The Empires Rise

"Emergency Quest:

You have found one of your party members who is in grave danger.

Task:

Clear out the encampment of goblins (0/1)

Heal your party member (0/1)

Reward:

1 X Wooden Blueprint Box

1 X Random Resource Box

Note: You cannot collect the rewards while not in your territory."

Quickly I spin around trying to find Uxa but I am unable to see him so I start calling out to him. I keep calling out for a couple of minutes when I finally hear a response from him further than I thought.

I also see that some of the tents are now moving.

"Why? Why did you have to go and scream for me? I was able to complete my quest easily with the goblins that are sleeping in their tents and I was hoping for some more easy experience." Uxa shouts back at me for being stupid.

Looking around I see that there are now 6 goblins coming from different directions, thankfully they are far away leaving me some time to shoot some arcane shots at them.

I start firing them off and only 2 of them hit targets after 5 shots. Both of the shots kill a goblin each. I see 4 shots also come in from the side from Ritotorous. He kills 3 of them leaving only one left.

Uxa is too far away to intercept the last goblin, so while it is running towards me I take my staff and adjust my stance to that of a baseball player. Gripping the lower section of the staff into my hands I step and swing at the oncoming goblin.

Cracking it over the head of the goblin it drops right in front of me like a pile of dirty laundry. I hear a 'ding' and the emergency quest task for clearing out the goblin encampment has been completed. I also get a prompt.

"Congratulations, you have killed 6 level 1 goblins. Reward: 6 Experience Points."

"Congratulations, you have cleared out a level 1 goblin encampment. Reward: 1 X Random Wooden Resource Box.(Max Size Medium)"

Pumping my fist I rush back to the cage and see it is only "locked" with some rope tied around the bars.

"Uxa." I shout. "I need your sword over here to cut open the cage to get Strauvana out!"

He rushes over to me and we get the ropes cut on the crude cage.

Opening the door I grab one of the healing potions that I got from my consumables box. Slowly I started to feed the potion to her.

After ingesting the entire potion she starts to wake up and looks around at her surroundings.

"How did I get here?" She asks with as much confusion as there is anger in her eyes at seeing she was being held in a cage.

"Honestly, we have no idea, we entered the fog like we did the last time but instead it seems to have spit us all out at different points. Thankfully, Uxa and I were near each other and have been able to help each other out." I answer her to see if I can at least get her to calm down a little bit.

"Where are my weapons? And what is the overall situation?" Asking more questions she starts to look around a bit more closely to see if she can find her items.

I also start to help her and look in the tent that is directly next to her and call out. "I found them, thankfully they are all still here and in good condition."

She rushes over and equips her items as fast as possible.

Seeing that there is no danger I look at the emergency quest and see that it is completed.

Taking one last look around I decide we should all gather up and discuss our next plan of attack as we don't know where the other two could be located.

"Where should we go from here? I could have Ritotorous scout out a little bit and see if we can find any traces of our companions. Also he did mention that there is a treasure chest not too far from where we are and that it seems easy enough to grab." I offer up to the group.

"I don't see an issue with having Ritotorous scout for a little bit as we head to the chest. I do have a personal quest that I need to find some herbs that would be useful for my profession." Strauvana says.

Uxa nods in agreement as well and we make that our plan for the time being. We head over to the chest and it doesn't take long before we find it, dig it up, and it disappears to where the other chests have gone but not before I look at it.

- Treasure of the Fog: Upon bringing it back to your settlement you will be able to further inspect what this treasure provides. -

Seeing that nothing has changed about the description of the item I shrug my shoulders and look up to see where Ritotorous is at before calling out to him.

"Hey Rito, how has the scouting been, have you found anything?"

"No, I haven't found anything that I would take note of, though I have spotted some herbs and what looks to be a tower in the distance. It is about a 30 minute walk from where you are heading to the south."

I look at the other two and tell them the information that I have received from Ritotorous. We agree and start to make our way over to the tower.

Strauvana does stoop down occasionally to grab some herbs that she needs for her quest.

After a bit of time we finally reach the tower and low and behold there at the base of the tower is Laxreal studying it and what seems to be him trying to figure out how to get inside.

"Hey Laxreal." I call out from a distance.

Spinning around I see the flash of recognition in the flames of his eyes. "Well hello everyone, and to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Well," Uxa answers. "We are looking for everyone as it seems that we have been separated upon entering the fog and there is a settlement quest to get everyone back together."

"Oh, well that does make sense. Did everyone receive a personal quest as well since I know mine is to get inside this tower and obtain the treasures within, though I am having the more troublesome time getting past the magical locks." Laxreal replies.

"Have you noticed any monsters or things in the area that are hostile?" I ask him.

"No, just this tower over here and nothing else."

"Ok, so do you want us to leave you alone or should we all head out to see if we can find Zul'Zara?"

"I would like to stay here, I get the feeling that I am about to stumble upon the solution, it is just a matter of time."

"Uxa and I should be more than enough company for the time being to find Zul'Zara if what he has told me is correct on how the monsters aren't that tough." Strauvana replies to my question.

"Fair enough, just make sure nothing comes and attacks you Laxreal." I mention before I reach out to Ritotorous again and see if he has found anything else.

"Not yet." He responds, "Oh, I just spotted another shiny thing though, you should head towards the west and see what it is. It is only 10 minutes away from where you are currently located."

I let everyone know the new direction and what the goal is and the three of us head out. I get a 'ding' and I look to see that the quest for getting everyone has gone from 3 to 2. Taking note that we all have to be together in order for the quest to count it as complete I proceed on.

Again we get the chest and dig it up. There aren't any monsters nearby so it is safe to grab. I am just happy that I have Ritotorous and his eyes to find these things.

We wander for another little while as Strauvana collects more herbs and we look for more chests or monsters to appear. It isn't until about 2 hours later that Ritotorous reaches out to me again.

"I think I have found where the last member of our party is located but I am not too sure. Head to the north for another 45 minutes and you should see some woods."

Woods means that there is the option for us to get a logging cabin up and we could finally not have to worry about getting wood, but that is only once the settlement has expanded that far as we haven't run into any control point nodes the entire time we have been out here.

We head off in hopes of finding the last party member before we have to head back and grab Laxreal since it is starting to get late in the day, or at least I think it is getting late in the day.

Upon arriving at the woods we notice that there isn't anything of note on the outside. We start searching around for about 15 minutes before Strauvana points to what is an old worn path heading into the forest.

Uxa taking the lead and Strauvana going just off the path into the woods we proceed inside. Once inside I notice different carvings of animals as we progress further. I get a feeling that there is something sacred about these woods and we shouldn't stay here for long.

After about 30 minutes of walking through the woods we come across a clearing and in the center of the clearing is Zul'Zara. She is sitting cross legged in front of one of the wooden statues, this particular one is of a boar.

Waiting for a moment to not break her out of whatever meditative state she is in I slowly approach as there is a strange feeling in my chest that I follow. Sitting behind her while she doesn't notice my presence I reach out with my hands and rest them on her back.

Following the feeling of my mana I slowly start to circulate it through my system and try to force it out of my hands and into her. The feeling gets stuck though part of the way down both of my arms when I start to push the circulation harder.

I feel a horrible burning pain slowly start to course down my arms like someone is taking a knife and slowly adding veins alongside my bloodstream. I start to scream out when Strauvana runs behind me and clamps my mouth shut.

She can see how much pain I am in but forces me to swallow it with the glare she is giving me. I want to stop as well but I receive a prompt.

"Mana Veins 30% complete."

Seeing that the amount of my Mana Veins have increased I continue to push. The pain is slowly crawling down both of my arms and I start to sweat. I also notice that my health is starting to go down quickly. I don't have much health and I give a pleading look to Strauvana hoping she can see that I am in need of help soon.

Seeing my glance she looks at her party interface and sees my health dropping she finds my potions on my belt and reads through the description to know how much they will heal.

Seeing her look at me and then shake her head she sets it down next to her within easy reach. When I think of the pain that I am experiencing in my arms I want to grab the potion and down it quickly.

I continue with the circulation though since Strauvana might know what is going on. Time seems to crawl by and within the next 10 minutes my health has finally dropped to 1 point and I have received one more prompt about my Mana Veins increasing by another 5%.

It is excruciating but I feel glass touch my lips and I quickly open my mouth to ingest the potion hoping that it will stop the pain even for a moment.

Once my head has cleared a little bit I do find that there is one small vein that has finally reached the palm of my hand. The pressure that has been building inside of my body starts to leave me as a trickle of mana enters Zul'Zara.