A Murdered Mystery!
N’doy, of course Elijah accepted the quest. This might be a chance to fix his greyed-out mana bar and learn magic! Not to mention, he was actually interested in what had happened here. It might shed some light on his situation as a whole: why he was here, and what these trials were.
The teenager remembered reading something about pen and paper being packed as an essential on lifeboats so one can come up with games to play to keep one from going crazy. He needed to do something to keep his brain occupied, and this Quest was better than hangman.
Elijah decided to start his search for clues in the kitchen, partly because, ironically, it was furthest from the dining room, and partly because he needed something to eat. Pushing open the crudely constructed door, Elijah found himself in a room that rivalled the great hall in size.
At the far end was a massive fireplace, easily large enough for him to both stand and lie in. Stacked to either side were piles of logs, ready to be burnt. Everything, from the knives neatly laid out on the tables to the bushels of now brown herbs hanging from the ceiling, said that whoever had been working here hadn’t expected to abandon the place.
Luckily, unlike the room he started in, there weren’t any nightmarish corpses. The people here must have been able to escape whatever calamity befell this place.
With a mind on his stomach, Elijah checked the cupboards. The bread was black and furry, the grain was growing, and maggots had eaten the cheese. He did manage to find a pot filled with honey. A lucky find! It was hard. It stuck to his teeth as he chewed. But to the young man, it tasted like ichor, the blood of the gods. Unconscious of himself, he moaned slightly. Before he knew it, the pot was empty; its contents disappeared.
With his appetite momentarily sated, Elijah became thirsty. He looked about for a sink, but of course this place didn’t have running water. The pantry was bare, the barrels were empty; that left one place to look.
In the corner of the room, there was a set of stairs going down into darkness. Though the fortress couldn’t be described as bright, there was enough sourceless light to see comfortably. That was not the case for the archway and beyond. It was pitch black and led who knew where.
He clicked his suddenly very dry tongue, considering what to do. In the end, it was his Quest that decided matters.
Quest Update: You have discovered a clue to the mystery behind the Lady of the Lake’s death, enter the wine cellar to learn more.
Elijah, in preparation, fetched the flint and steel. Lifting a tallow candle off the wall, he created fire. As if he had brought colour into a realm of black and white, the world appeared to change slightly in the area of its radiance. It was enough to notice, but not enough to know what exactly you were noticing.
Shaking off the strange chill that spread up his spine, Elijah put a foot on the first step, determined to uncover the mysteries of this cellar, and maybe get something to drink.
His foot landed on the first step. He raised the other leg to follow. He slipped.
Crash, Bang, Wallop. Elijah tumbled, arse over teakettle, down the smooth stone steps. This Trait was really annoying! The young man found himself lying flat on his stomach at the bottom of the steps, darkness all around.
Dink, dink, dink. He turned to follow the sound. The tallow candle, in its ceramic holder, was following him down the stairs, illuminated in its own little bubble of light. Miraculously, it hadn't broken, so Elijah reached out, snatching it before it could fall another step.
As he stood, he checked himself for injuries. He was fine; nothing but bruises. Grumbling to himself, the young man began exploring the subterranean room. The light didn’t behave as it ought to here. It reached a certain distance and then just stopped, instead of dispersing slowly. Because of this, Elijah was forced to keep the poor man’s candle close.
The room wasn’t very large, at least in width; its length could be endless for all he could tell. Gingerly, he began investigating.
To the left was a tun, a giant wine barrel resting on its side. He found a tap and tried to turn it. Nothing came out; it must have been empty. There was another barrel, a small thing, about the height of his shin. When he got it open, there were white crystals inside. Curious, he dipped a finger in and tasted.
“Salt!” Elijah exclaimed, spitting out the strangely tasteless mucus that had also entered his mouth. Eagerly, he laid a hand on the barrel and added it to his Inventory. If he ever found himself in a world filled with fresh meat or vegetables, this would be invaluable. It saddened him slightly that he had just assumed he would be trapped here for another Trial.
Nonetheless, he had been buoyed by the discovery. Pressing on, he finally found something promising. Racks of bottles lined either side of the narrow chamber, and they didn’t look empty. Eagerly, he searched through the cubbies, looking for a bottle without any sign of mould.
There it was, the perfect bottle; it gleamed in the light of the candle. Just at the end of the racks, beside the end wall. The glass was clear, and the cork looked fully intact. With excitement, he set off towards his prize. The teen stubbed his toe on something.
“OWW! Son-of-a…”
Looking down to see what he had hit, Elijah paled. There was a corpse, dressed in the finery of a nobleman, a pool of dark red surrounded his head. It was a struggle for him not to run screaming from the room. The only saving grace: the body was lying face down; he didn’t have to see those mummified features again.
Elijah tried to calm himself as he examined the man from as far away as the candlelight would allow. There was a large piece of folded parchment in his hand, a letter of some kind. Assuming the body would get up and attack him at any moment, Elijah very carefully stepped over it, picked up the wine bottle, picked up the letter with great care not to touch the figure’s hand, then started back up towards the stairs; his eyes never once leaving the corpse.
He made it back up the steps without incident, and only then did he survey his haul.
Quest Update: You have discovered a clue. Read the letter to find out more.
Elijah didn’t have to be told twice; flakes crumbled off the skin as he unfolded it. Written in a fancy, curling script was a hastily scrawled missive.
Sir Gwalchmei, I must speak with you urgently. I have reason to believe there will be an attempt on the King’s life at the banquet this evening! I don’t have any proof, so I cannot go to the guards with this. I don’t even know how it might be done. They may have subverted some of the guards, infiltrated the serving staff, or poisoned the wine! Do what you can, then meet me in my infirmary, and I’ll tell you more.
Quest Update: You have read the letter and have learnt of a plot to kill the King! Go to the infirmary to learn more.
The wine was poisoned, huh? Elijah thought, eyeing his hard one prize suspiciously. It would make sense; the man he had seen in the basement was surrounded by a red, sticky puddle. Blood didn’t have enough sugar to still be sticky.
In the end, he wasn’t ready to face that ghost again unprepared, so, with reluctance, he stored the bottle in his Inventory, bringing his encumbrance to 32.3/80, most of that the salt. He would just have to live with being thirsty.
Smacking his dry lips together, he set off in search of the infirmary. Elijah tried opening random doors and found a number of noble’s rooms. Rummaging around inside, he found very little of use.
He took a small purse of silver coins. Interestingly, it didn’t add to his encumbrance and wasn’t listed as an item in his Inventory. Instead, his Silver (lbs) value increased. If he wanted to retrieve a coin, he could materialise one of any size, up to the max of his Silver (lbs) value.
By the end of his robbing spree, he had 1.69 pounds of Silver from pennies! After raiding both the noble’s and servant’s rooms, he had also found three full outfits. Tired of being naked, he had kept an eye out for clothes. Most were moth-eaten, falling apart, or didn’t fit, but of the ones that satisfied him, there were:
- A dozen new linen underpants.
- A poncho-like garment, made from a coarse linen with a hole in the middle. It was stained a pale green and came with a pair of brown leather sandals.
- A tight, bright red pair of hose with a yellow tunic, a red belt, a red kerchief, and red, soleless shoes.
- An exquisite, dark blue jack with puffy shoulders, trimmed with golden thread and complete with golden buttons. It was in a set with a pair of similarly styled hose and shiny black riding boots.
Elijah thought the last was particularly fine, and he was careful not to get his mucus on it when he stored it. Until he solved his Slimy problem, he would only wear the plainest garment.
He checked his Inventory. His encumbrance had been raised to 42.6/80. All the clothes had been added to the armour tab, so he would be able to quickly swap them on or off. Interestingly, all of them had a defence value of 0 except the footwear, which was uniformly 1.
The young man, now properly clothed, as properly clothed as a man could be in what was essentially a dress, continued his search of the castle. He kept his eyes out for anything useful; he had grown fond of the thrill he got from making items disappear.
He noticed, as he moved from what looked like an older area of the castle to somewhere newer, the decor changed. Where before, the magic-wielding warriors and mages were a part of the battle lines in many a tapestry or painting; in the newer section, they had become the enemy.
Wizards were hunted, witches were hanged; all the while the people seemed to be celebrating. It was… disconcerting.
Elijah finally found the infirmary when he opened the door to one of the many tower rooms. He knew immediately it was the right place, not only because of the shelves filled with multicoloured bottles but also because another message appeared.
Quest Update: You have entered the infirmary. Search for clues.
He did as he was told and began searching the room. Again, there were no bodies, thank God. Apart from the cellar, the only place with corpses appeared to be the great hall.
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Elijah looked over the bottles of what he assumed to be potions. He couldn’t tell what any of them were supposed to do; they were almost all unlabelled, and those that were only had symbols. He even tried storing them in his Inventory to see if it would be able to identify them. It couldn’t and just listed them as unidentified potion, effect: unknown.
None of them looked quite right to Elijah; something just felt off about them, so he let them be. He also found a number of mundane healing supplies, bandages and the like, but he left them as well. It was easier just to die to recover.
In the back, there was a small room with a desk, chair, wardrobe, and bed. On the desk was an open diary. Elijah picked it up and started reading. And kept reading. And kept reading. He found the story of the man in these pages, the court physician, fascinating.
There were highs and lows, love and hatred, a man’s entire life put down on paper. It was enthralling. After he eventually reached the end with no idea how long he had spent reading in another man’s bed, he received a notification.
Quest Update: You have learnt of Nimueh's attempted revenge. Find a way to enter the King’s chambers to complete the quest.
It took Elijah a moment to realise what the Quest was saying. He had been so engulfed by the physician's life that he had forgotten he was supposed to be looking for clues. Concentrating, the relevant information came back to him.
Nimueh, or the Lady of the Lake as she was formally known, was a sorceress. She used to be the court sorceress and a friend of the physician whose diary Elijah had read.
One day, she had been called on by the King. He and his wife were unable to have children, but he needed an heir. He had gone to the physician, but there had been nothing his alchemy could do.
Nimueh initially refused His Majesty, but after the proud man got on his knees to beg, she caved and revealed that there was an ancient magical ritual that may work. Initially, the King was eager to try until she revealed the cost.
A life for a life. Nimueh thought this would be enough to dissuade the King, and while it did give him pause, he agreed. The physician tried to dissuade His Majesty, but the man was adamant. The King was not a young man, and he saw the continued prosperity of his kingdom as more important than his own life.
On the night of a full moon, Nimueh, the King, and the Queen went to the Quartz Ring alone, and to everyone’s surprise, they all three returned.
His Majesty and all his courtiers were delighted, but Nimueh was terrified. She came every day to the physician to air her concerns and constantly urged the King to prepare his knights. One couldn’t escape the power of the ancient magics. A life was required to create a life, and Mother Nature was not owed debts.
Nine months later, on a stormy night, a Prince was born and a Queen died. The physician had informed Nimueh before the King, fearing what his wrath might wrought, and he was right to do so. His Majesty blamed the Sorceress. When he sent his Knights to seize her, they found her chambers empty, and the woman fled.
But the physician had been wrong about just how far the King's grief and anger would take him. The man blamed not only the sorceress but all things arcane. He banned magic and turned the people against those who used it.
That could have been an end to it, but it wasn’t. The King arrested Nimueh’s son, a miller by trade. Although he had no ability with magic, he was publicly executed as a warlock, to the cheering of the masses.
Nimueh had long since left the kingdom and had thought her family would be safe. When she heard the news, she was distraught. Only one thing gave her focus. Revenge! She would take a leaf out of Mother Nature’s playbook. A life for a life!
The physician had caught wind of this through a mutual friend, and, ever the loyalist, he had tried to sniff out her plan. He failed. She was able to sneak into the castle as a famous singer, sent to perform for the King, magic hiding her features.
As soon as she began her song at the noble’s banquet, all were ensorcelled. All save the King, for in her anger she had forgotten the protective pendant she herself had long ago made him. Despite his hatred for all things magical, he had kept it.
Before she could act, he had fled to his chambers, behind the great hall, taking his infant son with him. Nimueh could not follow. His Majesty's rooms only had one entrance, and many years ago, she had warded it so that no one born of the five races, living or dead, save the royal family, could pass the threshold.
In her anger, she had killed the noblemen and banished all others from the castle, determined to wait the King out.
That was as far as the man’s diary went. There were no answers as to why this place was being used as a Trial for Ghosts, or how a castle had been transported to some kind of void.
Whilst he mentally recounted the tale, Elijah had been walking to the great hall. He knew there was only one proper way to tackle this. Now that he had learnt more about the situation, he couldn’t let his fear control him.
Still, the young man’s hand trembled as he pushed the door to the hall open. The ghost instantly locked eyes with him. What had looked like the red of anger now appeared to be the soreness of grief.
She swooped down towards him, emitting an ear-piercing wail and brandishing her claws menacingly. He remained still. When the ghost screamed louder and slashed her arms about, he had to bolt himself to the floor to stop from fleeing. Still, he stayed.
She passed through him. He took no damage, and he knew he had been right. When he had first gotten here, she had attacked him, but he had felt nothing but a cool chill. That should have told him something, but he hadn’t been thinking straight. The second heads-up was when he dodged her attack. There hadn’t been a notification from his Trait: Unkillable, which meant she hadn’t been trying to damage him.
She was angry, but not at him. As she turned around, clearly trying to be scary and unaware he had figured her out, Elijah spoke:
“Wait, I want to help you. I am not of the five races.”
Initiative +1
She stopped. Elijah could see the flames in her eyes flicker as she cocked her head silently.
“I know why you are angry. You want to get in there,” he said, pointing to the ornate door at the far end of the room, behind a throne-like chair at the head table. When she didn’t answer, he took that as permission to continue.
“You warded those doors. No one born of the five races, living or dead, can enter, save the royal family?”
She inclined her head slightly.
“I am not born of the five races.” Elijah declared with false confidence. Truth be told, he didn’t know whether he was or wasn’t, but his character sheet had listed him as Human (Earth), and he hoped that was enough of a difference for his plan to work.
The ghost looked intently at him, and he had the impression she was looking at something he couldn’t see. Then she nodded and pointed towards the door.
Elijah walked quickly across the room, focused on nothing but the far end. His eyes tried to wander but each time he pressed his nails into his palms until he could regain focus. He did not want to see those horrific figures again; he already feared the nightmares he would have.
He reached the grand oak doors, embossed with the image of a dragon, and pushed. They opened easily on oiled hinges; they hadn’t even been locked. Bracing himself, he shut his eyes and took a step, and then another. Nothing stopped him.
Quest Update: You have entered the King’s Chambers. Discover the reason for Nimueh’s death.
Opening his eyes, he found himself in the King’s bedroom. The teen dismissed the notification without reading it then scanned the room. His eyes roved over the four-poster bed, the ornate furniture, and the fine art until he found what he was looking for. In the corner of the room was the waif-thin, skeletonised corpse of a man. From the crown alone, Elijah knew this to be the King.
The figure's lower half was lying on the floor, its upper half propped up on the edge of a crib, the eyeless eyes looking down tenderly on a bundle of blankets Elijah refused to look at. A tear welled in the teen’s eye as he yanked the corpse away with shaking fingers.
He wanted just to kick him out into the great hall and forget this ever happened, but he knew that would be missing an opportunity. In his mind he repeated:
“You are not here; you are somewhere warm; you are in your happy place,” whilst in the real world, his hands reached around the royal’s neck, took off the amulet, stored it in his Inventory, and then did the same with the man’s scabbarded sword.
Still grossed out by what he had done, Elijah dragged the corpse outside, rolling it over the threshold to the waiting Ghost. He didn’t cross himself. She seemed pleased, in a twisted sort of way, but after a moment, she looked up at the young man.
“No. The child was innocent. Whatever you plan to do with him, by all means do it. But leave the kid out of it!” Elijah’s voice sounded more certain than he felt, but on this point he would stand firm. The Lady of the Lake clearly wanted a son for her son, but the sins of the father are not those of the son.
After a tense moment, she relented and nodded slightly. Elijah let out a breath. Then she beckoned him over by crooking a finger. He wasn’t stupid; Elijah was not about to leave the safety of the King’s chambers.
Then he thought, ah, what the hell, it’s only death; let's see what she wants. He stepped out of the room, maintaining his confident guise. She didn’t suddenly attack as he’d expected but stayed still and continued to beckon.
Now curious, he walked before her. The Lady reached into her chest and withdrew a ghostly organ. It was a pale blue, looked like a narrow heart, and as it left her ethereal body, it became real. Blood dripped onto the floor.
Elijah twisted up his face in revulsion, but before he could take a step back, Nimueh grabbed him by the shoulder, holding him in place with a vice-like grip. Even with 8 Strength, there was nothing he could do. He looked up and saw the smile in her eyes. His blood ran cold. Looking down, he saw why:
She had plunged her hand into his body. He screamed, half out of fear, half out of pain. His eyes watered, but before he knew it, his ordeal was over. He stumbled to the floor, his body paralysed.
All he could do was watch as the Lady reached inside the corpse and withdrew, kicking and screaming, a spirit. She grinned with manic delight. The pair disappeared in a flash of ghostly flames.
The darkness returned as the world faded away, and Elijah once more felt hail. Except there was something different, a taste in the air, a chill in his veins, the smell of ozone.
As ever, the System provided answers.
Race Updated: The Lady of the Lake has given you her own Mana Heart. Mana stat now unlocked! Since no Human, Earth or otherwise, can possess a true Mana Heart, you can no longer be considered Human. You are unique and have been given a new race to reflect this. Race updated to, Elijah.
What the Hell? Elijah thought, She looked human to me, if a bit pale. And that’s not a name for a new Race; it’s just my name! The System didn’t care about what he thought. It just carried on throwing notifications his way.
Quest Complete!
Quest: Nimueh’s Revenge
Objective:
- Uncover the reason for the Lady of the Lake’s death: ?
Hidden Objective:
- Help Nimueh complete her revenge: ?
Rewards:
- A better understanding of magic: ?
Additional Rewards:
- A Mana Heart: ?
6027 Xp Rewarded
Before Elijah could smack himself for forgetting the whole point of the Quest, a new ERROR loop began. This time it was about him having more than one Class. Apparently the System didn’t think he should be able to have a second one until the first reached the cap of 100, so it didn’t know what to do with his Xp.
Just as he was bracing for another explosion, the buzzing stopped, and it actually found a solution.
Temporary Solution Found: User may now choose which Class to place Xp in. Xp will be held in escrow by US 2.7.1. until the user decides.
With that apparently fixed, the notifications continued.
Congratulations!
You have completed the Trial of Evolution 1: Ghost.
Grade: B
Objectives:
- Defeat the Evolved Ghost while staying above 50% health: ?
- Defeat the Evolved Ghost in under 30 minutes: ?
Hidden Objective:
- Complete the Quest: Nimueh’s Revenge: ?
Rewards:
You have earned the right to Evolve from a Lesser Ghost into 1 of 4 Ghosts:
- Greater Ghost
- Spirit Summoner
- Ghostly Arcanist
- Nimueh’s Successor
Choose Now!
Elijah actually had a chance to choose for once, which meant he could open the Evolution descriptions and learn more. He didn’t, choosing instead to pick Nimueh’s Successor. She was a woman who had single-handedly taken down a castle full of Knights. He could do with that kind of power.
New Class/Evolution Unlocked: Nimueh’s Successor S
You have unlocked a new Class created by Nimueh to help guide her successor.
New Class Skill Unlocked!
New Class Skill unlocked:
Mana Manipulation: A
This skill allows you to manipulate mana with ease and purpose.
patrons: