“I'm back.”
“Good,” they hissed, croaked, and groaned like a discordant animal chorus.
“As long you promise to cut it out, after we win.”
The prize from yesterday's mission wasn't a clue, but a final location. I showed it to the three.
“I've never seen that island,” said Jacek.
“It's in that area always beset by storms,” said John.
“The threat of capsizing has deterred every adventurer. No one has ever dared to sail inside,” said Sven.
“We've got to go for it,” I concluded.
It seemed as if everyone on the high seas had heard of our affair. One by one they fell into line, until they composed a massive armada, fanning out to the west and east, stretching to the horizon, or at least where Dragged into the Deep stopped rendering it.
We must have been quite a spectacle, a befouled ship, ragged and shadowy, swirling, yet as substantial as solidified pus, or calcified bone, followed by a misfit multitude. Single masted sloops, swift schooners, and war ready barques, bristling with guns, drifted behind. They flew flags of every color, painted with symbols both elegant and crude. Players shouted greetings or made rude gestures. Not one approached within range, but they sat, ready to witness the carnage or glory.
As we neared the South Eastern corner of the map, I saw a few ships abandoning the pack. Even in the best conditions, sailing to the edge of the known world (North, South, East, or West) risked the player's in-game death to monstrous leviathans. Those who remained were beset by deadly foes, (none as colossal as our oily avatar), but the massive number of player controlled warships fought their way through, escorting the more fragile seacraft. We alone were untouched, protected by an unseen force.
The storm rose up suddenly, out of a cloudless sky, and beat upon our speakers with an overwhelming fury. It sounded like a deluge of sleet upon a car, and appeared like a sheet of white on my screen. Lightning struck mast after mast of the tallest ships, while the smaller were torn apart or whipped around like water circling the drain. Even we, who were protected from the worst of the weather, could barely hold our ship to its course.
In that trial my companions demonstrated a superior mettle, holding the ship together against wrack and ruin. Behind I saw only a massive wreckage, and my feeble eyes counted an inestimable value of lost in-game currency. It was swept away as soon as it appeared, and I rushed about securing the rigging. We saw stragglers, as lonely as planets in the depths of space, floundering. And then we couldn't.
We were through, the storm lay behind us, and no soul followed.
“There it is,” they said in unison, already recovered from a storm, the like of which had never been seen. Its power had failed to discompose them for a second.
Now we stood, staring at a narrow, ugly, tower rising out of a sandy island, barely wider than the battlements. At its peak, three or four stories up, a light, both grim and fair glimmered.
Though I wished to sail cautiously, Jacek brought us in swiftly. “Why wait?” He asked, “Aren't you curious?”
Internally, I admitted I was eager to halt the chatter of their decrepit voices, and yet not anticipating the final fight. But I had already ordered my avatar into the shallow water. I landed with a soft splash, that didn't wet me none.
I motioned for them to join me, but they waved me on.
“This is for you alone,” they said. “We failed, but you can redeem us.”
I knew it was pointless to argue. They weren't capable of it anymore. I stepped lightly across the soft sand, and pushed aside the rotting door. A narrow spiral staircase ran along the wall. I began the climb.
I can defeat this thing with their help...
They won't help...
I can defeat this thing single-handedly...
I have no hope...
I don't even want to...
As I mounted the final step and pushed open the trap door, this was the thought that pervaded my mind. They wanted me to join them. Friends need to stick together, even in defeat.
I stood in the center of the tower, bathed in the deepest darkness and fairest light. The binary illumination emanated from a crystal floating seven feet in the air. And towering behind it was the monstrosity, arms flailing menacingly. I halfheartedly dived for the jewel, but was knocked aside. Flung against the parapet, I looked over the side, and saw my companions standing in the rigging.
“It's time to give up,” they said in unison.
“What?” I yelled back.
“Come on, it will be fun,” they said.
“Then you'll be like us,” they said.
“Yeah, but who wants to die if they don't need to?” I yelled.
Then I realized why they wanted me to join them. Not because they were my friends, but because they weren't. Shells of their former selves, reincarnated to deceive me, they had succeeded.
I dove again for the gem, feinting with my left hand, spun to avoid a tentacle, and caught at it with my right.
I was lifted up and thrown over the rampart, falling, falling.
I watched my figure slam into the ground, scattering granules of sand. Heard it resound through my headset. I clung desperately to life, three hit points remaining. I saw the crystal crushed into a thousand particles, already scattering into the sand. “No, no, no,” I cried aloud, scrabbling with my right hand on the ground, while exhausted (in game), I could only watch as the abomination stretched out like a python and enwrapped me, lifting my avatar to its loathsome face. From its mouth gushed a gurgling spurt of blood, and from its eye sockets issued light the color of rust.
A laugh unlike any other, for it seemed noiseless, but reverberated like a physical ache in my mind and bowls, issued from the monster.
High above the ground, nearly equal with the top of the tower again, I could see my betrayers. I no longer applied names to these fiends who had stolen the shape of my friends.
“It will be alright,” one said.
Another laughed, “No it won't.”
“No need for further deception,” said the last.
With a final motion the monster thrust my character into its gaping mouth, and I fell out of my chair, into darkness.
When I opened my eyes, I wiped my glasses with my left hand to remove the film, but it wasn't there. I was sitting in a slimy cell, with a stench like rancid blood in my nose.
“He's here,” I heard someone say.
In spite of the grim surroundings, and that every event led to despair, I smiled at hearing that voice with its proper intonation.
“John,” I said, “How long have you been here?”
I could barely see his face in the light, red like blood, but purplish-black like a bruise. He moved closer, but the appearance didn't improve. I slid closer but recoiled from the touch of the floor. It felt like knives and rotting flesh, and I turned my head to vomit away from my friend.
“Watch it,” yelped Sven.
“It's ok, everyone reacts like that at first,” said John “Still do occasionally. Can't know how long I've been here. It seems like an eternity, punctuated by the arrival of others.”
“And now,” said Jacek. “We are doomed forever.”
They shook their heads, but my face could no longer hide its secret.
“Why are you smiling?” Sven asked. I saw his face contorting in contradiction of my own. “You haven't been down here long enough. Just wait, I'll...”
But John said, “It's the shock. Calm down.”
I could barely stop the giggles that started to leak from my lips, like bubbles escaping a tightly closed mouth. Accidentally placing a hand on the floor in my merriment, I recoiled violently, and threw up again.
“It's broken him,” said Jacek.
But John wasn't so sure. As Sven glared angrily at me, John was looking at my closed right fist. “What have you got there?” he asked.
“What does it matter, we are stuck here,” said Sven.
“Are we?” I said. And I opened my tightly clenched hand to reveal the locket I had found in the box after Sven's death. Out of the game it looked odd, like it was crafted of surpassing beauty, except it was seen through a funhouse mirror. If one held it at just the right angle it appeared the most magnificent object in the universe. Otherwise it appeared ugly angled.
They stared at it in bemusement.
Then I flicked the catch and opened it. From inside issued the fairest light, and the deepest darkness.
“Even as it broke I collected the shards of the gem in this.”
“And you think...” said Sven, leaning forward eager but skeptical.
“I can already feel it, calling me back. But I'm going to need some help.” I looked at them. “Let's do this together.”
I placed the locket on my lap and clasped Jacek and John's hands. They reached out to Sven. And I thought about the ship.
Then we there, and the monstrosity, fiercer than I had seen, it was looming over us. But I wasn't afraid anymore.
“To arms,” Sven yelled. As Jacek steered the ship, John managed the sails, and Sven fired bombardment after bombardment, I stood on the deck, clasping the locket upraised and open toward the fiend, while I slashed every tether that dared to wrap itself around the hull. Lightning flashed, the sea roared, and the monster bellowed, but nothing could harm us. In that battle the ghosts who haunted our hull faded away, and the ship itself was transformed into resplendent purple, more royal than repulsive. The ooze changed to gold trim, and the shadowy, smoky sails became as white as angel's wings.
Even still, victory seemed uncertain, until a final blast from Sven obliterated our tormentor. The storm faded, the sun shone, and we rejoiced.
“Set sail for the west and home,” said John, in his perfectly wonderful normal voice.
As we sailed to calmer waters we discussed our future plans.
“I heard there was an even more dangerous mystery in that new game, Apparition Aversion.”
“It's on sale right now, lets get it.”
“So, next Monday?”
“Sounds good to me.”
Recent:
Phasmophobia: Early Access Ghost Investigating
Relevant:
Dragged into the Deep: Part II
Darkest Dungeon: Notes of An Expedition
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