The City: PuzzleLocked Book 1

Daylight broke on the horizon and a storm approached from the south. Paige “Maelstrom” Knochenmus gave the ship’s captain a thumbs up as her signal to proceed. Several mates lowered the boat into the ship’s lee while the Captain cursed under his breath at losing an hour or more and several seamen beside.

The boat hit the water and the men rowed toward shore, using the outline of the lighthouse as a guide. As they rowed, Paige considered the order of events that she would take upon reaching shore. Active the Reversing Chrono, then the Battery Pack, then Slow Chrono. Head to the lighthouse, prevent the light from burning out, then to the monument, fix that, then into West Shilgrave to find those two who are ruining my progress. I will have that reward*!

{*Solar Cell had offered a reward of 25,000 USD to the first alpha tester on each server who could beat the alpha test, with additional bonuses to finishing first of all servers and also for identifying the most bugs. While $25k wasn’t a huge amount for Paige, the work cost her nothing in the real world. Therefore, it would be silly not to attempt it.}

She stewed as the sound of oars entered and exited the water rhythmically.

What’ll I do if killing them doesn’t break the cycle? Wake up again tomorrow on a pirate ship, of course. But I’ll have to take this path over and over until I can solve the city - it’s got to be the first key to unlocking the island. I bet those idiots haven’t even unlocked the map, even though there are surely more cats in the city than on the ship and at Flowing Sands. Although, I did pet that one cat at the Keep that one time.

Paige shivered at the thought. Entering the Keep had been haunting and she was truly unprepared for the horrors she saw there. Captain Ségolène had allowed her to join the heist. But even with the special items she had stolen from the pirates’ treasure hoard, the Keep wasn’t a place she wanted to return to without better preparation.

I wonder if any of the playtesters start there*? That’s got to make someone deranged if they figure out the backstory and then have to wake up to it each day.

{*There are no players assigned to the Keep as their starting location, at least on this Test Server.}

The boat reached the shore. Paige hopped out of the boat into the cold, shallow water. She tossed the mates a small pouch of coins for goodwill, even though none were persistent memory NPCs. Maybe they’d mention the gift to the Captain, who was persistent. Then she started her trek to cause disruption. It’s the easiest way to find bugs.

{*A few of you may be wondering how Paige is so much more aware of her surroundings and the objectives of the playtest than our unwitting protagonists. The answer is quite simple - she read the notices and the legal background on the upcoming HSE offshoot, then signed up for the event when the sign-ups were released. Based on subtext in the legal documents, sixteen alpha testers would be assigned to each server and the first two who signed up would have the option of picking the starting location while all others would be randomly assigned (with those currently in a party at the start of the playtest starting in the same location with party chat enabled, which is something Alastair and Flor still haven’t figured out)}