Today's Earth date: October 19, 1991

Horcus made the decision for us.

The moose rider returned after several hours, shouting that they had found an enemy wizard. As soon as she said "wizard," we knew who they meant. Rathain started shooting arrows at the cultists, and that was that. Talking was over.

-The Journal of Laszlo the Paladin

***

Both Wayne and Fergus nearly spilled their tea.

"The Chosen Heroes 'attacked?'" Wayne asked. He heard it clearly, but his disbelief convinced his mind his ears must be mistaken.

The druid confirmed he heard right.

"It's an old story that has repeated thousands of times across history. The actors and scenes may change, but the tale does not. A daughter of a noble family in Cuan fell in love with a druid. His name was Julian. Her name was Rebecca. She eloped with him in secret, but the city insisted she had been kidnapped and sent men to retrieve her."

Those attempts grew more and more aggressive as each failed. The druids had no choice but to escalate in kind or be wiped out.

"Can we pause for a moment?" Wayne asked, as respectfully as he could. "Our records attribute that conflict to cultists and necromancy."

"Boundaries between schools of magic are artificial. Druidry and necromancy are closely related. Both mold and shape life, and what is life without death? Druids prefer life. Few of our kind meddle with death."

The druids stood united for much of the conflict, but as Cuan forces grew, the central druid of the story, Julian, became more desperate to fight them back. Seeing no other way to meet Cuan military in battle, he turned to necromancy. That choice divided the druids, many of them–including the druid before them sipping tea–wanted no part in death magic. They hid in the mountains to wait for the conflict to resolve. Their assumption was that it would be bloody.

No druid expected the Chosen Heroes to get involved. That triggered an escalation, filling the valley with undead and forcing the unwilling druids to choose a side.

Wayne knew this part of the story. The Chosen Heroes were on a rescue mission, or so they believed. They didn't know the daughter left voluntarily and that she didn't want to come back. No one did, really. Every account described her eloping as a kidnapping. This was the first time Wayne heard differently.

"Death, hate, and betrayal are powerful forces," the druid said. "The Heroes triumphed against the druid, but they were unaware how far into the darkness he had drifted. The druids who survived, and there weren't many, sealed him in that 'fancy stone house.'"

"Did you build it also?" Wayne asked.

The druid shook his head. "That structure predates the forest and is bound by an ancient magic seal. I know of none who have gone inside. Even with the magic of eight druids, we could only barely open it. Just long enough to push our brother in."

"Therefore, exploring it means releasing the trapped druid first."

"Indeed. I would not be keen on reopening it."

Wayne said his party had no desire to release a terrible evil on the world, but they also knew at least one well-connected and well-funded individual actively searching for that site. It stood to reason that others may have the same interest. Given enough time, someone would find it and open it. That someone was unlikely to know the story the party just heard, making them wholly unprepared for what came after the seal was broken.

"You propose defeating it?"

"I propose looking into it. We'd still like to visit the site and see what we can learn."

"You are as naive as the Chosen Heroes," the druid said.

On that point, Wayne disagreed. Between the druid's story and the account left by the Chosen Heroes, they had a good idea of what to expect. Whether they could defeat it or not, they couldn't say. Fergus believed with the right research, the party could get a sense for their odds. If those odds didn't look good, they wouldn't proceed with opening the seal.

"Here's how I see it," Wayne began, "the site being discovered and opened is inevitable. Might be two hundred years from now, but it will happen. Right now, you are talking to people who believe your story and respect the potential for danger. Based on the history, that doesn't happen often for you."

"Believing a story does not prepare you to end it."

"Very true. We'll have the research though, which will make it easier to protect the site in the long term."

Though he was resistant, the druid looked intrigued. He held out his hand. A bird flew down and dropped a black egg in the druid's palm. It gleamed like it was covered in onyx instead of shell, and it was slightly smaller than a chicken egg.

The druid held the egg between two fingers to give the whole party a clear view. "This egg will lead you to the site, but it will bar your mind from remembering the way. The harder you try, the more painful the experience will become."

He explained that he would meet them there when they were ready. No need to send a message or set a date. He would know when the party was on their way.

If their plan was convincing, he would support their efforts to break the seal. If he was unconvinced, the party had to leave immediately and never return. Failing to honor those terms would make them enemies of the Underway Forest.

"All of this sounds reasonable," Fergus said. "I'm worried, however, that we are overlooking a key part of solving a problem: understanding the problem. Dispelling a barrier we have no knowledge of won't be possible."

The druid thought. He stepped into his home and emerged with a small chest the size of a shoebox. Opening the lid to show the party the contents, he said, "Opening the barrier caused a fair amount of damage to the structure. This is one of its bricks, and a portion of the barrier is still attached to it."

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"How did you get it out from inside?" Fergus asked.

"This piece was blown into the forest by the destruction, several dozen yards from the structure itself."

Wayne and Fergus accepted the chest and agreed. They had a deal. They were unsure of how they would explain to Lord Blackwell that they had visited his point of interest but had no memory of how to find it again, but they had time to solve that problem too.

***

On the way back to Cuan, in between random encounters, Wayne talked to the party about the job. Unsealing a legendary evil was not part of their expected duties. If any one of them wasn't comfortable with taking part in this particular adventure, they could sit it out. No penalty. No judgment. When Wayne and Fergus were done, they could rejoin the party as if they never left.

"Were you serious about bowing out if we find out the druid inside is too strong?" Margo asked.

"Completely," Wayne answered. "If we can't learn enough about what to expect, we won't open it in that case either."

"I trust your brains and all," Hector said, "but how will you know if we can win?"

Wayne asked if Fergus would like to explain. He said he'd love to.

Fergus cleared his throat. "Everything we've heard so far suggests this druid descended into lichdom. Liches gain power with age. The older the lich, the more danger. All of the literature agrees on that, and several cycles of Chosen Heroes fought liches. We know what levels they were when those battles happened, so we should have a rough idea of where we stand based on how they faired."

"Hopefully," Wayne added.

"Yes. Hopefully," Fergus agreed.

Hector laughed.

"We have a lot of research to do, so this isn't happening right away. I owe someone a map of the Water Temple yet."

"Is that a job for us too?" Hector asked.

Wayne said it was. He would be the only one who could enter if any of them could enter at all. The encounters to and from the Water Temple should be exciting enough, Wayne hoped.

"I have a lead on a campmaster," Fergus said. "So while Wayne is in the Temple, we'll enjoy the view in comfort with full stomachs."

"Cleaning out those ratmen was scarier than anything I saw in the service," Armond said. "But in the army, you have a shitty week on mission, and then they dump you in a barracks with slop for food to give you a brief, shitty rest. We have a hard couple days in this job, and we come home to a mansion and two week's vacation."

"I like it," Margo added.

Hector nodded as well. He had the unfocused gaze of someone reading their system. "And we're only level 5."

The party was progressing nicely, Wayne thought. Two issues worried him, however: He was on his way to level 9 and had a Christmas List slot to fill. Second, the Zeroes could only learn from Ultima III and Phantasy Star II right now. He didn't know how much they could learn from each game, but he would feel better if they had more than two options.

How did the system decide what games Four Score could support? Neither of those titles were four-player games, so that wasn't the criteria. They were both RPGs, but that genre was pretty expansive. That commonality didn't seem specific enough to matter.

Fergus elbowed Wayne. The Breaker Mountains were on the party's right, the sunset turning the snow orange and the rockfaces purple. Looking at it felt like being inside an illustration on a fantasy book cover.

He appreciated that Fergus thought to do that for him. If he didn't, Wayne would have missed the moment completely. And man, that moment was beautiful.

***

Fergus returned from his morning errand: sending a brief letter to Lord Blackwell, letting him know they were making progress but also warning him that the site might be too dangerous to explore. The update contained no specifics, however, not even their interest in druids.

A letter wasn't very secure, and they weren't certain Lord Blackwell would agree that the risks were too great. If a ratman nest wreaked that much havoc on a dig team, how much worse would a lich be? Besides, Lord Amethyst insisted he knew the best mail service in the kingdom.

"Will I ever meet Lord Amethyst?" Wayne asked.

"Are you jealous he sought me out and not you?"

Wayne was fine never talking to him, actually, but staying in someone's house and having the support of their staff was strange without ever meeting the host. Wayne felt like a high-class squatter.

"I stopped at the Library as well," Fergus said. "There's an elf named Perris who is supposed to be an expert in enchantments. If he's as good as they say, we're in luck."

"I know Perris. He's the one I was telling you about, runs a gallery."

"The one who was friends with Laszlo?"

"Yep."

"How will he feel about us asking for a favor before you've delivered on your agreement?"

That would be a delicate challenge, Wayne admitted. He had no intention of reneging on his deal, but he would be skeptical too if the roles were reversed.

Fergus sat at the kitchen table with Wayne but repositioned his seat to face the ocean. He opened the chest sitting near Wayne and looked at the brick.

"No matter how many times I look at it, all I see is a brick," Fergus said. "I pride myself on being able to appreciate odd treasures, but this one has me stumped."

"Touch it," Wayne dared his friend.

"Have you?"

"No way."

"Then stop teasing me," Fergus said.

"You couldn't wait to fondle the crystals in the gargoyle room."

Fergus sighed. "In the excitement of the moment, I erred."

"But don't you always complain about young scholars ignoring fundamental rules and best practices? How did you put it… 'It's like these kids are intentionally dumb asses.'"

"How much longer will you hold this against me?"

Wayne smiled. "I think it's got quite a bit of mileage on it yet."

***

Wayne stood in the rain, waiting for someone to open the door to Seaview Art and Antiquities.

When the door finally opened, he moved to step inside, but the same assistant from his previous visits blocked his path.

"We are closed, sir," he said.

"I just need to check in with Perris real quick."

"You need an appointment."

"Really?"

The man nodded. "If we let every strange man on the street into the gallery, we'd ruin our reputation."

"Strange? You don't remember me?"

"Should I?"

"I was here the other day, and made a deal with Perris."

The man stared at him blankly.

Wayne felt rain water running down his back. "If I can't see him, then please give him this." Wayne held out the small chest with the enchanted brick inside. "The item inside has a magic barrier on it, and I've heard Perris is an expert. Please tell him that, and let him know Wayne stopped by?"

After a long delay, made more uncomfortable by the increasing weight of cold water soaking into Wayne's clothes, the man took the chest and shut the door.

When he finally returned to the Amethyst estate, Wayne couldn't wait to change and spend the rest of the day beneath a blanket. Fergus stopped him when he was halfway up the stairs.

"So you know the girl that ran off with a druid and set off that whole big conflict?"

"Yes," Wayne answered, looking down over the railing at Fergus.

"She's still alive, and she's in Cuan."

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