Chapter 8 - Inujack III

She took the hint and pulled out another ten-piece. He refilled her glass again. This time, she decided she would sip slowly. She would have to pace herself if she wanted her character to stay sober enough to escape this wretched place.

She swirled the glass and listened to the ice clink. "So, about the kobolds …"

"Yes," Inujack grunted. "There's about four or five dozen. Depends. Their numbers vary depending on what kind of adventurers make it through the place. Population tends to drop if we get enough warriors and mages. The other classes aren't quite as hard on them for some reason."

"Everyone needs a few good minions, I suppose," she said.

Inujack nodded. "They're mostly fodder. It's all a distraction. The dragon. The kobolds. The traps. The real purpose of this place is a bit more … shall we say … indiscrete?"

She looked at the imp sideways. "Do I want to know?"

"Probably not," Inujack said. "But are you going to ask anyway?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes."

"He likes to summon things and then have sex with them."

"What sort of things."

"The female kind."

"But … like … what?"

"Anything. He's something of a sex addict, I think."

"That … doesn't sound like the kind of content they design this game for," she said.

The imp gave her a curious look. "Oh, this has nothing to do with Sable Unlimited and everything to do with a player."

Her eyes went wide. "So, this place is run by a player?"

Inujack nodded knowingly, "How else did you think the place morphs and changes depending on your position? Do you think that's standard Concept code? I'm afraid not, honey. That has everything to do with the sad little man sitting at the top of this fortress."

"What do you mean, it has everything to do with him?"

"Well …" he looked around as though he were making sure no one else was there. "… As I said, I told you everything I'm allowed to tell you …"

"What aren't you allowed to tell me?"

"What I'm not allowed to tell you is that this guy is a developer for Concept and that this place is his secret. He pitched the idea to their head developer, but the idea got shot down because his manager said it was unfair."

"Who pitched it? This Severin?"

The imp nodded again. "He calls it a 'morphic dungeon.' His idea with it was that a player who had enough wealth in the game could design a dungeon that could alter its shape and properties on the fly. In essence, no hallway would stay the same so long as the master of the dungeon was still alive. He wanted this to be available to the regular player, for a price."

Calista thought about this. Dungeons were available to high-level players, but only with currency in-game. They had to acquire enough wealth and experience to fund, build, and upkeep their own lair.

"So, how do you defeat a morphic dungeon?" She asked.

Inujack raised his beer, "That's the thing. You don't. At least not in Severin's world. That's because he doesn't want it getting out that he put one in the game after his boss said he couldn't."

Calista gulped. This was worse than she thought. A lot worse.

The imp chuckled to himself. "By the way … I would stay away from any mimics if I were you."

"This place has mimics? I hate mimics," she replied.

"Yeah, it's kind of a dirty trick. You'll know what I mean when you run into one."

"I know what a mimic is," she said.

"I'm sure you do. But here the mimics are … shall we say, a little different." He finished his beer and then ran the glass under the faucet before he began cleaning it with his rag. "Say, what class were you again?"

She checked her glass. It was half empty. "Delver."

Inujack continued wiping his glass. "Ah, you should be alright then."

"I … I don't know what to do. Maybe I should just log out for a while and come back to this."

Inujack shook his head. "That would be one option, though not a particularly good one."

"And why's that?"

"Because even though Severin can change his morphic dungeon at any time, he usually doesn't if he thinks he can kill the intruder outright. Then, if he doesn't think he can kill the intruder, he starts altering things until the next patch comes around. and just so you know, tomorrow night is the regularly scheduled Wednesday patch, so … "

"So what? He'll change the dungeon when I'm logged out and I'll just figure it out when I log back in. I've been in lots worse places than this. This dungeon isn't even that big."

Inujack shook his head. "Ah honey, you don't get it, do you?"

She felt herself getting mad. "Get what?"

The imp replied, "He'll log in as an admin and shut off all the exits. Then, after you're good and scared and tired, he'll drop his dragon on you. I've seen him do it before."

The reality of her situation began to sink in. Calista was her main. Her first PC. She had been playing Sable Unlimited since its release date and while she had other alts, over half her time in game was on Calista. She was known across the game as one of the best Delvers in all of Wraath, perhaps even the best.

She had friends. An entire guild actually. If they conducted a raid, they could probably break her out. She could log out and log back in on one of her alternates and then start asking around for people to help her. Then again, how long would that take? Not to mention how many people? She still really didn't know the dimensions of this place, nor how many minions or monsters this Severin character had at his disposal.

Which was to say nothing about the current state of the game. Sable Unlimited was slated to leave its open beta. Concept had finally gotten around to declaring the game a finished product. Who knew what would happen if she left Calista down here in an unsanctioned dungeon run by an egomaniac. If she logged out now, she risked losing her character.