The Burning Sun and Books (Open, Crafting, Research)

[sobi]

Day 1

Silent darkness. It was so very quiet. He couldn't hear anything. He couldn't see anything. Where was he? How long had he been here? Was he sleeping? He remembered logging into Elder Tale. Now he was in this serene nothingness. What was going to happen to him? Was he dead? All these things he pondered silently to himself when he heard the chirping of birds. That isn't supposed to happen when you are stuck in nothingness and certainly not when you are dead. Maybe he was in a coma somewhere. Maybe, just maybe, he was kidnapped. The kidnappers would do terrible, horrible things to him. He knew he should never have taken that chocolate bar from that supermarket when he was five. Karma was finally getting back at him after all these years of silent plotting. Whatever would he do! He then heard the sound of trees rustling. Wait a second...

He opened his eyes.

Above him was a bright midday sun, the branches of oak trees swaying in the gentle wind. He tilted his head and noticed he was lying down on the ground, flat on his back. "I'm alive." he thought to himself as he picked himself up off the ground with ease, to a now sitting position. "Huh.." he continued, this doesn't feel very game-like. He motioned towards the menu screen. It popped up just as it should. This was better than expected. Way better. It almost looked life-like. He looked over his body, then screamed! "My leg! My beautiful leg!", he yelped and attempted to hug his right leg, causing himself to tip over and fall back on his side. He hadn't seen it in so long. He smiled to himself. This was great. He tried getting up but when he put weight on his right leg it buckled under the weight causing him to tumble back to the ground. "Need to get used to it I guess, it has been five years." he sighed, before trying to get up again but more slowly. It was a weird sensation. It was like having pins and needles digging through his leg, but more numb, more distant as if it wasn't his leg. He looked around himself now, taking in his situation.

He was surrounded by an amassing of overgrown structures, but he distinctly recognised Westminster Abbey. His mother had brought him here many times for church. He usually fell asleep but he always found the grandness of it all captivating as a child. He looked around, noticing he was almost entirely alone. Hmmmph. Oh well. It didn't really bother him. He started to walk, limping whenever he put weight on his right leg.  He walked inside the abbey. One thing he wanted to do, now that he saw he how realistic the world was, was read. He loved literature. He wanted to see how detailed this place was! He hobbled into the Abbey to find himself some books, lore and more importantly stories!

Word Count: 496

[sobi]

He bundled himself into the Abbey. He was still confused but he knew the first thing he wanted to do was something to do with that crafting subclass he chose, scribe. He had never played a game with such a detailed crafting system and this was his first truly immersing experience. The abbey looked just like the one he had visited in real life, it had the same textures, the same air about it. It was beautiful. Captivating. The multitude of pews and the corridors leading off to quiet areas of the abbey. He knew from his experience in the real world that the abbey did contain quite a few texts within its walls. Some of them historical, some of them religious. All of them interesting. He dipped away from the altar and pews down the side passage, and into the library. There he found a multitude of books and scripts and texts. He didn't know where to start. Where to begin. His mind was ablaze with the fire of imagination and possibility. He took a breath. He needed to give this thought.

He was a Cleric and his subclass was Exorcist. He also was a Scribe. It would make sense to work towards making his different attributes sync together surely. He chose them because it sounded like they would mix well together, and also because he had a thing for the religious and defeating opponents with holy spells sounded awesome. He thought about it. Surely, as a game, there must be texts based around how clerics and other religious people might eliminate evil from this world. If not that, then maybe some texts he could copy out for future use at the very least. He knew he could also make a map but that could wait, he didn't mind getting lost for a while, he knew the rough area around Westminster.

He sat down at the table and took out the materials he needed for Scribing. He brought up the crafting menu in front of him. Old Parchment required three Old Paper to make it. He had that already. He took out the required crafting materials. He did wonder how this worked exactly, I mean, he wasn't exactly experienced in this. He was taking things slowly and half expected whatever he was doing to simply not work. He noticed that the crafting menu showed that he could now craft Old Parchment, a beginner level scribe crafting material. He smiled and pressed the button, hoping what he was doing was correct. The Old Paper glowed and transformed into Old Parchment before his eyes. He looked at it excitedly. Now he just need to make the Quill Pen. Thankfully he had the materials in his bag.

Total Word Count : 951

Converted 3 x Lvl1 Materials (Old paper) -> 1 x Lvl1 Old Parchment

[sobi]

Pulling out the rest of the materials, the Old Quill and the Old Ink, he laid them upon the table he was sat at. He looked at it, a bit more confident. This should work exactly the same as previously. He put the materials together and then pressed the appropriate button on the menu screen. The same glowing occurred and he had crafted himself, in no time at all, a Quill Pen. Admittedly, due to using low level materials, it was not a very good Quill Pen, but regardless, it was complete. Everybody started off somewhere. 

Now was the tricky part, actually scribing. He placed the Quill Pen and the Old Parchment into his bag and got up. He limped his way over slowly to the bookshelves, looking for a book that might be intact enough and also of the correct theme that he might garner something useful from it. He searched through a multitude of tomes, some leather bound and some simply a scroll parchment. He gazed at the multitude of titles that seemed either irrelevant or unhelpful. Row after row of books that were completely useless to him. It wasn't that he didn't find the titles interesting, he would most certainly in his spare time read all of these books, but for the moment he would simply be wasting time that could best be spent actually looking for content useful to him. It wasn't such an easy task when you are trying to find the needle in the haystack.

He did eventually manage to find some books, and laid them down heavily onto the table. He had around twenty in total, and he knew he was never going to have enough space on his parchment for all of this. He needed to pick and choose. He picked up the first of the twenty and begun the process of reading through them to find exactly what he would want to scribe down. 

Total Word Count: 1274



Converted 3 x Lvl1 Materials (Old Quill x 1 & Old Ink x 2) -> 1 x Quill Pen

[sobi]

He read the first book titled "The Accumulated Texts of the Age of Gods, Volume I" written by an NPC whom he wasn't really interested. Most of it seemed to be in a weird text, thankfully due to his subclass he could understand bits and pieces, individual letters. He could make out that one word contained two "g" letters and another was a three letter word with both a "t" and a "h" thus he could attempt to try out the possibilities. That was it he suddenly thought. He put the book down and looked at the other books. All of them seemed to be in this weird language. If he wanted to progress he would first need to decipher these texts. He smiled to himself, a puzzle was just what he wanted to start with. He went back to the first book again, this time, with his Quill and parchment out and in front of him. Slowly, but surely he would translate this. First he began, "A Beginner's Guide to Deciphering the Ancient Script" on the top of the parchment, in calligraphy. He had already deciphered a couple of letters. That was where he would begin it would seem. Their symbols. He could recognise the "e" and the "g", the "t" and the "h", but he was struggling with the rest. Some words seemed to have three "t" letters and he couldn't match a word to it. Others would be missing an "e" where there should be one...hmmmm. This would be more difficult then he first thought. So far, he had the first sentence roughly deciphered, to the point he could understand the context if not the literal translation.

"-- the -eg-----g the-e -e-e the ----" was all he had so far. Bits of the first line. Slowly over time, he would acquire knowledge and successfully study these texts, and he would be able to gain the knowledge of the ancients. He grinned to himself as he continued to write notes on his parchment, bit by bit. Progress was slow, but it was being made. Over the next few hours, he used up the parchment but had no new discoveries, but had found patterns of symbols, and other letters from which he might make guesses. He had already seen the "th" and he may have found the "-ing" suffix, but he wasn't too sure. He looked to the pile next to him. There were still the remaining five volumes of "The Accumulated Texts of the Age of Gods" and some other books. He yawned, progress was going to be tough, but he didn't mind. He looked at his notes. He was making progress. Resting his head against the table, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. He didn't even think about anything else, he was too tired. He just drifted off to sleep, hopefully tomorrow would bring about more discoveries. Hopefully. 

Total Word Count : 1757

[sobi]

Day 2

When he had awoken, drool dripping down from his head, he found himself being stared at by a man dressed in cloth sitting across from him at the table, in front of him a little bread and water. Sobi, through groggy eyes, noted this man as a priest of some sort. He took a second to realise but then saw he was a Person of the Land. The man saw Sobi get up and then smiled, "Good morning sir, here is some breakfast for you." he said softly. Sobi, sitting up straight and adjusting his hat looked at the man and then took a sip of the water. Refreshing. He looked at the bread and felt his stomach growling. "Thank you for the food." he said politely before taking a bite. It was like chewing on wet cardboard, it made him want to gag. He coughed as it touched against his taste buds. What was wrong with the food. Then a thought kicked his head, he fell asleep in the game. That certainly was not good. He brought up the menu and attempted to log out, only to find out that it did not work. He tried again. The same thing. Third time is a charm. Not this time. He stopped for a second and took a deep breath before thinking again. He was stuck in the game, not a problem. That just meant he could play for longer. He could spend more time with this new leg. He smiled. 

"What time is it?" he said looking at the priest again. He was hoping he had woken up earlier rather than later. Earlier meant he could get more work done. More work done meant he would level quicker. He wanted to get as strong as possible, as quickly as possible. "The sun rose not an hour ago." replied the priest, his voice still soft. "The day is still long to go, you will have plenty of time to read your books, adventurer."
    "Do you know much about this language, deciphering it is a struggle for me, even if progress is happening?" asked Sobi to the priest. He needed help with this. It wasn't too difficult, but if he could get help, he didn't see why not. Sobi didn't even question the odd nature of the priest. The fact he was interacting with him to such a degree. The fact that the priest had brought him food. Sat with him even. At this very moment, Sobi wanted information on these texts and this priest might be able to give him what he wanted and that was all he needed from him, Person of the Land or not. The priest stared at him, taking his time formulating a response before opening his mouth to reply. "Those texts are old, and in the language of the Ancients. I cannot read a word of it." 
    "Do you know of anybody that might be able to help me decipher it?" asked Sobi.
    "I do not, adventurer." stated the priest. 
    "Well that is a damn shame, sir. I will have to press onwards myself I guess." finished Sobi, "Thank you for the food and water." He turned and reopened the book he had been working through yesterday. First he would need more paper so he could make more parchment and that would require him to go to pick some up from the marketplace. He didn't want to have to leave. He was so interested in this. Hmph. He did need the parchment if he was to make any actual progress. 

He got up from the chair and moved to the door. "I will be back soon, please keep the books there if you could sir?" He asked before exiting the abbey. 

Total Word Count : 2382

[sobi]

Progress hadn't happened. He just didn't get it. No matter how many times he read the books there were inconsistencies. He wasn't even sure of what he had come up with already. The further he delved into these books, the more they made little sense. Over time, symbols seemed to form words that were not words and other times too many of one symbol would then suddenly be replaced by another symbol for the same letter, he assumed. It was all very complicated. He had decided to calm his nerves by going for a stroll earlier in the day, having returned to the marketplace to acquire many more materials so that he might make more parchment to write upon. He had also decided to explore the surrounding area to get accustomed to where everything was. Even in its overgrown state, London was still a very beautiful city. He was even tempted to venture to where his house would be, but decided against it. His shop was still a precious memory to him and seeing it dilapidated and run down might be a blow to the heart that he might take a little too strongly. Even if it was a game, he still didn't want to. Upon returning, he looked at the books having been untouched and smiled. "Welcome back, adventurer." said a voice from behind him. He turned and bowed his head.  "Thank you for leaving the books." Sobi replied, then stopped and looked at the priest. "Might I ask your name, sir?" he continue, bowing his head a little further. Sobi was stunted in height and bowing made him look even smaller. The priest looked at him, his wrinkled old face masking the small amount of shock and bemusement that he felt towards Sobi's question. "Johannas" replied the priest. 
    "Johannas, it is a pleasure to be of acquaintance to you. I am Sobi Havé." he stated. "Thank you for letting me use your library, once again." The priest looked at him and smirked before turning, beginning to leave. He tilted his head. 
    "I will bring you some food when supper is prepared, I hope you make good progress on your studies adventurer." Johannas said with his soft voice before exiting the library and leaving Sobi in the silence that seemed to live in this place. Sobi smiled and sat down, getting on with his work. He pulled out his materials, the six new pieces of old paper he had purchased from the shop and opened up his crafting menu, repeating the same process as before, crafting himself two pieces of parchment. He sat them down next to him. This time, he decided he would merely copy the contents of these books as best he could. He couldn't stay here forever, and taking these books with him seemed presumptuous. Having a copy would be good and so he brought out his Quill Pen and began slowly but surely copying the contents of the books pages and half size, to fit more contents onto a piece of parchment, as neatly as possible. 

Total Word Count : 2893

Converted 3 x Lvl1 Materials (Old Paper) -> 1 x Lvl1 Old Parchment
Converted 3 x Lvl1 Materials (Old paper) -> 1 x Lvl1 Old Parchment

[sobi]

Success! Huzzah. "Victory!" exclaimed Sobi. He had fully copied out his very first page. Yesterday he had written his notes, and it hadn't really worked out. Now, he had a copy of the first volume of "The Accumulated Texts of the Age of Gods" and it made him smile. He didn't realise he could use single parchment to copy the book. He still didn't understand a lot but it was progress. He folded up his first scroll of parchment. He was beginning to understand the complexities of this crafting system. Even if only a little. To increase his level, he needed to continue to copy these books and texts. Then he would slowly increase his knowledge. He was confused though. Usually you would gain new recipes as you levelled up but the scribe doesn't have recipes...it is entirely based on the books and texts a scribe can find. In other games, he knew they had magical scrolls, but he did not think he was anywhere close to doing something like that yet. He stretched and noticed a plate put in front of him. "Here you go Sir Havé" said Johannas. 
    "Ah, thanks." he said, a little cautious. The plate had bread again, with a glass of water on the side. He downed the water quickly and smiled. The water was so refreshing. He then looked at the bread. He hoped it tasted better than the stuff he had yesterday. He slowly picked it up and took a bite of it. Soggy cardboard. He gagged but tried to hide it as best as he could. He didn't want to offend Johannas. He swallowed the bread. "T-thanks again." he said, hiding the shaking in his voice. 
    "No problem, Sir Havé. I hope you are making good progress." he said with a smile.
    "I am. I have already finished the first volume. I still don't get most of it though..." he frowned. He really didn't get most of this. He really did, however, want to understand more. 
    "I don't think I asked this but why do you want to study this so much?" Johannas asked, stopping to look at him. 
    "Why not? Books, Johannas, books. Knowledge, reading, discovery. Finding out about the past. Finding out about the world. Religion. Gods. Legends. Fairytales. Doesn't that all sound amazing!" exlcaimed Sobi quite loudly, far louder than the rest of his conversation with Johannas. It took him aback slightly. "I want to learn about everything. I want to write everything down. Encyclopaedias. I want to find out about the Gods in this place and I want to understand why they are worshipped. I want to find out about the past. Who were your Kings, your Queens. Etcetera." 
    "Well...I certainly hope you succeed." said Johannas with a friendly smile. "Make sure you get some sleep though." Sobi smiled. Johannas was a very kind person. He was glad that the People of the Land were coded to such a degree. They almost seemed human. He had not really treated Johannas any differently to how he would treat a person. It felt too awkward. They seemed too realistic. Too alive. Even if this was a game, to treat a person as less than human felt wrong. His dad had drilled him to always treat everybody how you would want yourself to be treated and he had really taken it to heart. He watched as Johannas slowly left the library area before turning back to his books. He stopped. He brought up his menu and picked up the bread before clicking the delete option. He hit confirmation and the bread disappeared before him. He grinned and started on "The Accumulated Texts of the Age of Gods, Volume II".

Total Word Count : 3513

[sobi]

He was feeling more and more confident with his scribing. He was entirely sure though that he would have to go back and buy better materials and rewrite these at a later date. Not now however. For now he just needs to blast these out and get as much done as possible. It wasn't too much different compared to the previous volume, in fact it was much of the same. The actual contents still alluded him but he had become more adept in the actual writing of this script. The symbols had begun to flow far more easily from his Quill and onto the parchment. After he finished this scroll, he would need to go get more. He wanted to try and finish these five volumes before progressing onto anything else he had decided. One thing at a time, and for now that thing was copying out these books and learning some lore. He wanted to make sure his scribing was up to scratch. That was what had immediately interested him, not the questing to be honest. He imagined in his head the idea of creating a character whom was strong, yet small, smart, yet carefree, and intelligent, religious and clever. He thought the concept of a Cleric whom led a Holy Order, a guild to be fair but he would definitely name it something to do with a religious aspect, who could smite the evil from this world sounded so amazing to him. He had always thought of himself as righteous. He wanted to portray that in this game. To do that, he needed information about this and it seemed the only way to get around that was to actually study it. He smiled and copied out another sentence, taking his time to ensure he didn't incorrectly write down one of the symbols. He was halfway through the second scroll when he yawned. He was very tired and the night was in full swing. He got up, moving some of the seats and laid across them like a bed. He was out before he even had time to realise he had been in the -game- for two days already without leaving. 

Total Word Count : 3875

[sobi]

Day 3


When Sobi awoke on the third day he found himself wrapped up under a blanket and a pillow beneath his head. He yawned, looking up at the ceiling of the library. It was a little dilapidated and holes were definitely visible. The sky was blue again. His mouth curled into a childish grin. This was great. He sat himself up and looked at the table, on it was his books and a plate with some water and bread. He was about to throw the bread away when his belly growled and grumbled, and decided against it. He scoffed it down, resisting the urge to gag again and then downed the water, washing his mouth out with it. At least the water tasted delicious, for water that was. He turned and looked his table and brought out his unfinished volume II. He was close, it wouldn't take him too long to complete it. He stretched and started to scribe. "I hope you enjoyed the breakfast, Sir Havé." said the familiar voice from behind him. Sobi smiled. 
    "Good morning Johannas, did you sleep well?"  he asked politely.
    "Well enough. I see you are still here. Impressive." the priest said was a small grin. The priest knew something, but Sobi didn't know what it was and didn't really want to ask out of the blue. "I am simply dedicated. I want to learn so much about this world." replied Sobi. The priest smiled. "Could you help me with something Sobi? You seem like the right type of person to ask. It will take you away from your books but it would allow you to get some fresh air and help an old priest."
    "I'll help." replied Sobi. The priest looked back at him shocked.
    "I didn't even say what it is yet!" Johannas said.
    "You have fed me, given me water, given me a place to sleep and unrestricted access to these books. What do you need?" 
    "I need you to retrieve a book. It was given to me by the priest who was here before me. I lost it when I was travelling back from a wedding in a village to the north. I dropped it as I was running away from a band of goblins. It was all so fast." the priest said a little worried. Sobi stood up and put his hand on the priest's shoulder.
    "I will be back as soon as I can." he finished, as he leapt past the priest and outside.

Total Word Count : 4290

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Quest Unlocked : The Burning Book ~ Quest Giver : Priest Johannas
                                Primary Objective ~ Retrieve Johannas' Lost Book
                                Secondary Objective ~ Kill 3 Weak Goblin Scouts
                                Link ~ The Burning Book (Open)

This thread is on hold until [ The Burning Book (Open) ] has been completed. 

[sobi]

Quest Completed : The Burning Book ~ Quest Giver : Johannas
                                   Item Acquired ~ Worn Religious Text

This thread has been resumed and is open. Feel free to drop in.

---

Sobi collapsed into his chair and yawned, he was tired. He held the worn down, red leather bound book in his hands. It looked beautiful to him. Absolutely beautiful. Even though every bone in his body was aching and cried for him to doze off, he still wanted to open it up and read it. He wanted to learn what was contained within. The secrets it held. He placed it on the table. He couldn't resist. He opened it up and started to read. Before he even got to the first words however, he fell asleep, his head hitting the book and sending him into that slumber of endless imagination, where the mind will show you the most vivid and random things. Sobi would wake up the next morning with the slightest feelings of sadness, as his dream had shown him images of his mother and father, both of whom he missed, even if he didn't consciously realise it yet. 

Total Word Count : 4500

[sobi]

Day 4

Sobi awoke with a jump, darting his body upwards and jolting himself out of drowsiness. He had forgotten what he was doing. He looked down at the burnt, worn down book he had gotten from that quest. He smiled to himself and realised what he was doing. The book he had gotten, he was going to read it. Johannas had given him permission. He shuffled in his seat before standing up and stretching, he needed to unwind his aching body. He went for a walk. The library was great but he needed a little change of pace. He went to find Johannas. He spent a couple of minutes before finding him in an alcove behind the altar of the Abbey. "Hey Johannas, good morning." he said with a gentle nod. "How are you?"
    "I am doing well, yourself?" replied Johannas. He looked tired. Sobi didn't comment on it. 
    "That is good. Thank you for the book. I will read it on my travels." he stated. "You are a good...friend." He had hesitated on the "friend" part, it didn't seem natural but then he remembered what his father had said again and finished his sentence. Johannas had treated him very well. Sobi thought maybe it was fate that he had found himself in the Abbey. Without this place he dreaded where he might have ended up. "I have decided I am going to go on that expedition I keep reading about on these flyers. I might gain some valuable knowledge over there." Sobi said, "...but I have every intention on returning here to read more of your library, Johannas." finishing with a smile.
    "Well, I will be here when you return. Let me get you some things for your travels though." finished Johannas, before disappearing and returning his a small bundle of bread loaves and a skin of water. He handed them to the Lvl.1 Cleric and held his hand. "May the Sun God bless you on your journey." Sobi would never see Johannas again. Soon enough Sobi had left the Abbey, and was headed on his way to the Expedition Site. He could easily make it there by midday.

Total Word Count : 4651

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This thread is on hold until Sobi has returned from the Sarum Expedition.