Chapter 18: The Ruined City

Slowly, stealthily, Ricky approached the ruined gateway of the city.

The wagon had long since disappeared out of sight now, trundling on towards the southern villages as Ricky walked towards his destination. He had also finished his beef jerky, with further gains to hit points as a result of this, as well as some sporadic increases which he assumed to be due to the passing of time:

*Healing report: You have gained 2 hit points (51 remain).

*Healing report: You have gained 2 hit points (53 remain).

*Healing report: You have gained 1 hit point (54 remain).

*Healing report: You have gained 1 hit point (55 remain).

*Healing report: You have gained 1 hit point (56 remain).

Pausing at the sign of movement from up ahead, Ricky stood still for a long spell, and then moving away slowly to some rocks that lay off to the side of the road.

In this place of temporary shelter, Ricky noticed how hard he had been breathing, and took a moment to get control over his own body. He still had his bearings, he was sure. Doomstar lay ahead. And so far he was entirely alone.

Or was he?

Certainly, there had been no further bands of korapta lizards. None were in sight on the road near the edge of the city. But somehow, he felt that he was being watched.

Wriggling further into the niche in between the two boulders, he closed his eyes for a moment. He was getting paranoid, he told himself – and he wasn't even at the destination yet. In this state, he would be of little use to his guild. He needed to be better. A warrior, an agent in the struggle for the magical orbs.

After a few minutes he resumed looking, watching, one hand on his morning star, and remained there for many minutes. But he could see no enemies immediately around. Feeling only a little reassured, Ricky progressed a little further along the desolate and broken-down road that skirted the city.

The city. Who was he kidding? It was a pile of rocks, nothing more. There were the remnants of a wall around, it, that much was clear, forming an arc around the area before it met the cliffs at the far side. A couple of partially-intact structures rose up from this, as if there had once been watch towards. But there was little else that was visible. Now houses, no towers, just the occasional pile of stone blocks where once the corner of a great monument or castle had stood.

He thought for a moment, considering what Gabriella had told him about an army of ogres, with slave warriors and siege engines. Is this what lay ahead for Imperialis, too?

Ricky paused. A brick-paved road, relatively intact, left the main trail and wound its way directly to the ruinous wall, or rather to a gap in the wall. Once it would have been the entrance, he supposed. Turning and following this route he walked on.

As he went, another of Gabriella’s statements before their parting played around in his head: you're the fourth to try.

The words had played around his head since their parting.

Guide – time please?

“It’s almost three o'clock in the morning, Ricky.”

Damn. I was walking that long?

The Guide did not respond to that statement.

Guide – does that mean that I can transform now? Or do I have to wait until morning?

“You can transform into one of your lycanthrope alternates, if that’s what you mean. Midnight is the start of a new day in the Dark Framework, and your uses of this ability will always reset then.”

Good.

“Would you like me to remind you of your options, Ricky?”

No, it’s all right. I know what I have to do. Ricky paused, taking a deep breath as he mentally readied himself, and then spoke again: Transform me into a lizard, please.

“You wish to use the gift of lycanthropy and take on a korapta lizard’s form – please confirm.”

Yes. Let’s do this.

The change began. Pain gripped his body again; it was different from before, but almost as bad – a gripping, stabbing, icy pain that saw him doubled over, trying hard not to scream. He put his hands to the ground to steady himself, realizing as he did so that they were no longer hands, but feet... lizard feet.

*Achievement: Hitting the bottle! You have used the powers of a magical potion. +10XP

*World event: You have transformed into the form of a lesser korapta lizard.

Guide – couldn't I transform into one of the bigger ones?

“Perhaps another time, and with a different potion, Ricky.”

Hmm. Brilliant.

Ricky put one leg after another. It felt... surprisingly normal to walk that way; almost automatic. He proceeded, gaining speed, and saw another notification as he closed in on the ruinous outskirts of the stricken city itself:

*Quest 024 complete: Travel to Doomstar. +30XP

The surroundings were as bad as they had looked from the outside – worse, even. The idea of a city abandoned a few years before had led Ricky to suppose that Doomstar would be at least partly intact, even if the houses were empty.

Instead, the ground was covered with debris – smashed stone and rotten wood – and were almost no recognizable buildings at all, just the occasional remnant of a stone wall. The only exceptions stood in the distance; two towers, both nearly intact. One was wide and square with its corners missing, and the other tall, round, and almost undamaged, at least as it appeared from this distance. Perhaps it was too high for the lizards to reach, Ricky thought to himself.

Still moving on all fours again, Ricky continued into the desolate surroundings. Ahead, three korapta lizards were dragging something humanoid towards the center of what might once have been a street but was now just a pile of bricks and cobbles growing high with weeds. As Ricky proceeded, one stopped, looking up at him, and sniffed the air. The others followed suit.

*Quest 025 (level 2): Evade all korapta lizards on your way to Wabakantis Tower.

Ricky kept walking, trying to keep a couple of yards away without appearing to be doing so. He looked around; the beasts were watchful, but so far they were not attacking.

Beasts, he reflected wryly – what, then, was he, if not also a beast?

*Achievement: Subterfuge! A disguise or lie is helping you make progress on a quest. +10XP

So it was working. The koraptas didn't realize that he was different. Perhaps he didn’t seem exactly normal, he supposed, but they hadn’t fully suspected that he was anything other than a lizard. One of them.

He walked on, shuffling slightly; the lizard anatomy took some getting used to, as did the balanced swaying of the tail that was required in order to move smoothly.

As he glanced back for one final check at the three koraptas, the smell of their prey hit his nostrils. The painful hunger that he had felt before wasn't there now, but in its place was an addiction-like craving to run backwards and join his fellows in a feeding frenzy, and a preference for meat that was long dead. Alongside this, he felt an urge to stand at their side – to be an integral part of lizardkind.

He paused, fighting the powerful desire, clenching his great jaws, closing his eyes...

*Achievement: Willpower flex! You have fought off a temptation to which many would have succumbed. +20XP

Ahead was a junction amid the rubble, and Ricky turned in the approximate direction of the pair of towers. As he did so he found himself on what might once have been a large, straight highway into town.

After walking on in a way that led to an almost meditative trance, Ricky was closing in on his destination. He had seen one further healing report as time passed:

*Healing report: You have gained 1 hit point (57 remain).

The squarer tower, at least, was not far now, though he could see that the taller round tower was rather more distant.

But as he approached the base of the square tower, he realised that it, at least, was going to be hard to enter. The doorway was fully blocked by enormous boulders, and while there were windows, each was very narrow – a mere arrow slit.

As he got closer still, it became evident that the area was the scene of some recent brutal carnage. Blood was spattered across the mound of bricks that passed for a road, and even splashed high up the wall of the tower itself. Whatever has died here had either been large, or numerous. And whatever had killed it had done so with ferocious violence and energy...

But just as he was picturing a yet-larger korapta lizard – something large enough to gobble up wolves like trail snacks – Ricky noticed something surprising, and not a little disturbing for one in his current state:

It was lizard blood on the street. Several dead lizards could be seen near the foot of the square tower, their bodies dismembered...

Feeling his heart thump (at least he still had a heart in this animal form) Ricky moved on, trying to make sense of what he had seen.

Up until now, he hadn’t seen the korapta lizards fighting each other. They had worked as a pack to attack him, or as lone predators in the forest.

That suggested that there was something else in the city of Doomstar which was feasting on the lizards. Or just destroying them for pleasure or out of necessity.

But why?

One reason that occurred to him as he moved on was that someone like him might be responsible. Another, much-more-powerful player in wolf form (or in the form of something else?).

Guide?

“Yes, Ricky.”

Are there many other forms of lycanthropes? Besides werewolves, and people who can turn into lizards? I think Xarok mentioned were-rats...

“The lycanthropy curse causes people to transform, and yes, a number of forms are possible.”

Can you give me any examples? And could any of them be, like, really big? Like a were-dragon?

“It is possible, Ricky.”

Hmm... and are there ways for players to grow larger and more ferocious? Potions, perhaps, like the one I took?

“That's also possible, Ricky.”

Great.

He rounded a mostly-destroyed building of which just the gable end and part of the cornerstones were still intact, and reached yet another rock-strewn thoroughfare. There, not far ahead now, was the round tower that he had seen in the distance. It looked even taller now, perhaps because among the rubble that remained around it, there was nothing larger than chest-height. In this context, the intact state of the tower felt all the more remarkable. And unlike the square tower, its doorway was clear.

He scuttled forward, looking to one side and another for more korapta lizards – or other threats. But while the entrance way to the city had been thick with the beasts, he hadn’t seen any more since the corpses that he had found dismembered by the square tower. Was that because the heart of the city made for poor hunting ground, or because it contained a hunter of its own?

And if so, he mused, continuing this line of thought, had Gabriella known about it? She had told him about the tower...

But there was also another threat that he needed to consider: there could only be a small number of hours until dawn in the refugee camp. The time that he had available to continue exploring the ruins of Doomstar were strictly limited. It was become clear to him that he may need to find a place within the tower to hunker down for the night.

Feeling wary, close to panic, Ricky stepped forward towards the tower entrance, and then paused. There was something unnatural about what was inside the doorway. Ricky could see the outsides of the doorway clearly enough, but even though it was open, it was impossible to see anything inside. And as he took a step closer, he saw why. Instead, the doorway was a flat shimmering surface, patterned and textured but colorless.

The doorway itself was no larger than many that he had seen within the Dark Framework, and he stepped forward again, holding his front limb up in front of him, and scanning to see if there was some kind of mechanism. It had quickly occurred to him that this might be a harmful forcefield, or perhaps even a badly-hidden trap. His vision was clear enough in his current form, but it was dark, and without his usual equipment – and at lizard height – it wasn’t particular easy to look around the doorway.

But he had no time to waste.

Ricky stepped forward, and as he did so he felt a shock run though his body, pushing him backwards and causing every limb to convulse for several seconds.

*Damage report: You have lost 11 hit points (46 remain).

*World event: You set off a species-specific electric bolt trap.

Uh, damn it! Ricky cried silently as he struggled to regain control of his twitching body. After several seconds, the pain and convulsions had reduced, and he scuttled around, aware of the risk of enemies that might seek to attack while he was distracted. But again, there was no sign of any other korapta lizards in the vicinity of the round tower.

Guide – does ‘species specific’ mean that I can’t enter in lizard form?

“It appears so, Ricky.”

Bastard.

It didn’t take long for Ricky to appreciate the dilemma that this presented. If he changed back to his normal human form, he would be able to enter – but would be unable to resume lizard form for almost another 24 hours, during which time he would have lost his disguise and be vulnerable to attack by the hundreds of real korapta lizards that haunted the ruins. And the potion’s effects would run out before that time.

There would be no way out, in short.

However, if he didn’t transform, he couldn’t get in – and that was the entire purpose of coming here.

The best case scenario would that he would somehow be able to wait inside the tower until the following day. He had no way of knowing what he was getting into or what further threats might lie inside, but he had to try.

Guide – transform me back to my human form.

The pain was more bearable this time, and soon Ricky found his arms lengthening until he found himself on his hands and knees in a creeping position. There was a strange feeling at his rear, too, as his tail shortened and disappeared, and very disturbing cracking sound around his head and jaws that resonated through his skull. That would be the lizard teeth somehow vanishing, he reflected.

Standing, Ricky again stepped towards the door with its forcefield trap.

That was when he heard a screeching noise behind him, and a thumping of multiple feet upon the rocky surface of the ruined city. It hadn’t taken the koraptas long to realize that there was now a human in their midst.

With no time for further exploration of the risks posed by the mysterious doorway, Ricky leaped through.

Accumulated XP: 1115 (unspent: 115)