thomasdarkrose
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Vol. 6 - Captivity - Epilogue
🕑 Added 2020-01-03 08:03:45 +0000 UTCSeveral days after Thomas arrived at the port of Snubanes...
Yorik, Clad, and Mr. Pancake along with all the other pirates who survived the invasion of their caves finally left the dungeon. The ones who had died in the fighting would still take a while to return to the caves since they had respawned back on the mainland and needed to get access to a ship. Yorik let out a long sigh, he'd chosen to retreat instead of confronting the invaders as he'd been unable to properly judge their strength. His people were not weak but they had been toyed with and destroyed pretty easily. Even the grenades made by Cain hadn't been able to scratch the invaders.
He looked at his crewmates and spoke, "I'm pretty sure they're gone by now. Still, be careful and search everywhere in groups. If they're still here retreat back to the dungeon immediately. There's no need to die pointlessly when we can just leave and farm more experience in safety."
All the gathered pirates nodded and began to split up into their groups. They had been playing together for a while now and they had their prearranged groups of people they preferred to play with. Yorik was the same and teamed up with Clad, Mr. Pancake, and two other pirates named Klemins and Rocar. Twenty pirates split into four groups and went to explore their home cautiously.
Yorik led his group directly towards his personal quarters. They saw nothing suspicious on the way and no signs of the intruders. The longer they went without seeing anything out of place, the more they lowered their guards. It seemed like the invaders had left quite a while ago and hadn't done much damage to their headquarters. However, when they arrived at the entrance to his room, the same one Thomas expected to be his, he let out a deep sigh. From the doorway, he could see that his collection of trophies had been raided rather heavily.
None of the displayed weapons were worth more than ten to fifteen thousand gold coins. Only a few were worth that much simply because of the gems on their handles of the gold used to decorate them. Nothing but pretty pieces of art instead of actual weapons. Still, Yorik had enjoyed looking at his collection and now it was destroyed. He would have been less upset if they had stolen all of the gold hidden away. Gold could be earned back, trophies were one of a kind.
Dejected, he stepped into his room. The moment his foot passed the threshold he managed to hear a soft 'click' before a deafening explosion went off. The force of the blast sent his body flying through the air while square pieces of shrapnel ripped through his armor and flesh. The four men behind him were spared the shrapnel but they were still close enough to the source of the explosion for it to send all four of them careening through the air.
Klemins flew through the air and slammed into the opposite wall with loud cracking sounds as the impact brutally broke several of his bones and completely shattered one arm. Rocar was fortunate enough to be thrown back down the cave and only landed on the ground and slid a few feet away. He still experienced a few broken ribs from the explosion but got off easier than Klemins. Mr. Pancake was less lucky, he'd been just behind Yorik and was caught in the main force of the blast. His body had been slammed into the corner of the wall shattering several vertebrae in his spine and completely crushing both of his legs. If they were in the real world the injuries would have easily killed him. Clad, the last one and the furthest back, was the weakest of the group Endurance wise. Even though he was ten meters away from the explosion, it sent his body flying through the cave, like a ragdoll. He instantly died when his body impacted the ground.
The powerful explosion shook a large portion of the cave system while the sound traveled far. The noise and destruction brought all the other groups running to the scene. What they saw terrified them. Smoke, the scent of blood, and groans of pain filled the air. Though players didn't experience the full effect of pain and damage to their bodies, they still felt some so they wouldn't lose all sensation or fear of damage. The severe amount of damage done to the four survivors still caused them a fair deal of pain.
Several of the pirates ran to the front and began treating the four survivors of the claymore. Though it was harder for people to learn how to heal without access to Holy magic it wasn't impossible. The Water, Light, and Wood elements all had minor healing spells that could help people recover. Water and Wood magic were the best, after Holy magic. Spell after spell fell on the four heavily injured men. Blue blobs of glowing water covered bleeding wounds to heal the damage. Vines grew from the ground to wrap around broken limbs to set them properly before glowing green and providing vital energy to speed the natural healing process. Bright white light covered and entire body and bathed it in the warmth of the sun to speed recovery.
The magic they used for healing their companions was the most commonly available healing magic within AoG at the moment. Aside from a few lucky players, like Thomas, no one had access to Holy magic. If they did then the wounds Yorik, Mr. Pancake, Klemins, and Rocar would have been healed significantly faster. The elements they were using were bandaids compared to Holy magic being the whole hospital. If Holy magic users were akin to priests in other games then the other elements would be similar to druids or shamans. Capable of some healing but still inferior.
It took the healers just over half an hour of continuous work to heal the majority of the damage done to the survivors of the explosion. Once Yorik was recovered enough to understand what had happened to him, he was furious, "That fucking son of a bitch set traps! Be fucking careful while looking around!"
Yorik was beyond furious. If Thomas was still within the caves Yorik would have hunted him down and flayed him alive, slowly. Not only had his treasured trophies been raided but the bastard had even left hidden traps! After hearing Yorik's orders, the pirates dispersed once again, only this time they were much more careful in their exploration of the caves. At every corner, they carefully looked for any signs of traps. Sadly, none of them were proficient with any trap finding skills. What kind of pirates had to worry about traps? Especially in their own base?
As they explored they failed to find any more of the traps placed by Thomas. Out of the six he'd placed half of them were hidden inside of, or under, things. Of the three remaining, two were hidden in relatively dark areas while the last had already exploded. Finding nothing out of place and no one hiding in the caves they reported their findings to Yorik. Things went back to normal until a few hours later.
Without warning, another massive explosion shook the caves. When people arrived on the scene they were shocked by what they found. Mr. Pancake lay dead on the ground, his body broken in vicious ways. Inside of the storage room that used to contain plenty of food there was now nothing but shredded and scorched scraps that couldn't even be fed to pigs. All the meats, vegetables, fruit, and water had been completed destroyed by the preceding explosion. All of their stored food and fresh water was destroyed. This was a very bad situation for them to be in. While most had food in their inventory, it would barely be enough for more than a day or two. Their personal supplies had all been drained while they hid in the dungeon.
Luckily, they still had a ship sitting outside of the hidden lagoon. The only problem was that all of their boats had been completely destroyed. They were in the process of building a pair to ferry people out to the ship. Once they were done with that it wouldn't be too much of an issue to get their hands on more food. It just meant they had to work faster. None of them were shipwrights but building a small boat wasn't all that difficult. It would have been faster if Clad was still alive to make them nails. The 'boats' they were currently making from the flotsam of their destroyed boats were more like rafts made from scraps.
Yorik was once again enraged by Thomas, "That bastard Cain better hope I never lay eyes on him again! I swear I will rip him limb from limb and send him to the graveyard every chance I get!"
Though the punishment for death was rather minor, it could still be considered as annoying to most people. The developers clearly didn't want assholes to be able to 'kill a player back to level one' as it were. A game was about everyone having fun, not stuck up assholes using large groups to bully people into quitting the game. The developers had even included dungeons inside of cities so that players could always gain experience. Even if they were trapped inside of the city by a large group of bullies.
Once Mr. Pancake's body faded away so he could revive at the graveyard on the mainland, other pirates cautiously entered the room to check the supplies. It was not good. At least ninety percent or more of their supplies were completely obliterated. Mr. Pancake might have been able to salvage some of it with his high cooking skill but since he was no longer there... Well, they were fucked and the food was ruined.
Once the incident calmed down, the pirates got back to work trying to make something that would float and get them to their ship. When the day was over and night was approaching yet another explosion shook the cave. Everyone that felt or heard the explosion groaned. Only one thought went through their minds as they made their way to the site of the detonation, "What now?"
When they arrived all they could do was sigh. Two broken dead bodies lay on the floor while smoke from flaming bedding filled the corridor. A mage used some water magic to douse the flames and everyone got a view of what remained of their bedding. Blankets, bed frames, sheets, pillows, everything for their bedrooms had been destroyed even worse than their food supplies. Unlike the food, the heatwave from the explosion had added more damage, on top of the shrapnel, by igniting the dry cloth. All that was left were rags filled with holes and ashes. After all these explosions the pirates were becoming numb to them.
What could they do? The traps were placed in 'weird' locations. Aside from the first mine that seemed meant for killing Yorik, the others had clearly been set to cause them nothing but trouble. So far the three traps had taken out four people and two rooms filled with supplies. At this point, Yorik was so far beyond angry that he was just exhausted. He simply sighed while shaking his head and made his way to his bedroom to get some sleep. At least his sheets and quilt were still perfectly fine.
Yorik stripped off his equipment and climbed into his bed wearing the equivalent of boxer shorts within AoG. As he got comfortable he tugged his quilt up to tuck himself in. As he tugged on the quilt he heard an ominous 'click', "Fuc..."
A fourth explosion shook the caves as the mine located beneath Yorik's bed detonated and sprayed a wall of shrapnel directly through his unprotected body. When the remaining pirates arrived at his quarters they were shocked. Yorik's large comfortable bed had been reduced to splinters. Meanwhile, all that was left of Yorik's body were scattered bloody fragments around the room.
They were supposed to be 'hardened' pirates, but at the sight of Yorik's remains, several of the pirates ran off to the side and gagged. The only pirates that Thomas knew by name had been killed one by one thanks to his well-placed claymore mines. The pirates would not soon forget the price for pissing off a Magitech Engineer.
Comments
Lorraine V
Serves pirates right. They held a player captive for a really long time. What do they expect? Seems like an appropriate response and they are kidding themselves of they think otherwise.
D. Quinn
I'm reeeeeeally curious as to what happens when they try to take the ship out for a spin.
