her initial plea, Qhila raised a brow at John.

“Your speculation about the beasts reminded me that this style of game would sometimes have hidden keywords as well. If you could figure them out, you could get extra stuff, useful information, shortcuts, and so on.”

Qhila gave an understanding nod, and they affirmed to the NPC that they would protect the village. This prompted her to thank them and step away from the door, while the exclamation mark disappeared and was replaced with a regular old Quest Window.

Well, that had a few new terms to unpack. Fortunately, they came with tooltips.

Dungeon Point
Points scored by completing objectives in an Instant Dungeon, as well as through First Kill bonuses and discovering some secrets. They can be used to purchase Dungeon Boons at Dungeon Checkpoints or purchase additional rewards at the end of the Dungeon. All Dungeon Points are lost if the Gamer forfeits the Dungeon, such as by leaving the barrier outside of a Dungeon Checkpoint.

Dungeon Checkpoint
A Dungeon Checkpoint restores a portion of all party members’ HP, MP, stamina and similar resources when reached. While at a Dungeon Checkpoint, the Gamer can use Dungeon Points to purchase Dungeon Boons if any are available. Additionally, the Gamer can pause the Dungeon in order to leave it without forfeiting the Dungeon. If everyone leaves a paused Dungeon, the barrier closes but can be reopened in the same state by the Gamer later.

Dungeon Boon
Dungeon Boons are benefits specific to the Instant Dungeon they were earned in. They can take a variety of forms, like buffs, consumables, temporary items, NPC allies and even useful information or beneficial changes to later sections of the Dungeon.

“Okay, looks like the Bonus Objective could make a big difference for our odds in the later segments. And with both stuff to go around chasing and a static defense point, it’s probably designed and scaled for us splitting up and thus less demanding on party composition. We should take a look at the area outside the Inn before locking in on a plan, but I think the play here is that you fortify the area around it with traps and handle the defense while I go looking for wayward villagers.”

“Sounds good to me.” Qhila nodded with a serious expression.