Shard of Virtue Online [MMO Quest]

[Flintlock]

The maid you encounter appears to be in her late forties. 'Matronly' is perhaps the perfect word to describe her; she's noticeably overweight, but in a vaguely motherly way. The usual blue and white dress of the houseworkers is uncharacteristically messy; a state that the lord would be unlikely to permit (assuming it's who you think it is). Her scowl is equal parts frustrated and defeated, her eyes focused on a particular spot on the floor with no apparent reasoning. A couple of moments pass as she leans against the wall and tries to catch her breath, face red with exertion, completely oblivious to your presence.

?

She looks up, about to launch into an angry rant, before she realises you aren't who she initially thought. She recoils in a brief moment of horror, thinking she'd gone to insult you, before recomposing herself.

"Oh, ma'am. D-Do you need something?"

You pause, slightly perplexed by the treatment despite your lack of status, before remembering that you've probably been declared a guest of the house by the Magister. You somehow doubt it'll last for long, now that you're awake. As you're about to give you command response, a text box fills your view.

Command Responses
While you are unable to converse directly with most characters in this world, you can use short mental phrases to prompt responses! Just think of a word to move the conversation forward. For instance, let's use the command response "Help?"

Click to shrink...

Brilliant.

Help?

Excellent! Just like that. In future scenarios, you may be given a number of preset commands that will progress the story. Remember to look to the bottom right of your view while in HUD mode.

Click to shrink...

She hesitates, before looking over to the table. A vase sits upon its side, mournfully empty. The maid pushes herself to her feet, before righting it. You take in the room around you; the table and vase

"Ah...I-Ah, can't possibly ask..."

She seems to stop.

Go on.
I'll leave you to your work, then.​

Go on.

"The lord insists on having fresh-cut flowers in this room. Nobody uses it or looks at it, but he gets awful mad when it doesn't happen."

She takes a steadying breath.

"There's a couple of boys who like t' steal the flowers when no-one's looking. Made a game of sneaking up here an' making off with them. Finally caught one of them trying it, but I'm not as young as I used to be. If I were their parents, I'd give 'em a right hidin'..."

She finally seems recovered now.

"Right now, I haven't the time to go out and get more flowers...Would you be a dear and pick some more?"

A sudden movement draws your eye to the top right of your vision, where a quest tracker has appeared. At first, it's the barest texture upon the world, but it slowly becomes more opaque as you focus on it.

Collect 5 Flowers OR Follow the thief

CHOOSE ONE

[] Go out and pick some more flowers [1D20 Gathering Experience]
[] Find the boy who stole the flowers [Combat Encounter]

* * * * * * * *

Another short one. Not super happy with it, but if I wait till Saturday (i.e. when I have more free time) to actually write, I'm pretty sure I'll run out of steam.

 

[Flintlock]

The passage of time is a curious, mutable concept in video games. In the middle of a desperate race against time, it's perfectly acceptable to spend a week grinding, maybe do a couple sidequests, finish ticking off a couple of collectables, that kind of thing. It's especially notable in MMOs, where grinding and sidequests and repeating dungeons (which may possibly count as going backwards in time) are a solid part of the intended content.

Thus, despite it ostensibly being horribly impolite to keep people waiting, you decide to teach the children a lesson. Whether it actually matters or not...It probably doesn't, considering this is an optional tutorial sidequest in an MMO, but...eh. Going after a couple of brats being petty jerks speaks to your inner sense of justice.

Also, combat. Y'know, that thing the game's based around.

As you make your decision, there's a sensation you can only describe as a ping, snapping your attention to the garden outside. It's not quite a sound, nor quite a feeling, but somewhere oddly between the two. There's something there, maybe fifty metres away. It would seem this is the evolution of the objective marker. It seems the target's still milling around. How convenient.

As you step outside, you spot them immediately. The thief and his friend, you assume. The two boys aren't quite 'street rats'; though their clothes are ragged, they aren't that dirty. Just worn. You estimate they're in their mid to late teens, with that familiar posture of ignorant confidence. They're barely even hiding; just standing off to the side, out of direct line of sight from the door. You wonder if it's a deliberate choice to demonstrate arrogance, or purely for the sake of convenience.

The ground surrounding them is tinted black. As you approach you trigger yet another text box.

Personal Encounter
The dark circle on the ground indicates a personal encounter that can only be engaged by the person it's assigned to; you can't begin if you're currently in a party. Enter the area to trigger the event.

Click to shrink...

As you do, the first of the two boys speaks up. To describe in a word, you would use 'disposable'. With generically scruffy black hair and bland, generic 'young anime male' faces (maybe slightly sharper eyes than usual), you can barely tell them apart.

"'ey, push off, Rosary, don'tch know this 'ere's his lord's property?"

Though they both snigger at the comment (even for a deliberately unfunny comment, that was bad), you are thoroughly unamused. Especially since you're a hopeless lore nut and thus know exactly what 'Rosary' is slang for in the world of SoV. If these pricks have more backstory than 'generic jerks', you doubt they'll be painted sympathetically. More likely, they'll vanish off the face of the earth as soon as you leave the tutorial.

Return the Flowers​

There's only one command available, and it's not exactly shakespeare. As you're about the press through with it, a text box suddenly appears.

Equipping Your Weapons
Use the EQUIP command to retrieve your weapon and armour from the Aether. Be warned! Doing so during a conversation may spur potential hostiles to action, but may also allow you to save time or engage on your own terms.

Click to shrink...

Ah, so that's the 'skip cutscene' function. If they're introducing it here, you assume there's little to hear from these two, but it wouldn't be the first time you've found an interesting tidbit hidden in conversation with a random NPC.

So, test drive the EQUIP function, or ride the conversation out?

CHOOSE ONE

[] Cut to the chase; EQUIP immediately (+5 to Aim/Dodge for incoming encounter)
[] <Return the Flowers> (+1D10 Lore Experience)

* * * * * * * *

Welp. It's barely longer than the last. This is what happens when you split your attention between writing a story/quest about a video game and actually playing video games. Sorry about that.

For future reference, while the mechanics aren't concrete yet, at the end of each session, you'll be afforded extra time to do other stuff depending on how successful your rolls are (which, assuming you succeed, will affect how long each event takes), with time taken out for extra time spent doing stuff.