I looked at all the statues one last time. Every class was unique and useful, they all had pros and cons and I could see myself having a ton of fun with any of them, however, my love for archery and the fact that it is what I excel at left no space for second guesses. Also, fun was not my primary objective this time, and if I wanted to do what I was set out to do, I had to be giving my best game.
-Yes.
- Good choice, Adventurer. You still have 22 minutes and 56 seconds left.
- So what's the max level of the game? And can you tell me anything about the world itself?
- I'm incapable of answering questions regarding game mechanics, advanced world lore and outside information. However, I can show you an introduction video about your chosen kingdom. Would you like to proceed to watching the video?
- Proceed.
The video was about 10 minutes long and it gave me a brief overview of the Kingdom of Ravenloft. As one of the twelve kingdoms of Cindaar, Ravenloft was located on the northern side of the continent. All kingdoms were roughly the same size, with comparable military and political influence. However as of now, there was no way for the kingdoms to trade between each other, because a hundred years ago the joined mages from the kingdoms put up the Veil, a magical, unbreakable wall between kingdoms, in order to stop all the wars ravaging the land. The video had no more info about this, but I assumed it's something the players will find out more about ingame. My guess was that this Veil will stop players from visiting other kingdoms until the average player level gets to a certain height; this will probably open up loads of possibilities for future events. Besides, Kingdoms in the game were huge, so it would probably take months to see everything one had to offer, so it was probably not really a limiting factor in the beginning.
Ravenloft was ruled by King Seraf Ravensdale and House Ravensdale has been in power for almost three hundred years. The kingdom itself was divided into 6 different regions, with each having it's own regional capital:
[WILL UPLOAD PICTURES TO A PIC SHARING SITE IN A DAY OR TWO]
Each of the provinces were ruled by a Duke except the Ravencrown region, which was the seat of House Ravensdale and was under the direct control of the King. It was also the only region not bordering the Veil.
When the video ended, I still had about ten minutes left. It was a weird system, but the creators probably had their reasons to do it this way. I started browsing the game menu. I could access it just by thinking about it. Windows like inventory or the status window were not accessible yet. I quickly checked if there was a logout button, having seen multiple animes about people getting stuck in game worlds, but the button was in fact there.
I closed the menu and walked to the edge of the platform. We were hundreds if not thousands of meters in the air, moving slowly but steadily. Looking around I could see silhouettes of towns and cities, huge, dark forests and open fields, with rivers breaking their unity here and there. Mountains looked awe inspiring and gigantic, and the valleys were just as picturesque. Everything looked real, but even prettier. It was as if there was a very subtle beautifying filter on the real world. I felt like I was in a fantasy movie.
-Spawning starts in 60 seconds. - Ava said, breaking the tranquil moment. I walked back to the middle and patiently waited.
30 . . .
15 . . .
5 . . .
4 . . .
3 . . .
2 . . .
1 . . .
Suddenly everything went black and I felt like an invisible force pulled me towards the center of the planet. I involuntarily closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, the platform was nowhere to be seen.
I was standing in front of a pictorial medieval village, with houses made out of wooden beams and stone blocks, smoke coming out of the chimneys, NPCs living their daily lives and what was looking like them getting ready for a festival of sorts. At the edge of the village there was a small, lush forest with a creek flowing through it and splitting the village right at the middle, with stone bridges leading from one side to the other.
As I was looking around, more and more players have spawned in a golden light, and they were looking just as much in awe as me.
-Welcome to Carpa! You're one of the adventurers, aren't you? - a child no more than 13 approached me.
- Y-Yes, I'm an adventurer. - I quickly pulled myself together.
- Good, good! All adventurers were asked to gather in front of the village hall in 15 minutes. The Adventurer's Association wants to welcome you to Ravenloft. - the boy said, and with that out of the way, went to tell the same to the other players around me.
- Wait, where am I? - I shouted, hoping to figure out which region I spawned in. The boy turned back to me, and said: - This is Carpa village, in the Silverwing province!
So I spawned in Silverwing, one of the northern regions. From what I've seen on the map, Silverwing had access to the sea, which sounded pretty cool to be fair. I tried opening the Map menu, but as I suspected, I need to be in posession of a physical map in order to do so.
I set off towards the village hall while keeping my eyes open. I spotted the blacksmith, the tanner and the carpenter right away, and I also saw the marketplace, where most NPCs were running errands, putting stalls together and decorating everything. I saw a woman trying to set up a braided arc at the entrance.
-Excuse me, miss. Do you need any help? - I asked. She smiled at me.
- No need, Adventurer. I have done this many times.
- What are you villagers preparing for? I noticed the people around here are in a hurry.
- Oh, this? The Spring Festival starts today in all of the kingdom. Most villages and towns are getting ready for it, but villages like Carpa, that were chosen as the welcoming grounds for Adventurers are going the extra mile so you have a warm welcome. - she laughed. People in this village looked like they were very content with their lives, probably very much unlike real medieval villages in the past.
- Oh, I see. So this Spring Festival, does it happen every year?
- It does, and it's my favourite time of the year – the woman answered with sparkling eyes. - sometimes even the lords and ladies go on a tour and visit the villages that are under their jurisdiction as well, and it is rumored that our just liege, Count Vizgrad will come to Carpa in the coming days.
- And you said something about welcoming us adventurers?
- Yes, young sir. But I'm certain that the officials from the Adventurer's Association will tell you more about the subject. You should go to the village hall, an appointed official is already waiting for the crowd of Adventurers to gather so he can explain everything. And I'll better get back to putting this arc together – she sighed, but there was no sadness in her sigh.
I left her to do her bidding and set off towards the village hall once again. Once I arrived at the square, I saw that hundreds of players have already gathered and were chatting about the game. The villagers prepared benches that could accomodate some of us, but most were still standing.
I still had a few minutes before the event began, so I started checking the menus once again. I had no map, but there were other windows that were already accessible. I opened my inventory and equipped the Hunting Bow and the Bottomless Quiver that looked like my starting weapons.
[Hunting Bow]
Attack power: 5
Attack speed: +5%
Restriction: Ranger
[Bottomless Quiver]
Grants the user access to infinite arrows. Only one arrow type can be used at the same time.
Current arrow: Copper arrow (atk+1)
Restriction: Ranger
It seems like ammo won't be a problem in this game, I thought. I liked systems like these, that didn't punish ranged classes.
It looked like my base clothes didn't give any bonuses to my defense. I had a bottle of water and 3 pieces of bread in my inventory as well.
Next up I decided to check my status window.
Name:Orion
Class: Ranger
Level: 1
Guild: none
Kingdom: Ravenloft
Activetitle: none
Adventurerrank: Copper
BASIC ATTRIBUTES
Strength: 5
Agility: 5
Dexterity: 10
Vitality: 5
Intelligence: 5
Wisdom: 5
Presence: 1
Luck: 1
Influence: 0
TITLES
STATUS METER
Health: 100/100
Mana: 100/100
EXP: 0/1000
Attack power: 10 (16)
Defense value: 5
Movement speed: 10
Attack speed: 20 (21)
SECRET ATTRIBUTES
LIFE SKILLS
PASSIVE SKILLS
RESISTANCES
There were a couple interesting things that caught my attention, like the title system, or the fact that there were boxes for "secret attributes", "passive skills" and "life skills", all of which meant that there was quite a room for character customization. I was also wondering what stats like presence, luck and influence meant, but when I checked the information on them it only said that stat points cannot be distributed manually to these attributes. I quickly checked what the other stats did: each point in strength increased attack power by 2 and it also directly influenced your ability to carry heavy objects. Agility increased your movement speed by 2 and the more agility you had the better you were in sneaking. Dexterity increased your attack speed by 2 and it also helped you identify threats from further away. Each point in vitality gave you 0,5 defense value and +2 health points. Each point in intelligence raised your mana by 2 and also made you more attuned to magic. Wisdom didn't raise your stats per say, but the more wisdom you had the better you were at identifying unidentified objects. The Paladin, the Cleric, the Bard and the Druid also gained healing effectiveness from it.
From the looks of it, Dexterity and Strength were the most important attributes to a ranger like me, but more mana also meant more skills to be used so I couldn't ignore that either. It would probably be optimal to get more mana reserves from items though, that way I don't have to waste stat points on an attribute that didn't make me stronger.
-Attention, Adventurers! – A man in his fifties climbed up the podium and once the chit-chat died down, he continued.
- My name is Cyndral, and I'm working for the Adventurer's Association of Ravenloft. First of all, welcome to our world! I know it's most likely different than the other Plains you've arrived from, and we are incredibly grateful that you have come.
- Let me start with the story of how the world had prepared for your appearance. A hundred years ago, wars have ravaged these lands. Every kingdom on Cindaar wanted to profit off of their neighbor's losses, and soon the situation became uncontrollable. That's when the Archmage of Pendragon, along with the other Royal Archmages of the continent came to an agreement to betray their respective kings and put an end to the wars. With great magic, they had summoned a Prophecy; a world changing spell straight from the Other Powers. The Prophecy created the Veil that separated the kingdoms from each other. However, the Veil did not follow exact borders and thus the kingdoms had lost some of their territories to the magical barrier. These lost territories are now called No Man's Land, and no soul has entered these places ever since. Anyone who has been in these regions once the Veil emerged were stuck there. It is also believed that the magic is much wilder in the No Man's Land, and therefore humans, animals and other creatures that live there were affected one way or another. The royal mages inspect these places regularly and closely and it seems like these regions are either overrun by monstrous creatures or unlawful bandits and only a handful of commuities kept their law and culture from the old times.
Three years ago, however, the Prophecy has reappeared and announced to the world that today is going to be the day, when champions from other plains of existence -you, adventurers- would appear in this world and soon after this phenomenon, the Veil will come crumbling down.
After this announcement, the kingdoms, while communicating through magical channels, have decided to found the Adventurer's Association to help you young heroes get integrated into our world. In those three years we have built a system, through the unlimited funding of the kingdoms itself, that will help you get whatever aid you need for your upcoming battles.
And when I say battles, I'm not just talking about the No Man's Land. Every kingdom has internal problems with bandits, monsters and ferocious wildlife alike, and our soldiers while mighty and brave, can not keep down the constantly reappearing threats. On the other hand, you are immortal beings sent here for our help, and we are eternally grateful for that!
And that is not all. The Prophecy has foretold something else. It is unknown to someone low ranking like me, but one thing is certain: the world needs you all, Adventurers!
As for the Adventurer's Association: we have establishments in every town or city, where you can pick up tasks and quests. Completing them will reward you with both gold and valuable items. The higher rank you are in the Association, the harder quests you can take, and the better the rewards will be!
Right now you all are Copper rank adventurers, and the ranking is as follows:
Copper ➡️ Iron ➡️ ️ Silver ➡️ Gold ➡️ Platinum ➡️ Diamond ➡️ Mithril ➡️ Orichalcum ➡️ Adamantium
The Association also offers lodging to adventurers, although you can get accomodated at any of the kingdom's inns and lodges, or buy your own proprety if you wish to. You all are full fledged citizens of the Kingdom of Ravenloft.
- This is Carpa village, in the province of Silverwing; the north eastern province of the kingdom, and as you surely saw, the good people of the village are preparing for the Spring Festival that starts today. We would like to welcome you to join us in the celebration, partake in the events and we hope that you will feel welcome in these lands. You can find me all day here in front of the Town Hall if you have any questions, but I will also welcome other adventurers during the day so if you missed out on any information, don't worry! Have a wonderful day and for the last time, we are eternally grateful for your presence!
With that last sentence he bowed and got off the podium. Some players started to line up in front of him with their questions but the ones looking more seasoned went straight to the board the Association had set up. Luckily I was by far the closest to the billboard so I hurried there as well. Interacting with the post summoned a menu with all the available quests.
Bandits near Silver Cove
Required rank: Iron
Wolf infestation in Shademere Forest
Required rank: Iron
Mercenaries needed for Count Vizgrad's retinue
Required rank: Silver
Quest limit: 20
Pest control
Required rank: Copper
Herbs for the Spring Festival
Required rank: Copper
Time limit: 7 days
A timed quest, huh? From the sound of it it was some kind of a fetch and collect quest. I didn't know if the rewards for timed quests were better than regular ones, but there was no downsides in accepting it.
I also accepted the Pest control quest as it was an unlimited one, and since there were no other quest available for Copper rank adventurers, I moved on.
I opened the quest hub and read the descriptions of the 2 missions I took:
Pest control
Required rank: Copper
The Adventurer's Association would like to ask all available adventurers to help with controlling the numbers of wild dogs, wild boars, giant roaches and other small carnivores in the kingdom.
Kill dangerous wildlife (small): 0/100
Herbs for the Spring Festival
Required rank: Copper
Time limit: 6 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes
The Spring Festival had just started all across the kingdom. The residents are all eagerly getting ready with various delicious foods and drinks, but some of the ingredients are hard to come by for someone not well versed in the art of fighting and gathering. Adventurers are kindly asked to gather various herbs for the chefs working at the festive grounds in order to make their work easier.
Butterfly mushrooms 0/50
Blue wildflowers 0/50
Flamewing tulips 0/50
Walnuts 0/100
Both of these quests required me to go out into the wilds, and judging by the names of both the herbs and the animals, most of them should be plentyful and I should be able to find them close to each other.