Boiling Isles RPG

Amity’s POV
It took Amity longer than she would have admitted to place her headphones over her ears. The feel of them over her hair gave her this odd combination of comfort and unease. Comfort at their familiarity and unease at the memory of the horrible consequences that came from them. The pair of headphones that her parents had given her for Christmas hadn’t moved from where she’d dropped the box next to her bedroom door and had gathered quite a bit of dust since. She’d debated using them for getting together with Gus and Willow but as soon as she’d reached for it, she’d suddenly felt like she was cheating; which was ridiculous because she and Luz weren’t together and had never been together, and also they were headphones, but she still couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“Hi, Amity.” Willow’s voice startled her as it came over the headphones. It had been so long since she’d used them that she’d forgotten how clear they sounded, how good of a job Luz had done with them. Well worth the fifty dollars she’d scraped together for them.

She took a deep breath. “Hey, Willow.” She checked the icons in the chatroom. It looked so empty without Luz’s once ever present light sigil. She used to think of it as a watchful eye, always there if she needed to talk, but it had since winked out. “Do you know when Gus is getting-”

“I’m here, I’m here!” Gus’s voice called out immediately after an announcing blip from discord.

Amity felt herself chuckling. God she missed this. “Speak of the Devil, how’s it going, Gus?”

Without delay, Gus chirped back “School sucks, life sucks, let’s play video games. Please. I need this so bad!”

Amity’s smile widened. Gus being overdramatic, they really were getting back to normal.

“Agreed,” Willow sighed and Amity could hear the small smile in her voice. “Gus, you told me earlier that you had an idea for what we should play?”

“Oh yeah!” Amity could hear him tapping loudly on his keyboard. “So, Amity, you haven’t really played any video games other than The Boiling Isles right?”

“Not unless you count online solitaire.”

“We do not.” Willow piped in matter of factly.

Gus laughed then continued. “Yeah, so I know that we’re not going to play that game tonight but I figured it wouldn’t be much fun teaching Amity a whole new system over the course of several hours, so I thought that we could try this!” Amity’s computer bleeped as Gus sent a screenshot over the text chat. A beautifully illustrated mansion appeared in front of her with towering white marble, intricately detailed ledges, and what looked like a railway leading to a set of towering doors. It also perfectly matched the style of The Boiling Isles and Amity’s chest twinged at the sight of it.

“I thought you just said we weren’t doing that game tonight.” Amity could hear the disappointment in her own voice. She did love this game, but she was not going to play it without Luz, not progress or level up or anything.

“That’s just it, this isn’t The Boiling Isles. At least not yet anyway. There are some public forums where people can post levels that they create themselves out of the materials in the actual game but it’s not connected to the game.” Amity was confused but Gus was talking too fast to ask questions. “It’s kind of like Super Mario Maker level designing but you can paste in your character and run things without affecting anything in the actual game.”

“Oh, okay.” Amity’s mind called back to something Lazura, Luz, had shown her on some early morning what must have been months ago. She’d sent her a link to some obstacle course online where she could practice her spell casting without risking losing health or wasting resources. The arena was small and sparsely detailed, but it had gotten the job done and hadn’t affected anything in the actual game. However, the image that Gus had sent looked way more like an actual level in The Boiling Isles than any of the other practice levels that Luz had shown her that night. She recalled listening to Luz’s voice, describing how the website worked to an Amity who had very little idea what was actually going on but was holding on to every word. She felt a pang in her chest at the memory and quickly shook it from her mind.

“What do you mean it isn’t in the game yet?” Willow asked.

“That’s the fun part!” Amity could hear the grin on Gus’s face. “See, the person posted the level anonymously earlier today and it kind of went viral. Basically, it’s an artificer level that’s super well done with new features coded in and people are pretty sure that one of the game developers leaked it, maybe by accident, maybe on purpose, we don’t know, but I hear it’s awesome and I think we should try it!”

“And it won’t impact anything in the actual game?”

“Nope, it’s like a trial phase. We can’t gain XP or take any of the loot back with us, but we won’t lose any money or anything either.” Willow explained.

Amity still wasn’t completely sold on the idea of playing without Luz, but as Willow had said earlier, they all really did need this. It had been a long, hard school year and with Luz still not talking to any of them, it wasn’t looking like it was going to get easier any time soon. “Okay, let’s do this? What do we need to know?”

Gus squealed over his microphone prompting Amity to lift her headphones away from her ears like she does with her phone when her siblings call her over speakerphone without telling her. “Okay, okay, okay, here’s the link to the level,” Gus said once he’d calmed down a bit. A moment later her computer bleeped and Amity clicked on the blue hyperscript that had appeared. “Do you know how to paste your characters into the website?”

“Yeah, I do.” ‘Luz showed me’ was on the tip of her tongue but she bit it back as she logged onto The Boiling Isles for the first time in months, went to character settings and input the cheat code that Luz had walked her through so long ago. A few seconds later she pressed control+v into the website that Gus had sent them and the green haired wizard appeared in front of her, posing stoically on her computer screen.

“Okay, now copy and paste the code I’m sending you into the other box and then we can start playing!” Gus said cherily.

“Got it.” Willow confirmed while Amity did as instructed and a loading screen of a light sigil shimmering as it bobbed up and down on a sheet of paper that indicated it as an artificer glyph.

Amity stared at the sigil feeling her chest go tight. “It uh… it looks like the creator had an appreciation for the classic game.” There was silence over the chat and Amity could tell that they knew what she was thinking. Luz had used it as a reference for their party sigil after all. This was going to be difficult.

After a few seconds, the loading screen faded to black and a beautiful image of a small figure standing with her back to her camera standing on a balcony between two pillars with her hands behind her back. Even though Amity couldn’t see the woman’s face in the image, she could imagine a look of smug satisfaction that would perfectly match her body language as she stares out at the skyline. Then, another moment later a scrawl of text appeared in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

“The Clockwork Mansion,” Gus said, reading the text aloud. “Kikimora, Grand Artificer to the Emperor and creator of The Clockwork Soldier, is holding her latest creation, The Artificer’s Staff, hidden in the depths of her mansion. Get inside, retrieve the staff, and eliminate Kikimora before she builds an army of Clockwork Soldiers.”

Then, with the press of an enter key, the screen faded to an animation of the three of them in a carriage-esque machine riding on a set of rails through a marble entrance as a few sheets of paper fluttered in the wind as they screeched to a stop. Their characters filed out of the carriage and Amity, remembering something that Luz had once told her, decided to speak up. “Okay, so this is an artificer mission, those are usually more about thinking outside of the box than just brute strength-ing our way through the map so try to keep an eye out for-”

“Guys,” Gus had already started to explore the start of the map and his avatar was facing out in the direction that they’re carriage had come from. His voice had a hint of awe to it. “You might want to take a look at this.”

Frowning at the interruption, Amity followed Willow over to where Gus’s avatar was standing only to suck in a breath as she reached the edge of the marble staircase. “Okay, yeah this looks pretty cool,” Willow said and Amity had to agree. Their carriage had been riding along a metal track sparking with electricity and held aloft by ropes attached to white stone pillars. Beneath them was an ocean crashing against the stone base of their current location, so far below that there was no way someone with even the highest hit point total wouldn’t die from fall damage. The track stretched outward towards another spike of land just a bit lower than the one they were standing on with a dense, yet relatively abandoned city sitting atop it. Amity recognised the buildings and trees that were scattered around the city as being from another artificer level but there was a much more autumnal color pattern to everything. The leaves ranged between yellows, oranges, and reds and the buildings appeared to be reflecting the sun that was only just beginning to set.

“Wow,” Amity found herself saying. She could hear birds chirping in the distance and a small part of her that remembered looking at star patterns in a grassy field, took a moment to wonder how long she could sit there staring into the horizon before the audio looped. “If this is just the backdrop I can only imagine what the rest of the mission is going to look like.”

Willow turned to look behind them. “Well, why don’t we go and find out.”

Gus and Amity followed suit to see the white stone path they were on leading to a pair of stairs dotted with foliage leading to a set of intricately crafted doors with the emperor’s sigil carved into them. “You guys ready?” Willow’s voice came over Amity’s headphones and she couldn’t help but feel that the question was being directed at her.

Amity’s stomach was in a knot, but that wasn’t uncommon for starting a new mission. She just usually had Luz there to keep pushing them forward. But Luz wasn’t there right now. “Let’s do this.” Amity hit enter and the screen faded to black as they entered the Artificer’s Mansion.

Amity wasn't exactly sure how she was expecting the start of the mission to go, but this wasn’t exactly it. They were breaking into the home of the head artificer of the emperor’s coven, there should have been traps or guards or something, instead there was a table set in the middle of the room with fruit and the Boiling Isles version of a record player sitting silently.

Of course, the room did have decoration to it, a detailed wooden carving of an octopus took up a large section of the wall and a beautiful red carpet had been laid out to cover the floor leading to another set of doors that stood between two wooden lions with their mouths frozen in a silent, infinite roar.

As the three of them explored the room, Willow went to a table off to the side and plucked a healing potion that had been mixed in with bottles that weren't labeled alcohol but were set up near some whisky tumblers, and Gus went straight for the record player. “Wait,” Amity called out, knowing what Gus was about to do. “Don’t activate it yet, it might be a trap.” Before she even finished the sentence, she heard the telltale ticking of the machine processing the paper data inside.

“Woops, hehe.” Gus mumbled sheepishly, “sorry about that.”

Willow snorted over her mike. “Paladins, always first to the punch huh?”

“Hey it was just sitting here!”

“You guys! Shush!” Amity scolded as a high pitched voice started to play over the machine.

“Welcome to my home stranger, the door is always open to those with the will to pass the threshold.” The voice sounded like it belonged to an older woman trying to make her voice sound higher than normal. It didn’t sound like it was recorded on a professional microphone which was Amity’s only real reminder so far that this wasn’t an actual part of the real game, it also felt a little bit fake, like someone trying out voice acting for the first time. It kind of sounded familiar but Amity couldn’t place it. “If you are here by appointment, then proceed and bide your time, otherwise I’d be remiss if I didn’t inform you about the defensive mechanisms employed here which are quite formidable. Many have entered without invitation for reasons as myriad as the fish in the ocean, but of those who’ve dared to explore further, very few have found their way back out.”

The three of them stay put for another moment, waiting with weapons drawn for something to happen, for the double doors to open and guards to come pouring out, or something. But nothing of the sort occurred. “Huh,” Gus said, sheathing his sword. “That didn’t sound all that welcoming at all.”

“No kidding,” Amity chuckled. “Shall we continue?” They walked towards the doors that the carpet led to and opened the door to another room void of any people. This one had some display cases posted along the walls and some kind of art piece stationed in the middle, as well as a lever illuminated by a glowing light right above it. There was also no discernable way out of the room other than the way they’d come in.

“I think we’re supposed to pull the lever.” Gus said, slowly moving towards it but not rushing to activate it like he did the audio recording. “It’s labeled Configuration Lever, what do you think that means?”

Amity looked around the room. She’d done a few artificer levels with Luz before, enough to know that air vents and open windows were a pretty common means of sneakily gaining entry to a place they weren’t supposed to be, but the room didn’t have any of those. Looking up, she saw some glass panels but there was only darkness behind them so they clearly weren’t leading to the roof that would have golden sunlight cast down on it. She started up the cast for a Misty Step spell but there wasn’t any place up there for her to land it so she dropped it and turned back to the others. “Yeah, I don’t see anything else we can try.” Amity sighed, “This is probably, definitely a trap but it’s all we’ve got right now. Pull it.”

Gus did as instructed and the second he did, the sound of gears turning echoed throughout the room. The three of them watched in awe as the walls shifted down and away, panels flipped out from hidden compartments to show new displays, two grand staircases descended, and the floorboards that had held the strange art piece dropped away to be replaced with a towering mechanical figure. It was tall and thin, with four arms, each accentuated with a long blade on the end, and had a bird mask with a spotlight shining from inside staring straight at them.

As the mechanical being rose in front of them, Willow immediately ducked beneath one of the displays, hoping to stealth at least somewhat so that she wouldn’t be a direct target. Gus drew his sword and shield, ready to strike first and hard and Amity went behind him, positioning herself so that Gus would be its main focus but she’d still be able to fire spells without worrying about hitting her fellow party member.

While they were taking their positions, another voice recording came over some kind of speaker system. “Ah, someone’s activated one of the mechanisms in my house. Welcome, visitor. My home is always open.” The machine repositioned itself so that it appeared to be posing, or standing at attention, or both. “It’s one of my great curiosities, seeing how the common mind navigates these shifting rooms.”

“Hey, who’s she calling common?” Gus asked sarcastically as the voice continued.

“I’m Kikimora, but you must know that. Before you, stands an invention that will endure beyond my time. The Empiric Clockwork Soldier.” The spotlight in the clockwork soldier’s face seemed to glow brighter as it stared them down, unflinching, unmoving. “Marvel at the Clockwork Soldier’s hardened metallic skeleton and razor sharp blades. The miniaturized whale oil tanks are spread across the frame and hidden behind protective amber-wood panels.”

Amity inched out from behind Gus, keeping her eyes trained on the clockwork soldier as it stands stoically before them. It didn't move as she got closer to examine it. As the voice had claimed, wooden panels were placed in ways that allowed her to see the mechanical innards with canisters filled with glowing blue liquid perched within.

“Whale oil?” Willow asked as she slowly crawled back out from her hiding place.

“Yeah,” Amity said, remembering something that Luz had told her about the recent artificer additions. “Boiling Isles whales have special magical oil. It’s how they’re supplying power for the artificer class to use.

“Visual awareness in the front and back.”

Amity went around back to see a piece of glass like a camera lens positioned on the back of its head, probably a lot like the one that was beneath the bird mask.

“Auditory detection in case the head unit sustains catastrophic damage.”

“Hard to sneak around but can lose its sight,” Amity’s mind was running through schematics for how they were going to be able to take this thing down while the monologue was still going on. Luz was usually the one to do this, but they didn’t have her here right now.

“My greatest creation. I invite you to continue, stranger.” The clockwork soldier turned around and in one fell swoop leaped about twenty feet away, repositioning itself between the two staircases that had appeared from nothing. “Just come up the stairs. Meet with me face to face in the Upper Hall.”

“Oh this is so freaking cool!” Gus sounded giddy as he started running around the new room, his heavy armor clanking with each step.

Amity turned to the new display cases, seeing what appeared to be prototype parts for the clockwork soldiers positioned behind glass but nothing that they seemed to be able to take. Willow and Gus were similarly taking in the new art and the opportunity to examine the still idle clockwork soldier when “Hello, strangers?” The voice was impatient.

“Sounds like she really wants us to come talk to her,” Willow said.

Gus turned to face the staircases. “Then let’s go say hello.”

With Gus’s shield in the lead, they marched up the stairs to the delight of Kikimora as she continues to ramble on about the clockwork soldier as the party moved through the gallery at the top of the stairs to yet another set of double doors, though these were made of glass that had the label ‘blocked’ where the ‘open’ option usually sat. Once they were all in front of the doorway, there was a soft fade and a cutscene began to play.

On the other side of the door was a long hallway that had no floor, but as they watched, wooden panels lining the walls of the hallway began to slide down, one by one, to form a walkway as a small demonesque figure with red skin, yellow eyes, and blue hair on the other side began to walk toward them. “Now that I see you, I’ve worked out who you are. You have been trained by different individuals to specialize in different things. Welcome, members of the Wild Magic Resistance. I’d assume my involvement with the Emperor brought you to my door. Or maybe you’re after the washed-up Raven Lady, comfortably residing in the Assessment Chamber. Either way, come find me, and take whatever it is you seek. But if you fall, I’ll have your bodies carried to my lab for dissection and study. Until either comes to pass, your secret is safe with me.” Kikimora pulled a leaver next to her on the other side of the protective glass and began to retreat back to the other side of the hallway. “Until we meet again.”

The three of them backed away from the set of double doors as the cutscene ended and looked at each. Gus was the first to break the silence with a sharp laugh, “You guys, this is so freaking cool!”