Adam Drake - Blackout

I held my breath. How difficult would this thing be to dispatch? My eyes fell on the lightning wand sticking out of one of its arms. It gave off an electrical crackle.

Seconds passed, and I thought I could hear the gears grinding away within its body. Was it assessing the situation? Did it have an artificial intelligence which could reason things out? Then, as if to answer my questions, the guard turned its head forward, and resumed climbing up the stairs.

I waited a good while until the noise of its clomping footfalls were gone. Since I didn’t know how connected these guards were with Ogden, I could not risk eliminating one, even quickly. A normal guard could raise an alarm, but these automatons were a different conundrum. I needed to err on the side of caution and avoid them completely.

The tower door stood open, a snow-covered courtyard beyond. I eased up to it and looked out. No other clockwork guards were nearby. In fact, the vast open space looked abandoned. Just my luck I’d almost smacked straight into the only guard in this section.

Across from the tower was the main fortress complex, a collection of different buildings of all shapes and sizes. Various doors presented themselves, so I chose one at random and moved to it.

Night had fallen, and the courtyard was almost completely black save for the occasional glowing sconce or fire pit. Maybe the clockwork guards didn’t require much light to still maintain their rounds. Regardless, I kept my distance from any source of light. Shadows excelled in the night.

I reached the door and crouched to one side. Giving the courtyard one cautious scan, I reached up and tried the knob. It was unlocked. I eased the door open, and bright light spilled out.

With my presence potentially compromised I ducked inside and quickly, but quietly, closed the door.

I was in a brightly lit hallway, wide and sparsely furnished with little tables and paintings along the walls. Under this much light my shadow ability gave my form a blurry effect, so I darted into a nearby entranceway and paused.

No alarm sounded, nor warnings of an intruder.

I felt I should head toward the center of the fortress complex. Maybe there I would find Ogden, or surmise his location along the way.

Back in the hallway, I headed down it in fits and starts. Dodging under a table, ducking into a darkened foyer. I tried to maximize what little shadow was available to me. After being outside in the dark, and the freedom it provided, this was place was agony.

The hall soon ended at a junction, with other halls branching off in several directions. I chose one at random and continued my little Shadow dance. I soon came to appreciate just how huge this place was, with its countless rooms and chambers. Why did Odgen feel he needed to have it? But I knew the answer to that question. His ego. I knew it well having experienced it firsthand.

As I neared the center of the vast complex the sudden appearance of a half dozen clockwork guards pulled me up short. Darting behind a pair of massive vases, I watched as the guards marched by in perfect lockstep. This was the largest group I’d encountered and looked to be heading in my intended direction.

For lack of a better plan, I decided to follow them from a safe distance. My shadowed form only wavered occasionally when the light grew to bright, but none of the guards ever looked behind them, let alone anywhere else. They were certainly intent on getting to their destination.

Soon the hallway we followed curved into a vast chamber. I paused, not wanting to risk exposure in such a wide open space. As the clockwork guards marched out of view, I noticed a set of stairs nearby leading up.

I took the stairs which immediately emerged onto a viewing balcony. A quick look around showed no one else was present. A low ice wall formed the balconies railing. Keeping low, I scooted up to it, the risked a peek over its edge.

A massive ice chamber presented itself. Vast walls curved upwards to form a rounded ceiling far above. Looking down I could view the chamber’s floor and was stunned at what I saw.

Dozens of clockwork guards were assembled in orderly rows, standing at attention. The group I’d followed joined them and fell in line. Before them was a startling sight.

Ogden Trite was there, standing next to an empty wagon. He watched as several clockwork men maneuvered the obsidian statue of the pointing woman along the floor. It was the same statue I’d seen Ogden bring through the Guildhall travel gate.

A short distance past Ogden, placed against the chamber’s massive wall, were two large blue pillars. Even from my vantage point I could easily see that the pillars were made from glowing blue ore. The same ore I’d come across a while back in my near fatal encounter with the Demon King.

None of this was what chilled me to the bone, though. That was reserved for the star-filled blackness which seemed to stretch out and fill the space between the two glowing pillars of ore.

A massive Void Portal.

I stared at the Void Portal in amazement.

Ogden had acquired the knowledge to create one, here in his own guildhall. But how? Thinking on it, I realized it wasn’t much of a stretch.

The tale of my previous adventure, fighting the Demon King, had now circulated far and wide. Included in the tale were the blue ore pillars which somehow allowed the Demon King to maintain a portal to his own Demon Void. The blue ore had become quite sought after, as a result, but no one had figured out how to make a portal from it.

Until now.

I have to admit I felt a little disappointed. My Cloak of Shadows gave me the incredible ability to create a portal on command. Now Ogden could do it as well.

Which would explain the existence of Wally’s Womp. Ogden had managed to capture and enslave the Void Titan with the use of this portal.

I looked down at the gray owl avatar as he screamed and hollered commands at the clockwork men. What was he going to do with it now? Try to capture another Void Titan? Crazy.

Out of curiosity, I queried the game about the statue of the pointing woman. Whatever it was, it appeared to have something to do with the portal.

Item: Siren’s Call (Ultra-Rare), Weight: 985 units, Uses: Dark Magic, Summonings, Ensnarement (Various). Value: Unknown.

Do you wish to query for current auction house prices? Y/N

I selected Yes.

Querying. Item not found.

It confirmed my suspicions of the statue’s importance, but in what way? I shook my head. Stay on point, Vivian. Ogden’s ownership of a Void Portal, as scary a revelation as that was, is not the mission. Killing him is.

Careful to not spoil my Shadow form, I summoned my bow and nocked a regular arrow. I pulled back the drawstring and aimed. My target was Ogden’s head. There was little doubt I needed to one-shot him as I wouldn’t get another chance to finish the job afterword.

It had to be an instant kill.

While the game waited for me to fire, it presented a chance-to-hit percentage beside Ogden’s head.

Chance-to-hit: 42.5%

Chance to Insta-kill: 3.5%

I lowered my bow. Nope. Can’t do it, not from here. I’d needed to get closer.

Of course, killing Ogden would present an immediate problem. His legion of clockwork guards. Yes, the bounty on my head would be negated once I took him out. But if his guards killed me while I was in his guildhall, then all my inventory would drop here. Including the Cloak of Shadows.

I frowned. It was worth the risk, and to a certain extent I knew losing the Cloak would be a possibility when coming here.

But, in my mind, killing Ogden was worth losing it all. If I couldn’t chance losing the Cloak trying to eliminate my mortal enemy, I’d never leave a safezone, or even bother playing anymore.