Going downstairs, they saw that their mom was home. She said hi, but then turned her attention to her computer. Her mom owned her own business and had been complaining recently of withholding taxes or payroll taxes or some sort of taxes. There was also some sort of visit by the state that she had to prepare for. Madison really tried not to think about taxes. They were just depressing.

  Madison and Cole ate and then Cole called Michael to talk about the game. Madison, still curious about the Artoshians - or was it Artoshia - went back upstairs to search around on the internet to see if anyone had posted anything about it.

  A half hour later, she gave up in frustration. No one was posting anything, other than more game-type experience stuff. It seemed everyone was keeping game-world details to themselves.

  She thought she understood. There was real money involved at the moment. People weren’t about to give another group something that might allow them to complete a unique task before they did. It was still frustrating.

  Feeling a need to satisfy her curiosity, she logged back in. After a moment, she appeared back outside the front door of the Tipsy Pelican. Madison blinked and looked around. It was dark out; the sun’s glow was just starting to light the horizon. The inn was closed, she realized, so the game had moved her outside. Interesting.

  Luckily, her eyes allowed her to see perfectly fine in the dim light and she began walking up and down the streets of the southside of the small town, looking for what she wanted. She found it after twenty minutes, just as the sun peeked over the ocean.

  The small building, she stopped in front of had a faded copper sign in the shape of a scroll. It was worn from the elements and the once-shiny copper had faded to a dull, pale green. The building had light coming from the window and Madison felt herself grow excited. The person she was looking for was up. At least, she hoped it was him.

  Walking to the door, she rapped on it and then stepped back. She heard what she thought were dogs barking but nothing else. She waited a minute and then knocked again. She was about to knock a third time when the door opened.

  “It’s the wee hours of the morning!” a high-pitched voice complained. “There better be a dragon attack or a gnoll raid going on or I’m going to be upset!”

  The man who answered the door was tiny. He couldn’t be more than three feet tall but with slightly oversized hands and feet. Also, his head looked proportionately larger than a human head. His nose as well. It was almost as if he were a caricature of a small human.

  What had Captain Bartem called him? A gnome? Yes, that was it, the little man was a gnome. He was wearing a gnome-sized sleeping gown and long cap with a yarn ball at the end - obviously his sleeping clothes. And at the moment he was frowning.

  “Are you Araman?” Madison asked.

  The little man blinked, as if seeing her for the first time. His eyes narrowed. “Who wants to know?”

  “I’m…” Once again, she almost said Madison. She sighed and started over. “I’m Draconia. I’m the one who found the ruins.”

  Araman’s frown faded as he looked her up and down more closely. “You’re a Drakkar.”

  “Yes,” she replied hesitantly.

  “I can’t say I’ve ever seen a live specimen,” he replied. He looked her up and down like a butcher might inspect a piece of meat. Either uncaring or unaware he was in his sleeping robe, Araman stepped out of his house. He made a circle around her, continuing to inspect her. As he completed his circuit, he nodded. “Blue. An unusual pigmentation.”

  Remembering the trait she had chosen, Madison explained. “It is from my dragon ancestry. I come from blue dragons.”

  “Ah,” the gnome nodded. “Blue dragons. Desert hunters. Loners. Breathes lightning, if I remember correctly.”

  Madison nodded, having breathed lightning herself recently.

  “Fascinating, yes, very fascinating,” Araman said and then stopped and shook his head. “But that doesn’t explain why you’re disturbing an old gnome so early in the morning!”

  “Sorry,” she apologized. “Your light was on and I really need to ask questions about the Artoshians.”

  The gnome huffed but then shrugged. “Yes, I suppose you would. When Captain Bartem talked to me, he said he was going to ask you and your group to go back to the ruins. Well, let’s not talk here… come in, come in.”

  Not waiting for a reply, the little gnome spun and hurried back into his house. He left the door open, so Madison assumed he wanted her to follow. She did.

  “Shut the door behind you please,” he said, moving further into the room.

  Madison stepped into the house, shut the door and then turned towards the gnome. Araman was on the opposite side of what looked like a living room. She noticed that both the door and the rooms seemed made for human-sized people. That probably meant the house hadn’t been built for him.

  She looked around the room. There was a fireplace against the right wall. On the floor in front of the fireplace was a woven rug. On the rug, a few feet back from the fireplace were two chairs. Both were leather bound and looked extremely well crafted. Both looked expensive and also appeared to be a matching set.

  Between the chairs was a small round table that currently held a silver serving tray. The tray contained a single glass or porcelain cup and a silver kettle from which steam rose.

  One of the leather chairs was obviously gnome-sized and was no doubt the chair the gnome used. The second chair was human-sized and was currently occupied by two dogs. Madison didn’t recognize the breed.

  There were two doors and one doorway in the room. The doorway on the far side of the room looked to lead into a kitchen or cooking area. Then there was the door she just came through and the final door near it, which she guessed led to the gnome’s bedroom.

  The rest of the wall space was obscured by bookshelves, all filled with books. There were different-sized bookshelves and different-sized books. Large books, small books, thin books and fat books.

  Madison felt her eyes go wide at all the books. She wondered if they were actually readable in-game. If so, had someone in the real world actually written all of those books?!

  Araman walked over to the larger chair and spoke to the dogs. “Dixy! Roxy! Down!”

  The dogs looked up at him briefly and then laid their heads back down. Apparently, they were quite content about their place in front of the fire.

  The gnome rolled his eyes and repeated their names. “Dixy! Roxy! Down!”

  This time, the dogs didn’t even look up. Araman shook his head. He walked into the kitchen area, made some noise as he did something, and then came back with two biscuits in his hands.

  Returning to the dogs, he held up the biscuits. Immediately, the dogs’ heads shot up, their eyes locked on the biscuits.

  “Dixy! Roxy! Down!” Araman said, gesturing down with the biscuits. This time, both dogs obeyed, hopped down and sat in front of the gnome. The entire time, they didn’t take their eyes off the biscuits.

  The gnome walked over to his chair and sat down. He gestured with the biscuits. “Come!”

  Both dogs hurried over, eyes still on the biscuit. Araman gave them a stern look. “Lie down!”

  The dogs obeyed, lying down but keeping their heads up and their eyes on the biscuits.

  “Good dogs!” Araman said and then tossed each of them a biscuit. The dogs caught the biscuits in their mouth and immediately began crunching on them.

  “You’d better sit down before they finish,” the gnome said and gestured to the chair.

  Madison quickly got to the chair and slid onto it. “Thank you.”

  Araman reached down, petted each dog on the head. “Good puppies!”

  After a minute of petting the dogs, the animals laid their heads down and closed their eyes. The gnome sat back in his chair and looked over at Madison. “So, what is it you want to know?”

  30

  “I need everything you know about the Artoshians,” Madison blurted out.

  The gnome chuckled. “Everything I know. Well, that would take quite a while. How about if I give you a summary and we can go from there?”

  “That sounds great,” she replied, a little embarrassed about her initial response. Madison was thinking too much like she would if she were in a library or in front of a search engine.

  “Excellent,” Araman said with a nod. He settled back in his chair and looked into the fire. “Well, as most of us know, the Artoshian culture thrived from about 3,000 BC until well, sometime during the Fey war.”

  “BC?” Madison asked quizzically. She guessed BC didn’t stand for Before Christ, like it did in the real world.

  The sage raised an eyebrow. “Before Cataclysm. Although some older scholars refer to it as BB, Before the Breach. Do they call it something different in your culture?”

  Thinking quickly, Madison came up with the first thing that came to mind. “We refer to it as BF, Before Fey.”

  “Ah,” the sage acknowledged with a nod. “I’ll have to make a note of that. Anyway… where was I?”

  “Artoshian culture thriving…” Madison remembered.

  “Ah yes, the Artoshians were elves, of course, we all know that,” Araman continued. “But not like the elves we know today. Not, that was before the split that drove them apart.”

  “The split?” Madison asked. She was feeling a bit overwhelmed with the gnome information dump. She was wondering if she should have just asked for a book on the matter.

  “77 AB, After Banishment, when the curse the Fey had cast on the Artoshians finally manifested itself fully,” Araman replied. “Now we have the high elves, the wood elves and the night elves. Before that, there was only one type of elf and they called themselves the Artoshians.”

  “Ah yes.” Madison nodded.

  “Ahem.” The sage cleared his throat. “Where was I?”

  “The Artoshians,” she supplied helpfully.

  “Oh yes! The Artoshians were one of the two dominant cultures back then. They built huge cities, only one of which survives to this day - Quauroux, to the north. The humans occupy it now, of course. They renamed it to Queensford, after Queen Tami II. Back in 4017 AB - After Banishment - if I remember correctly.”

  He paused and looked at Madison, who - not knowing what else to do - nodded. She made a mental note that there was a city to the north called Queensford. From the sound of it, it might even be the capital of this area.

  “Yes,” the gnome continued. “Everyone knows the stories of the Great Breach and the invasion of our Realm by the dark Fey. It was the Artoshians and the Valharians, once enemies, who finally put aside their differences, and came together and finally sealed the breach.”

  Madison remembered that she knew the Valharian language as well.

  “Who were the Valharians? Humans?” she asked.

  “It was a human empire,” the sage agreed. “I mean, we all know the Valharian emperors were human from about 2,000 BC forward. But I am sad to admit, there were gnomes and other races involved in that evil empire. Your people included.”

  The gnome looked at Madison and she nodded, despite not having known that. She really knew nothing about them - other than being able to read their language. It was interesting to find out that the Drakkar had been part of the Valharian empire.

  From what it sounded like, they had been evil and the Artoshians had been good and led by the elves. Then, the Fey invaded and the good nation, or collection of nations, had joined with the evil empire and they’d killed the Fey.

  “Unfortunately, the final battle decimated both sides. Both empires were mortally wounded and collapsed shortly thereafter. With the emperor and the ruling council both dead, the Valharian empire collapsed immediately. With no strong leader, the evil races began fighting over the scraps of the empire until somewhere around 54 AB. By then it was all over, and we see no more records of the Valharian empire.”

  Madison nodded. “What about the Artoshians? What happened to them?”

  “They returned to their great cities and tried to mend their wounds,” Araman answered. “They might have even been able to do it. At least two thirds of their people had been wiped out but unlike the Valharian empire, they were still united. At least, until the…”

  Remembering what the sage had said earlier, Madison hazarded a guess. “The curse?”

  The gnome nodded gravely. “Some of the high elves have said they believe the curse was meant to turn them all into twisted versions of elves, like the Fey who invaded. But it didn’t quite work the way the Fey expected - or perhaps it did and what happened was always their intention. Perhaps the Fey’s intention was always to fracture the elven nation. Who can say?”

  “So, they split and that was the end of them?” she asked.

  “The curse twisted a third of the remaining elves into violet-skinned, evil-hearted versions of high elves,” Araman told her. “They tried taking control of the Artoshians but the other two races of elves that were created from the curse - the wood elves and the high elves - banded together and forced the night elves underground, into the Hollow Earth.”

  “The Hollow Earth?” Madison asked. Was that like Journey to the Center of the Earth?

  “Yes.” The man nodded. “That’s where they live to this day, though obviously they still raid the surface elves from time to time.” Araman paused and looked at Madison. “Does that information help you?”

  She bit her lip, remembering the Dark Fey they’d killed and how it had been shape shifted into a gnoll. Madison debated on whether she should tell the gnome about it. She wasn’t sure of the significance of it - if there was any at all.

  Madison decided to test the waters. “Are there any Fey left?”

  “After almost 5,000 years?” the sage asked. “No. The Fey who were trapped on this side of the veil were hunted down and killed. I don’t think there’s been a Fey sighting for… well… at least four thousand years?”

  Biting her lip, Madison let out a breath. “What if I told you we killed a Fey in the gnoll burrow. One that had taken the form of a gnoll shaman.”

  Araman chuckled and waved her comment away. “I wouldn’t even jest about something like that.”

  “It’s true,” Madison said, giving him a serious look. “We were fighting the Commander when this gnoll shaman showed up. We killed it but when it died, it transformed into a raven-headed old woman.”

  Madison stopped short of telling the gnome that she’d read the name in her HUD. It seemed non-player characters (NPCs) didn’t respond to them when they just disappeared from the game, nor did they respond when players said anything that related to game mechanics.

  “You’re joking, of course,” the gnome said nervously. “Did the captain put you up to it?”

  Shaking her head, Madison made her face as serious as she could. “I’m not joking. I’m sure it was a Fey.”

  The gnome laughed nervously, his face growing paler. He shook his head. “It can’t be. All the Fey on this side have been dead for millennia. If you encountered one… that would mean...”

  Araman trailed off and didn’t speak for nearly a minute. Madison waited but after a minute, she pressed him. “What would it mean?”

  “Well,” the gnome said, getting a faraway look in his eyes. “One, perhaps the Fey are immortal, or extremely long lived, and this is a remnant of those Fey who were left on this side when the Breach was sealed.” He scratched his head. “I mean, if it could change shape, it could have blended in…”

  The gnome went silent and after a few moments, Madison once again grew impatient and gestured for Araman to continue. “And the other possibility?”

  “What? Oh,” the gnome replied with a shake of his head. “Well… if it wasn’t here from when the Breach got sealed, the only other logical explanation would be…. That the Seal on the Breach is weakening and Fey are starting to slip through.”

  “That doesn’t sound good.” Madison frowned.

  “No… no it doesn’t,” the sage replied. He furrowed his brow. “You say this creature you think was a Fey was in the burrow?”

  Madison nodded. “Yes, it was in the room with the commander…” She paused. No, that wasn’t true. It had come into the commander’s room from the door they’d come in through. From the treasure vault. Thinking back, she remembered there had been another door on the opposite side of the vault. Had it come from there?

  “Actually,” Madison continued. “It came from one of the other rooms near the commander. Maybe further into the Artoshian ruins.”

  Araman turned back to the fire, staring into the crackling flames as he rubbed the stubble on his chin. He turned back to her. “If that was a Fey and it was in those ruins, there must be a reason. I would suggest going back in there and seeing if you can retrace its steps and figure out what it was after.”

  You have received a new quest “In the Fey’s Footsteps”

  Araman Blackpipe is worried that the Fey you encountered in the gnoll burrow may have been up to something. To alleviate his fears, he would like you to further investigate the Artoshian.

  Explore Deeper into the Artoshian Ruins

  Ruins Explored (0/1)

  Reward: +1000 reputation with Araman Blackpipe.

  Accept quest (yes or no)?

  Madison looked at the quest and accepted it. Truth be told, she was curious now too. “We’ll do it.”

  The gnome flashed her a worried look. “Hopefully, it is only nothing. But be careful in there.”

  “I think we can take care of the gnolls,” she said confidently.

  Araman shook his head. “Not the gnolls. The ruins. If those are Artoshian ruins, then they may have wards against those of the Valharian empire. At the time, that included humans and… well… Drakkar.”

  “You’re saying there might be boobytraps for me and the guys?” she asked. This new revelation was just one more thing they’d have to worry about now. “The other person in our party is an elf.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34