Mist of Shadows
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Taylor and the Twisted Game Part 3
🕑 Added 2021-09-07 08:38:03 +0000 UTCNoelle Meinhardt stumbled as she went from logging into the VR game for a bit of escape from her current troubles to stepping out of the portal in Stormwind's wizarding tower. "Weird message…" she trailed off as she realized she could hear the sounds of the city and smell the scent of old books, something the VR headset shouldn't have been able to duplicate.
"Welcome to Stormwind," the pink haired gnome offered.
"Thanks," Noelle replied absently as she glanced down at where the edge of the VR glasses should be and frowned when she couldn't find any sign of the glasses. "Nice, they fixed the display issues…" she trailed off when she realized she couldn't feel the headset or the VR gloves that let her interact with the environment. "Huh, that's new," she muttered when she shifted her stance and she realized she could feel something weird touching her skin.
She looked down at the burlap sack she was wearing then poked it a couple of times, not sure what to make of the fact that she could feel it on her chest and hips which shouldn't be possible considering she wasn't wearing any type of VR suit. "Okay, maybe they weren't joking about getting stuck in a game world."
"Stupid exchange program," the gnome muttered when another blood elf stepped out of the portal. "Welcome to Stormwind."
"Thanks," Missy replied as she glanced around the wizard tower, excited about seeing what they'd done with the expansion.
Noelle quickly took a step to the side and stared at the athletic looking woman that had just stepped out of the portal, mostly because she was able to smell the fact that she was a parahuman. 'Shit, if part of my power is working, the rest of it probably is.'
"Anything new…" Missy trailed off as she realized she couldn't hear her parents arguing in the background and she could feel the cold stone beneath her feet. "How the hell?"
"We're apparently stuck in a game," Noelle offered, figuring the other girl had noticed something strange.
Missy turned to look at Noelle then quickly took a step back when a hulking man stepped out of the portal, looking like a viking warrior straight out of myth or off the pages of a romance novel. "Damn."
Noelle glanced over the man's clothes then looked at the axe hanging from his belt. "Heirloom gear?"
"I got lucky with a couple of quests in the alpha," Greg replied, his voice sounding strangely low and smooth to his ears which made him want to squeal. 'This is so awesome!'
Missy pulled her attention away from the man's bare chest and focused on the other blood elf. "Any idea how we got stuck in a game?"
Noelle shook her head. "Not really but if I had to guess, I'd blame a tinker or a combination of capes."
"Either way, we should probably explore the city," Greg suggested, excited about exploring his favorite game.
"He's got a point, we should probably figure out how many people got pulled into the game if we want any chance of getting home," Missy suggested as she headed down the ramp, doing her best to ignore how itchy her 'dress' was and the lack of coverage when she moved at more than a shuffle.
'This is going to be awesome!' Greg thought as he followed the hot blood elf, looking forward to learning magic and becoming a hero.
"Might as well," Noelle agreed as she followed the other two down the ramp, trying not to worry about her friends but finding it hard now that she was thinking straight for the first time in months.
A blue haired gnome and blood elf hybrid tumbled out of the portal, rolled to her feet and used her Escape Artist racial ability. She sighed in relief when all of her various restrictions and orders chaining her mind broke, leaving her free for the first time in thousands of years. 'I'm free!'
0o0o0
"Any luck getting a hold of Missy?" Dennis asked quietly as he watched Armsmaster adjust the camera showing the inside of Sophia's visor so they could see everything on the monitor.
"I sent her a text," Dean replied absently as he watched Chris adjust a set of remote controls attached to mechanical pinchers that would manipulate the gloves so no one would have to touch them.
"And she hasn't texted you back?" Dennis asked with a raised eyebrow.
"She's probably just taking a nap or something," Dean replied, not particularly worried about Missy logging into a porn game. "I'm more worried about Vicky doing something rash like logging in to try and save Amy or going after Uber and Leet."
"I'm just surprised that Amy plays," Chris said as he finished adjusting the pincers.
Dennis glanced at the Director and decided to keep his mouth shut about everyone needing a hobby, mostly because she'd come back from her calls with the Chief Director and Sophia's mother looking ready to spit nails.
Colin pushed the button on his remote, causing one of the mechanical pincers to flip the on switch on Sophia's headset. "All of the sensors are working, this should give us a better idea of who is monitoring things or at least how."
"It better," Emily snarled, less than happy about Costa Brown's refusal to be proactive by warning people that there might be a problem with the game system until she heard back from the thinkers and they ran some tests. "We need a way to shut things down safely."
"This should-" Colin blinked as the screen swapped to show a "Warning Unauthorized User!" message for a second before he found himself floating in a dark void looking at a character generation window that reminded him of some of the old computer games he used to play before he'd gotten too busy.
"That's annoyingly effective security." He glanced around then focused on the character window after checking to see if there was anything in the void with him. He frowned as he read the disclaimer at the top of the window, "Only the first 100 people to beat the final boss will be able to escape, everyone else will have to wait for the next expansion."
"A bit late for disclaimers isn't it?" he grumbled as he turned his attention to reading through the various options. "Pick your races, humans, vikings? Gnomes, two types of dwarves, some ethereal ghost things with bandages? A bunch of elves and some demons then centaurs and harpies. Hmm, Iron Dwarves are twenty percent better at crafting and Dwarves give me an additional profession, is that better than 2% more stats for a human?" he mused as he started reading through the racial abilities and their flaws.
0o0o0
"Shit!" Amy cursed as the carriage vanished and she dropped to the ground a hundred feet from the gates to Darkshire. "Vicky smash!" she shouted as she scrambled to her feet and sprinted for the gates and the lanterns she could barely see through the gloom. "Guards!"
"Sorry!" Ezra offered as she sprinted towards the town, wishing the bondage items had a timer or something that actually told you when they were about to wear out.
Althea Ebonlocke smiled when the strange, almost demonic looking girl tossed herself to the side a second before she took a shot at the worgen chasing them. She shot the worgen a second time when it crashed to the ground, wanting to make sure it was actually dead.
"Don't shoot!" Amy called out as two guards stepped out of the open gate with their muskets pointed at her.
Althea smiled down at Amy and Ezra from the wall. "Are you lost?"
"No, my friend has a mansion here," Amy replied quickly, hoping they didn't mistake her for an actual demon.
Althea glanced at the girls' burlap sacks that passed for clothes, "You look rather poor for nobles."
"It was a long trip," Taylor offered as she hurried over, relieved that they'd reached the town without getting captured or lost in the woods.
"Fair enough," Althea admitted as she studied Taylor's face. "You certainly fit the description the construction team gave us of the new owner, welcome to Darkshire."
Amy ignored the lustful glances the two guards were giving her. "What's the best way to get there?"
"It's easy enough," Althea replied as she pointed to the east. "Just take the road until you get to the branch that goes north, it's about a mile."
"Thanks," Amy replied as she dismissed her demon then headed through the gates into the gloomy town.
Althea jumped down from the wall and smiled at Amy. "If you'd like I can send a couple of people to make sure you get there."
Amy glanced at Taylor and Ezra as they slipped through the gate. "What do you think?"
Taylor glanced up at the dark clouds that cloaked the region in a shroud of darkness that made it hard to see anything that didn't have a lantern near it then glanced at the wooden buildings that needed some repair work or at least a decent coat of paint. "I want to check with the innkeeper about getting a hearthstone and you should probably check in before we leave."
"Good point," Amy agreed.
"We also need to talk to the flight master so we can get the flight point," Ezra reminded them.
Althea pulled her attention off Amy's breasts and smiled at Amy. "Come talk to me when you're ready to leave or when you want to have some fun."
"Sure," Amy replied as she headed for the inn.
Taylor shivered and followed Amy, less than happy with the looks they were giving her new friend. "What's wrong with the town? It's the middle of the day and it's dark enough to be night."
"There's a curse over the region because of an evil artifact," Amy explained as the group walked into the old fashioned inn.
"Lovely, can we break it?" Taylor asked, curious what it would take to improve the area around her mansion.
"There were supposed to be a bunch of new quests so it's possible," Amy replied as she glanced between the busty red haired servant girl in a skimpy outfit that was wiping down one of the tables with a rag that had seen better days and an attractive blonde haired woman in her late twenties that was standing behind the bar.
"Might be worth checking out," Taylor mused as they walked over to the bar.
"Especially if we can get some nice quest rewards," Ezra agreed as she glanced at the bottles on the shelves, wondering if they could actually taste food.
Amy smiled at the woman behind the bar. "We ran into a clingy warlock, can you help us replace our hearthstones?"
The barkeep smiled at Amy then reached under the counter and pulled out three rune carved stones and set them on the counter. "Don't lose them, getting replacements out of the mages in Dalaran is like pulling teeth."
"Not planning on it," Amy assured her as the group grabbed their new hearthstones off the counter.
"Thanks, I appreciate it," Taylor replied as she examined the stone, wondering if she could duplicate it with enchanting. 'Worry about it later.' She slipped the stone in her inventory then pulled her phone out of her bag and handed it to Amy. "You should probably call your friends."
"Thanks," Amy replied as she checked the messages so she could get Dragon's contact information.
Ezra grinned as she slipped the stone in her inventory, feeling better about her choice to help the girls get to Darkshire. 'At least I didn't waste ten points on a hearthstone.'
"What can you tell me about the area?" Taylor asked the barkeep as Amy headed for the door to make her call.
"Duskwood used to be a peaceful forest before a curse tainted the land and shrouded it in darkness then the worgen came and the king stopped sending knights to patrol the region," the barkeep explained, sounding rather bitter about the whole thing.
"I'm guessing he still expects you to pay taxes?" Ezra asked.
"Of course, someone has to pay for his pointless war with the horde," the barkeep replied sarcastically.
Dragon answered the phone after the second ring, "Skitter?"
"No, it's Amy," Amy replied as she stepped outside. "Skitter is talking to the barkeep about local history."
"Does that mean you made it to Darkshire?" Dragon asked as she watched another group of adventurers head for the gates.
"Barely," Amy replied. "We wouldn't have without my demon to distract people and the carriage to outrun them or run them over. Thirty miles an hour doesn't sound all that fast until you're charging down a path you can barely see on a carriage."
"That sounds nerve wracking," Dragon admitted. "Speaking of nerve wracking, do you have any ideas for making it to Darkshire that don't involve charging through the army of hostile players in front of the city?"
"Not really," Amy apologized. "Most of my ideas require a couple of levels or more supplies than we have right now. Speaking of supplies, we're trying to make a guild, what did you pick for your class and profession? I'll see if we can send you some gear and supplies in the mail."
"Eldritch defender which is a paladin and mage mix and engineering and construction so I could build larger projects," Dragon replied as she watched the players fight in the distance, trying to get an idea of how dangerous escaping the city would be.
"I'm not sure how much we can help with construction right now but we should be able to send some ore and silver so you can buy recipes and basic tools for engineering." Amy turned to look at Skitter as she walked out. "Just a sec, what's up?"
"Ezra wants to scout the path while her barrier is still up which means we should hit the flight point and hurry," Taylor replied.
Ezra grinned as she started walking towards the flight point. "I have thirty five minutes of divine protection left, I might as well abuse it and distract anything that tries to eat us."
"Good point," Amy replied as she followed Ezra. "Do either of you have any idea how to get Dragon out of Stormwind without having to pull the same trick we used?"
Ezra shook her head. "Not really, without a mount, she'd just end up dying to the bandits repeatedly."
"Yeah," Taylor admitted a touch sheepishly as she followed Amy and Ezra. "My account came with a couple of symbiotes, one of which lets me teleport anywhere I want, it doesn't say I can't loan it to people."
Ezra stopped and stared at Taylor. "Why did you need my help if you can teleport?"
Taylor stopped before she bumped into Ezra. "Because Amelia can't teleport and it has a three hour cooldown. I wanted to save it for something important like getting to a dungeon or picking up another flight point but rescuing friends is more important."
"Fair," Ezra admitted as she turned and continued walking towards the flight master.
"Dragon, hold tight for an hour or two, we'll come and get you after we've collected some resources," Amy promised her.
"That would be appreciated," Dragon admitted, relieved that she didn't have to deal with the lunatics fighting each other outside the city like a group of Simurgh victims. She looked at the caller ID, not recognizing the number. "I'm getting another call, do you need anything else?"
"No, we'll see you in a couple of hours, call if something comes up." Amy ended the call then looked at Taylor. "Do you have any other tricks?"
"I've got an alt form I can swap to and summon but I'm not sure how to use her skills or magic and she has a long defeat timer so I wanted the chance to practice before I summoned her somewhere dangerous," Taylor admitted.
"Nice," Amy admitted, wishing she had some of her alts as options. "If you don't mind me asking, what class and race?"
"Warlock of Shadows and Jewelcrafting, Construction and Inscription," Taylor replied as they walked over to the flight master, feeling a bit nervous of the large griffins that were sprawled on the ground next to the guy dressed like a fantasy hunter.
"Dwarf?" Amy asked, wondering what other class was mixed with warlock.
"Fox girl and witch, she basically has the dwarf and harpy perks without the look," Taylor replied with a shrug.
"Fox girl? Can I play with her tail?" Ezra asked hopefully.
"No clue," Taylor admitted, not sure how her summon would react to someone playing with her tail. "How do we mark the flight point?"
"You just did," the flight master said with a grin.
"How long does it take to get to Stormwind?" Amy asked, hoping it wouldn't take that long.
"It should only take ten to fifteen minutes to fly back to Stormwind, depending on the wind," the man replied.
"Can we go anywhere else?" Amy asked, curious if they'd updated the flight system.
The man shook his head. "Sorry, if you haven't unlocked the location by visiting in person, the summoned griffins won't know how to find your target. They're also limited to locations with beacons."
"Fair enough," Amy admitted. "Let's find the captain and head out."
"Works for me," Ezra agreed, looking forward to relaxing and getting something to eat while she figured out what she was going to do about being stuck in a video game.
"Sounds good," Taylor agreed as she turned and started walking back to the gate, looking forward to making something more comfortable than a burlap sack.
0o0o0
Dennis blinked as he found himself stepping out of a portal in the tower in Stormwind. He glanced around the room to make sure there wasn't anything dangerous lurking then quickly looked down at his chest, wanting to make sure he hadn't ended up looking like Sophia's character. 'Nothing,' he mused as he tapped the button on his heads up display and brought up his character sheet.
He sighed in relief when he saw his familiar character portrait and smiled when he realized he had his character's hybrid race and his unique class that he'd gone through a bunch of hellish quests to get. 'Eldritch Warlock for the win, assuming you don't need some of the darker spells or fire magic.'
He tapped the buttons for his skills and stared at the practically empty lists, feeling like he'd been sucker punched despite the fact that he'd been expecting it. "So much for being a god of ink and enchanting," he muttered as he looked at his only remaining enchanting skill. 'Disenchant, turn magic items into dust and shards so you can imbue things with magic.'
"You're a starting Eldritch Warlock, what were you expecting?" the gnome asked with amusement.
"Point," Dennis admitted as he looked at his tattoo and inscription skill. 'Craft Spirit Tattoo, it allows the bearer of the tattoo to summon a unique spirit to defend them.' He focused on the gnome. "How many new adventurers can come through here today?"
"A couple of thousand," the gnome replied as a tall woman that had similar features to Director Piggot stepped out of the portal. "I'm used to dealing with idiots that try to learn magic when they don't have any talent but today seems especially bad."
Emily glanced down at her breasts and the burlap sack she was wearing. "Lovely, where do we get better clothes?"
"You can try the auction house or talk to a tailor," the gnome suggested.
"Director?" Dennis asked, trying not to stare because the woman in front of him was a lot younger looking and in a lot better shape than the version he was used to, not to mention this version had hair down to the middle of her back which was a much better look than her usual bowl cut.
"Unfortunately," Emily admitted as she stepped out of the way of the portal. "Clock?"
"Yeah," Dennis replied, figuring his voice gave him away. "What skills did you end up with?"
"Fishing," Emily replied with a touch of amusement. "I hear it's supposed to be relaxing."
"It's also useful for cooking," Dennis replied as a familiar looking dwarf stepped out of the portal. "Win?"
"Yeah," Chris replied as he glanced between Dennis and the Director before focusing on Dennis as the Director's clothing didn't quite cover everything it should and he didn't want to have console duty until he graduated to the Protectorate. "I should have picked something taller."
Dennis smiled when another dwarf stepped out of the portal. "Let me guess, you went for a crafting build?"
Chris moved out of the way of the other dwarf. "Engineering, Enchanting and Jewelcrafting."
"I grabbed Alchemy, Engineering and Enchanting, I might need to borrow some gems," Colin admitted as he pulled his phone out of his bag and dialed Dragon's number. He frowned as he heard a phone ring as an attractive purple skinned elf with glowing blue eyes walked up the ramp.
Dragon smiled at the group standing in front of the portal as she pulled her phone out and answered, "Assault called and said there was a problem in the lab and that you'd vanished."
"Dragon," Colin replied with a smile as he ended the call and put his phone away.
"In the flesh," Dragon replied with a grin. "What happened?"
"I used a camera and remotes to see if I could get the headset to connect so I could safely scan the connection," Colin admitted.
Dragon winced in sympathy. "I'm sorry that you got dragged into things but it's nice to see a friendly face."
Emily frowned as a man that looked like a mutated bodybuilder with a foot long dick sticking out of his linen shorts stepped out of the portal, glanced at the group then ran down the ramp. "Do we have a plan?"
"We've got the start of a plan," Dragon replied, wishing they'd had a bit more time to flesh things out beyond we'll come pick you up and help. "We should probably find a quieter place to talk about it though."
"We need to wait for Gallant…" Dennis trailed off as a dark haired blood elf girl in a red dress stepped out of the portal and looked around. "Gallant?"
"Not usually," the girl replied as she turned and headed down the ramp.
Dean stepped out of the portal wearing a suit of chainmail and carrying a sword and shield.
"What took you so long?" Dennis asked.
"Do you have any idea how long it takes to build a character that doesn't look like a mutated freak?" Dean complained.
Colin scowled as he thought about some of the options. "We're aware."
"What class?" Dennis asked, looking at Dean's armor and weapons.
"Warrior of Frost, it didn't give me an option," Dean complained. "It's one part death knight and one part frost mage."
"How safe is the city?" Emily asked, looking forward to picking up a gun and some armor.
Dragon shook her head. "Worse than I'd like but as long as we stay out of the alleys or buildings and don't attack or insult anyone, we should be fine."
"Lovely," Emily grumbled as she started walking down the ramp. "Let's go."
0o0o0
Comments
Mist of Shadows
I thought it would be interesting and it gives me some interesting options for character interactions.
Jasruv Lundux
Interesting, the only other fic I know that brings Piggot into the mix as a hero is Scott the Unwise's Minecraft fic.
