A New Script Part 2

The three players who still have their wits look at each other with panic. Free Stuff is about to speak some more, but GG immediately pulls him aside. Gambit excuses himself, afraid of how Mira might react to whatever Narco is about to tell her.

The two look at each other awkwardly for a long moment. He finally speaks up, unsure of what he’s about to say. “Mira. May I call you Mira?”

“Yes?”

“Mira.” His hand gestures look like a bad game of charades, almost as if he’s hoping they’d signal some idea in his brain on what to say. “Have there ever been things in this world that don’t make sense? Things that seem impossible, but actually are?”

“Are you talking about magic?”

He grunts, frustrated by the Herculean task before him. “I’m going to try and explain this as gently as I can. My friends and I are from another world. This world-”

She interjects, sensing his unease. “I’m going to have to stop you right there. I feel like whatever you’re going to tell me, doesn’t matter in the long run. As long as you’re here right now, and you want to stop the Mad Gods, then I’m in.”

“You’re in?” He asks.

“I’m in. I’ll join your team, if you’ll have me.”

“I won’t lie, we probably will need a healer. Free Stuff does already like you. I don’t think Gambit or GG will disagree either. I think it’s safe to say you’re in.”

“I knew you were Narco, and the other two were Gambit and GG, but I never made the connection to Free Stuff. I guess that explains why all the villagers were talking about Free Stuff.”

“Oh sorry, yeah that’s his name. We kind of go by code names I guess.”

She suddenly becomes deep in thought. “Do I need a codename?”

He thinks deep on this too. “I think Mira is fine.”

“Well, what’s your real name?”

He waves his friends back over while Free Stuff is asleep on top of one of the other tables. “That’s a story for another day.”

Gambit and GG rejoin the two at the table. “Does she know?” GG asks.

“She opted out of knowing.” Narco says with a nod.

She looks at Mira, deeply wondering the depth of her sentience, the extent of her consciousness, and how much of her is organic and how much of her is synthetic. “I don’t blame her.” She finally concludes.

Narco gives a serious look to everyone at the table. “So even though he is out cold over there, I still think we should discuss what our next course of action is right now.”

Mira tries to gauge her new party’s reaction, so she answers slowly. “We should train, obviously.”

“Yes. Leveling up is a must… But this is GodHaven, and there are definitely ways to speed up the process.” Narco gives a wink and a nudge to his teammates.

Mira looks confused. “This isn’t God Haven. This is Corsilvis.”

GG rests her hand on Mira’s shoulder. “I apologize. This is one of those inside things only the original party will get. We basically refer to everywhere as God Haven.”

Mira’s hand rushes to her mouth, as she tears up a little at the comment. “That’s so beautiful. You’re absolutely right, everywhere should be like God Haven.”

“Alright, so does anyone remember the strategies for leveling really quickly?” Narco asks.

GG leans back in her chair. “I mean Gambit and I know some, but Free Stuff would probably know the most since he pl-” GG catches herself. “I mean since he experienced this most recently.”

Mira enthusiastically chimes in. “We can always tackle the nearby dryad dungeon.”

“The nearby dungeon is a great idea for loot, but we should save that for after we level up a little first.” Narco replies as gently as he can.

Gambit recalls the list. “Well the best methods were AFKing with a rubberband, but we clearly can’t do that.”

“Huh?” Mira lets out a little noise of befuddlement at the gibberish he just spoke.

Narco agrees and thinks about some of his past experiences with level grinding. “If we could find a way to get the staff of the Magus, we can easily grind up our magic levels. Though it is a high level dungeon and I don’t know if we respawn or not.”

Mira cocks her head, further losing herself in this conversation. “Eh?”

“We could create an XP farm. It’s a lot of work, but then we never have to do it again.” GG suggests.

Mira rests her head on her hands, staring absent mindedly at the wall. She accepts that they will probably just tell her the mission once they pick one.

After a lengthy deliberation using terms that sounded alien to Mira, the party finally agreed on what they’re doing tomorrow before the feast.

Narco looks at them for one final confirmation. “So we all agree, the dragon bridge exploit?”

The tired party each gives a thumbs up, before standing up from the table. “Aye aye captain.” Gambit salutes, a clear indication that he is overly tired.

Mira waves goodbye as she heads to her room at the inn. Narco pulls GG and Gambit aside before they can start to carry Free Stuff to his room. “We need to talk.”

GG stops and sits back down at the table. “What’s up?”

“Haven’t you noticed? There’s too many oddities in this world that we couldn’t have expected. This world functions just like the game, but the characters act more human. The plot also seems to have changed, with new characters appearing, and old ones never showing up. None of us found the Gnome chief today, I’ve never encountered Mira in any play through, and all these Mad Gods never existed before. I mean, Jupiter was using the Coils of Jupiter, I know that much about him. It was the only way I could make that judgment call with the amulet of Durlon. Then there’s the fact that apparently Flosolis was destroyed before we even started the game.” Narco waits for his friends to finish his thought.

“What are you trying to say?” Gambit leans against the wall, propping himself up and struggling to keep his eyes open.

“What I’m saying is: I think the plot has changed. We’re no longer going to be defending God Haven from an army of monsters after a demon sabotages the God’s protection. I don’t know what the new script is, where this quest might go, and what the end conditions might be if they still exist. I’m worried what these changes might mean for this world, and our place in it.” Narco can tell the wheels are turning in gambits head. “And yes Gambit, I checked online before running the game. From what I could tell, the remaster was a near one-to-one copy of the game.”

The three players sit in that information for a while. The path was starting to seem clearer before they arrived in this town, and now they’re just as lost after escaping the castle’s dungeons.

Heavy footsteps come down the stairs. “Hey I know y’all are the heroes and whatnot, but you gotta get to bed. And don’t forget to take the orc with you.” The innkeeper walks down in his pajamas holding a candle.

“I’m sorry. I guess we lost track of time. We’ll get to bed right away.” Narco apologizes.

Gambit pokes Free Stuff in the stomach to wake him up. “Come on Sleeping Beauty, time to go to bed.”

As everyone shuffles off to their rooms, Narco can’t help but lie awake, holding onto this foreboding sensation that these changes to the main story line are more dangerous than they appear.