Everfree Graves
Alex/E1ectric_B1itz’s POV
A Half Hour After the Cragadile
While we calmed our nerves on the side of the road Gwen started to go over everything she knew about the cemetery we were headed towards. To start, it was one of a good dozen areas that operated differently than the rest of the games and it was called Everfree Graves.
Everfree Graves, and all of these other areas, reset themselves at midnight. This meant that every trap, unique monster, and most importantly chance for treasure, would never run out. However the bigger rewards like rare armor and weapons would only work as one per customer. Once you got the useful stuff the area wouldn’t let you farm it multiple times.
Before the group headed out again, I exchanged messages with Rachelle. She was on edge thanks to the crocodile but was still hanging in there. Apparently, she was attacked so fast that she barely registered what happened until it was already over. If anything, she was more concerned about Joey.
Which, on that note, Jo...Yeah, Joey was, oddly, fine.
He wasn’t smiling and skipping along like everything was the best day ever. Joey was still in the right mind as he stayed subdued and took everything seriously. But since declaring himself Light Chill, any sense of nervousness was largely reduced. As if he was actively fooling himself.
As we walked, the scenery began to shift around us dramatically. The wide dirt road shriveled up into this thin path of dead grass and rocks that meandered rather than cut through the forest. Then, the walls of healthy trees and bushes gradually replaced themselves with ditches and dry brambles. And to finish off the look, the further we walked the more this new fog seemed to thicken.
It wasn’t much longer until we found our first cluster of tombstones. They were fenced off by this short rusted fence and the grave closest to us was dug up. Because of course it was.
“Don’t jump the fence. Don’t look in the grave,” Gwen explained with the same enthusiasm you’d read a checklist with. “There’s two zombies in there. They’ll jump out if you do.”
That fact alone almost made me curious enough to do exactly that but I forced my eyes to stay forward. If Gwen said it was trapped then it was trapped.
The reason Gwen knew about this place was her info selling scam. From day one she drew up an entire walkthrough of this area and sold it to whoever was willing to listen. Then Gwen promised that if the players wrote down where all the traps and treasure were, she would pay them back.
Then the players did exactly that. They’d tell her what they found out, thinking it was an easy way to earn back their money. Little did the players know Gwen would take that info, update what she learned, then sell it all over again at a higher price each time.
Now that we were walking through the very place Gwen conned people into scouting for her, she had an explanation for everything. She riddled off every trap, searched every hiding place and walked us around every would-be trap there was.
At one point she even took this convoluted scenic route just to avoid crossing this mundane five-foot bridge. The only explanation she gave was that “The bridge is evil.”
Any semblance of adventure or concern about Everfree Graves was, pun incoming, dead on arrival. Gwen had no fear. As though she was the one who set every trap in this place. The best way I could describe it was like watching someone speedrun real life.
As Gwen slowed to a stop at the top of the hill, she motioned for us to walk up next to her. When we did we saw exactly what we were dealing with.
The Graves had a large center area in the center of a valley with dozens of tombstones and mausoleums blanketed by fog. There were trees and other flora that was probably once meant to make the place more inviting but had now backfired as most of the plant life was composed of dead husks.
Stemming out from this central hub was eight winding paths. One of the paths was the one we were currently standing on while the others trailed deep into the fog. But Gwen already told us what was ahead of those seven remaining paths.
Finally, covering every inch of the Graves was a sea of rotten green pony corpses shambling around mindlessly. Loitering at the bottom of our hill had to be upwards of fifty zombies with dozens more scattered everywhere else.
“That’s a lot of zombies,” Joey noted, his voice cracking for a moment.
“Yep.” Gwen nodded. “Just stick to what I told you and we’ll be fine. The tough part’s over with.”
I felt my body relax from those words. After getting to the center without so much as a single threat, I was inclined to believe her.
“Alex.” Gwen turned to me. “Equip that armor we got earlier. Flying’s useless here anyways.”
I nodded and opened my inventory, scrolling down my pathetically small pile of items until I found it: Crag Plate Armor. I tapped the name and a new box came up.
Crag Plate Armor
Body Armor (heavy)+70 Max HP
Slashing Resist 3
Piercing Resist 3-Equip
-Cancel
I tapped ‘Equip’ and a flash of blue light enveloped my body. Large chiseled plates of greenish rock secured themselves around me in an instant. Right away I felt exactly how heavy plate mail made out of stone was supposed to be. The only good news was that a shirt wrapped around underneath the plate, making it more comfortable than I expected.
I looked up in the corner of my eye towards all the health bars. Mine had gone from 108/108 to 178/178. I had the best HP in the group now.
“Cool,” Joey gushed. Then he looked at Gwen. “What’s that rock dagger like?”
Gwen reached into her cloak and pulled out this cultist-like dagger made of green stone and spun it in her hoof. “It’s twice as strong as my normal ones. Too heavy to throw though.”
I shrugged, the armor making it more difficult. “Doesn’t really matter. You never throw them anyways.”
“I haven’t had to yet,” Gwen retorted, tucking the dagger away. “Come on. We don’t have long until it’s 5:30.”
And away we went.
? ? ? POV
The four of us walked in our standard formation. I was in front, Siren and Kal were on our sides and King was in the back. Over the last few days, that was the set up we found worked the best given the type of weapons we used. Although today we weren’t trying to map out the forest or level up like normal. This time, King was telling us where to go.
Apparently, he overheard someone talking about this random area deep in the woods that had plenty of good loot that respawned day by day. So King hounded them, demanding they tell him about it. All with his typical short fuse.
I didn’t trust it. The news sounded too good to be true given that it’s only been a week in this hell. Not to mention, those players decided that they would only tell King about the place if he paid for it. To which King instantly spent half the group’s funds.
But still, now we had lost money on King’s gamble and we were all level 9 at this point so...what did we have to lose? The timberwolves weren’t a risk to us anymore so it’s not like we were in danger by seeing whether or not King was lied to or not.
My username is Sardinexx. I chose the Earth short-horse race and went for a warrior-build; my way of saying I’m using heavy armor and a heavier greataxe. I had only ever used an axe in real life to chop wood so getting used to this thing was a chore in and of itself. Still, I was getting better at it now and it’s what I used in other MMOs so...meh.
Siren, or Siren_t@le as her username went, was the only pegasus in our group. She was our ranged attacker with an upgraded crossbow in her arms as she kept airborne by a few feet off the ground. She always wore this scowl on her face but she wasn’t as rude as that made her seem. She was a no nonsense kind of girl. The kind of person that I tended to get along with. After meeting her, and realizing we had a mutual hatred for this game’s short-horse setting, we formed a team.
The next was Kal. He was a unicorn going for a mage-build with a spell tome that helped keep enemies back. Although he had the unfortunate luck of being stuck with a username he made as a joke only to be stuck with; Ballzdeep69. I was one of the few who didn’t laugh at his misery and because of it I actually got to know the guy. When I learned he was a functional human being I invited him onto the squad.
And finally there was King. This fool was another unicorn that had a spear and shield cobmo. His username was KingDingBing and not only did he have the shortest fuse on a guy I had ever met but he was incredibly childish. And it was starting to get on the rest of our nerves.
“You still haven’t told us everything about this place, King.” Siren spun around to stare King down. “What’s the catch about this place?”
“I keep telling you,” King shouted. His default sound setting. “There isn’t a catch! All that’s inside this graveyard are slow moving zombies and a bunch of stuff! Why don’t you believe me?!”
“Maybe because this is the third time you’ve nearly screwed us over,” Kal tossed out.
“Stop saying that! We haven’t even gotten there, why are you already saying I screwed us?!”
“Dial it down King,” I spoke, not looking behind me. “If you keep shouting you’ll just attract more timberwolves.”
“Bu. But th-they. Yeah. Well...!” His stuttering devolved into growling before he blew out a puff of hot air. “Tell that to them.”
“We already know you like screaming,” Siren deadpanned. “Almost everything about this game has a catch. This place has to have one too. Either you know it and you’re not telling us or you don’t know it and you won’t admit it.”
At that, King went unusually quiet.
That means she’s right, I figured. “Which is it?”
“...Fine,” he spat. “This place has seven tombs. Three of the tombs have the treasure and another three have traps.”
“And the seventh one?” Kal asked.
“Bigger trap,” King admitted. “And no one knows which tomb has which ‘cause the place resets every day. Which is why I know there’s gonna be treasure there.”
“How’s come you didn’t just say that earlier?” I could feel Siren glaring at King without even looking.
“Because why does it matter?! We’re all level nine and the two players I heard this from were level seven. We can already handle it!”
“Unless this graveyard scales with the player,” Kal argued.
“Not even the dungeon we did does that. So why are you fighting me on this?!”
Kal sighed. “We’re coming, aren’t we?”
“Here’s something I want to know.” I stopped and turned around, gaining everyone’s attention. “You said there’s only zombies. We didn’t even find zombies at the Ruined Castle. What do you know about them?”
“That they’re not important,” King wrote off.
“...Humor me.” My frown deepened.
King shrunk back. I was the only one he didn’t argue with because he knew I was the only one keeping him in this group. And it wasn’t because of his personality.
“They said the zombies are the slowest things in the game,” he relented. “You could kill them before they ever manage to swing at you. There’s just a lot of them and. And they aren’t worth anything.”
“Not even experience?” Kal slumped.
“No,” King said shortly. “But the place isn’t for grinding levels, it’s for looting.”
“That sounds like a waste of time.” Siren crossed her arms.
“It sounds like a gimmick,” I spoke before King started shouting again. “A gimmick we’ve bet 400 Bits on.”
“Well those guys said they made triple what I paid them,” King excused. “So we can make it back.”
“Somehow I doubt that,” I told him. Making that much money from an area near the starting town sounds completely unbalanced. And say what you want about this terrible game, the game designers were better than that. I should know, a few of them were my friends.
“So are we still going?” Kal looked to me for an final answer, as did Siren and King.
I took a second to breathe, thinking about this calmly. There’s gotta be more King’s not telling us. Then again, Siren called it. He probably doesn’t know and is too proud to admit it.
“We’re going,” I decided, watching as King visibly lit up as if I just proved he was in the right.
“But if this turns out to be a waste of time,” I started, staring at King specifically. “Then you’re out King. Got it?”
“That’s perfectly fine,” he said with strained enthusiasm. “I know it’ll work. I just wish you guys would take me seriously!”
From the corner of my eye I saw Siren staring a hole into my head. She had no patience on this clown from the start.
I turned and matched her gaze for a moment before turning back to the road. It was time to see how bad this gamble would turn out.
3rd Person POV
Gwen and the team walked down the first of the seven trails without issue. Every zombie that noticed them along the way had been following but they were still one hundred feet behind them. The party wouldn’t have to even acknowledge the threat for another few minutes. So instead, they looked around.
At the end of the trail was a large yard with a iron fence wrapped around to keep out trespassers. Little good that did though considering the gates were entirely gone with the hinges torn to shreds. That allowed the party to wander in and study the ten or so tombstones as well as a large, gnarled tree with rotten apples growing from it in the center of the yard.
Then, beyond that tree, was the only thing of importance. A tomb. It was twice the side of a shed and made entirely out of stone with a large slab acting as the door. There was something inscribed above this entrance although it had been eroded into illegible writing long ago. All that remained now were the vines and creepers attempting to consume the building.
Alex and Gwen got to work pulling the slab open, ripping away the plants in the process. Inside was a set of stairs that descended down into the darkness with no light to show what awaited the party.
“Alright. Here’s how this works.” Gwen started opening her inventory, summoning a torch in her grip. The end of it lit itself on fire, shining light across the group from within the fog. “Some of us need to stay outside in case the zombies get too close. As long as we’re here, they’ll keep coming. And the last thing we need is them crowding the entrance and blocking us off.”
“Um...I can stay out,” Light Chill offered, holding up a hoof. “I can keep shooting the zombies when they get close.”
“And if he paces himself, he’ll never run out of magic either,” Gwen added. “He’s actually the perfect choice. Is that okay with you, Alex?”
Alex took a second to think it over. The zombies were too slow to dodge Chill’s magic bolts and they went down in two or three hits. Rachelle would eventually run out of arrows and Alex and Gwen would have to get in melee. Light Chill was the smart option.
“Okay. But Jo...Light Chill,” Alex corrected. “If the zombies get too close, I want you to call for us. Promise?”
“I promise! I can do it.” Light Chill’s expression lit up for a moment before he ran over to the destroyed entrance, drawing his wand and keeping his eyes on the very slow moving horde.
Hesitantly, Alex turned back and followed Rachelle and Gwen into the tomb. With the torch light, plus Rachelle’s light spell from her horn, the tomb was well lit as they descended the stairs.
As they reached the bottom, Gwen lit the sconces set up on either side of the archway and they looked around the first room. This main chamber was a circular room about thirty feet in diameter. Rather than a stone floor like they expected, the floor was instead made up of aged and cracked floorboards.
The stone walls were painted to make it seem as though you were standing within a pleasant forest. However, the paint was chipped and worn, and the bright colors were dulled. The welcoming forest was now simply unsettling.
Finally, in the center of the room was a large stone column in the center beautifully carved to resemble a massive oak tree that stretched to the ceiling. But like the rest of the tomb, it too was ruined as a massive crater was smashed into the center of the stonework, ruining the illusion.
As the party spotted three doors in the room, one on the left, the right, and one directly across from the staircase, two skeleton unicorns walked out from behind the column, brandishing rusty swords in their magic.
Alex pulled out his warclub as Rachelle drew her sword. There wasn’t enough distance to bother with her bow. “So it’s a dud then.”
“Not exactly.” Gwen dismissed her torch and drew her new Crag Dagger. “Every tomb has enemies, trapped or not.”
“Joy,” Alex muttered.
Thankfully, skeletons were as useless as zombies and in a matter of seconds, this was the message the players got.
Enemies Defeated
2 Skeleton UnicornsTeam Rewards
1 Bits
20 XP
“One Bits,” Alex read aloud. “Wow. We’re rolling in it.”
“What’d you expect? They go down in one hit.” Gwen put away the dagger and walked over to get the torch.
“Well some good grammar would be a start,” he joked, ignoring the odd look Gwen shot him in return.
Rachelle let out a weak chuckle and sheathed her sword. She was the one who got the ‘Bits.’
Gwen pointed over towards the door on the right. “You two check that. I’ll clear the left. Whatever you do, don’t open the last room’s coffin.”
The three quickly got to work doing a sweep of the place. Gwen’s room had two more zombies and a skeleton but thanks to Dark Blend, she took out the skeleton and made quick work of the slow zombies. Unfortunately, her room had only a handful of Bits to show for it.
Alex and Rachelle’s room faired better. After the two destroyed a lone skeleton, they ransacked the room for a little over twenty Bits and some light armor which Alex made sure to store.
Within a minute, the three were already gathered up in the final room. It was rectangular in shape with a large sarcophagus on the opposite end of the room. Along the walls to the left and right the floorboards were replaced with top soil as well as a built in aqueduct system to filter freshwater into this underground room.
However, none of that seemed to matter now. The aqueduct was entirely dried up and any plants that grew from the soil were not only dead but also glowing with a sinister purple aura.
As the trio observed the plants, they suddenly heard a loud angry shout coming from within the sarcophagus.
“Welp,” Gwen deadpanned. “It’s a trap.”
“Is that right?” Alex matched her enthusiasm as Rachelle let out a tired groan.
Behind them, a heavy boom of stone falling on stone rang out as the staircase was now sealed off by a stone slab.
“Nous devons tuer le monstre pour partir, non?” Rachelle pulled out her sword as she watched the coffin’s stone lid begin to shift, the angry shouting become clearer.
“Uh, Alex?” Gwen looked over.
“She said, uh...We. Have to...something, the monster to leave, no?” Alex pieced together, pulling out his club and shield.
“Tuer. Tuer,” Rachelle repeated, making stabbing motions with her sword.
“I believe ‘two-eh’ means kill,” Gwen assumed, pulling out her dagger. “In which case, oui oui, madame. Two-eh away.”
Rachelle jokingly rolled her eyes before they all watched the lid finally get pulled far enough to flip off the coffin, revealing a large earth pony zombie lumbering out of its bed before it pulled out a rusted greataxe.
Above it was a health bar and name.
Berserk Zombie Pony
HP: 79/79
“That’s...Not too bad,” Blitz said, readying his tiny buckler in preparation for the massive axe to come.
“Forgot to mention,” Gray started, putting the Crag Dagger in her mouth. “Health don’ rege’erate in Graveshh.”
“Oh,” was all Blitz responded with.
The heavyset zombie bellowed out a loud scream, making Fleur rethink her sword plan as she backed out into the previous room to pull out her bow.
“Good luck,” Gray tossed him.
“What?” Blitz turned to Gray. “What do you mean good lu—”
“Dark Blend.” And like that, Gwen had vanished into the shadows, leaving Blitz alone in the room with the hulking undead.
“Uh..." Blitz slowly stepped backwards as the zombie’s crimson eyes settled on the pegasus with armor too heavy to fly in. “...Have a nice nap?”
The zombie’s roar mixed with the pegasus’s screams as it charged, axe raised to behead the lone player.
Stats
Page generated in 0.026 seconds
Total duration
1,103 users online
1,694,957 hits today, 1,872,792 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I think this was an interesting campaign mission the detail and mood was pretty on spot. Keep it up