I involuntarily closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, the platform was nowhere to be seen.
I was standing in front of a picturesque medieval village, with houses made out of wooden beams and stone blocks, smoke coming out of the chimneys, NPCs living their daily lives and what was looking like them getting ready for a festival of sorts. At the edge of the village there was a small, lush forest with a creek flowing through it and splitting the village right at the middle, with stone bridges leading from one side to the other.
As I was looking around, more and more players have spawned in a golden light, and they were looking just as much in awe as me.
"Welcome to Carpa! You're one of the adventurers, aren't you?" A child no more than 13 approached me.
"Y-Yes, I'm an adventurer," I quickly pulled myself together.
"Good, good! All adventurers were asked to gather in front of the village hall in 15 minutes. The Adventurer's Association wants to welcome you to Ravenloft."
The boy said, and with that out of the way, went to tell the same to the other players around me.
"Wait, where am I?" I shouted, hoping to figure out which region I spawned in.
The boy turned back to me, and said: "This is Carpa village, in Tidemark county! Tidemark is the biggest port in the region of Silverwing!" he said with a proud expression.
So I spawned in Silverwing, one of the northern regions.
If I was near the biggest port of the region, that could very well mean that naval exploration was going to be a big part of my adventures.
Maybe it's time for me to turn into a pirate.
I tried opening the Map menu, but as I suspected, I needed to be in possession of a physical map in order to do so.
I set off towards the village hall while keeping my eyes open.
I spotted the blacksmith, the tanner and the carpenter right away, and I also saw the marketplace, where most NPCs were running errands, putting stalls together and decorating everything.
A woman was trying to set up a braided arc at the entrance in a hurry.
"Excuse me, miss. Do you need any help?" I asked. She smiled at me.
"No need, Adventurer. I have done this many times."
"What are you villagers preparing for? I noticed the people around here are quite busy."
"Oh, this? The Spring Festival starts today in all of the kingdom," she grinned. "Most villages and towns are getting ready for it, but villages like Carpa, that were chosen as the welcoming grounds for Adventurers are going the extra mile so you have a warm welcome."
She bowed a tiny bit, as if to acknowledge me.
People in this village looked like they were very content with their lives, probably very much unlike real medieval villages in the past.
"Oh, I see. So this Spring Festival, does it happen every year?"
"It does, and it's my favorite time of the year," the woman answered with sparkling eyes. "Sometimes even the lords and ladies go on a tour and visit the villages that are under their jurisdiction as well, and it is rumored that our just liege, Count Vizgrad will come to Carpa in the coming days."
"And you said something about welcoming us adventurers?"
"Yes, young sir. But I'm certain that the officials from the Adventurer's Association will tell you more about the subject. You should go to the village hall, an appointed official is already waiting for the crowd of Adventurers to gather so he can explain everything. And I'd better get back to putting this arc together," she sighed, but it was a sign of hard work well done rather than sadness.
I left her to do her bidding and set off towards the village hall once again.
Once I arrived at the square, I saw that hundreds of players had already gathered and were chatting about the game. The villagers prepared benches that could accommodate some of us, but most were still standing. I still had a few minutes before the event began, so I started checking the menus once again. I had no map, but there was other windows that were already accessible.
I opened my inventory and equipped the Hunting Bow and the Bottomless Quiver that looked like my starting weapons.
It seems like ammo won't be a problem in this game, I thought. I liked systems like these, that didn't punish ranged classes.
It looked like my base clothes didn't give any bonuses to my defense. I had a bottle of water and 3 pieces of bread in my inventory as well.
Next up I decided to check my status window.
There were a couple interesting things that caught my attention, like the title system, or the fact that there were boxes for "secret attributes", "passive skills" and "life skills", all of which meant that there was quite a room for character customization.
I was also wondering what stats like presence, luck and influence meant, but when I checked the information on them it only said that stat points cannot be distributed manually to these attributes.
I quickly checked what the other stats did, and they were pretty straightforward.
Strength increased physical power.
Agility was for movement speed, while Dexterity gave points to attack speed.
Vitality increased HP and physical defense.
Intelligence granted mana and magical power.
Wisdom gave a small increase to mana as well, and it also boosted magical defense and healing efficiency.
"Attention, Adventurers!" A man in his fifties climbed up the podium and once the chit-chat died down, he continued.
"My name is Cyndral, and I'm working for the Adventurer's Association of Ravenloft. First of all, welcome to our world! I know it's most likely different than the other Planes you've arrived from, and we are incredibly grateful that you have come." He nodded.
"Let me start with the story of how the world had prepared for your appearance. A hundred years ago, wars ravaged these lands. Every kingdom on Cindaar wanted to profit off of their neighbor's losses, and soon the situation became uncontrollable. That's when the Archmage of Pendragon, along with the other Royal Archmages of the continent came to an agreement to betray their respective kings and put an end to the wars. With great magic, they had summoned a Prophecy; a world changing spell straight from the Other Powers. The Prophecy created the Veil that separated the kingdoms from each other."
He paused for a moment.
"However, the Veil did not follow exact borders and thus the kingdoms had lost some of their territories to the magical barrier," he continued.
"These lost territories are now called No Man's Land, and no soul has entered these places ever since. Anyone who has been in these regions once the Veil emerged were stuck there. It is also believed that the magic is much wilder in the No Man's Land, and therefore humans, animals and other creatures that live there were affected one way or another."
He took a theatrical break.
The Royal mages inspect these places regularly and closely and it seems like these regions are either overrun by monstrous creatures or unlawful bandits. Only a handful of communities kept their law and culture from the old times."
An association worker brought him a cup of water to wet his throat.
"Three years ago, however, the second part of the Prophecy came into motion: it was revealed to the world that today is going to be the day when champions from other planes of existence—you, adventurers—would appear in this world and soon after this phenomenon, the Veil will come crumbling down."
He looked at the crowd of adventurers with a hopeful expression.
"After this announcement, the kingdoms, while communicating through magical channels, had decided to found the Adventurer's Association to help you young heroes get integrated into our world. In those three years we have built a system, through the unlimited funding of the kingdoms itself, that will help you get whatever aid you need for your upcoming battles," he bowed before continuing.
"And when I say battles, I'm not just talking about the No Man's Land. Every kingdom has internal problems with bandits, monsters and ferocious wildlife alike, and our soldiers while mighty and brave, can not keep down the constantly reappearing threats. On the other hand, you are immortal beings sent here for our help, and we are eternally grateful for that!"
He bowed once again.
"And that is not all. The Prophecy has foretold something else. It is unknown to someone low ranking like me, but one thing is certain: the world needs you all, Adventurers!" He gestured towards us.
"As for the Adventurer's Association: we have establishments in every town or city, where you can pick up tasks and quests. Completing them will reward you with both gold and valuable items. The higher rank you are in the Association, the harder quests you can take, and the better the rewards will be!" He took a piece of parchment from his bag.
"Right now you all are Copper rank adventurers, and the ranking is as follows:"
Copper ?? Iron ?? ? Silver ?? Gold ?? Platinum ?? Diamond ?? Mithril ?? Orichalcum ?? Adamantium
"The Association also offers lodging to adventurers, although you can get accommodated at any of the kingdom's inns and lodges, or buy your own property if you wish to. You all are full fledged citizens of the Kingdom of Ravenloft," he continued.
"This is Carpa village, in the province of Silverwing; the north eastern province of the kingdom, and as you surely saw, the good people of the village are preparing for the Spring Festival that starts today. We would like to welcome you to join us in the celebration, partake in the events and we hope that you will feel welcome in these lands. You can find me all day here in front of the Town Hall if you have any questions, but I will also welcome other adventurers during the day so if you missed out on any information, don't worry! Have a wonderful day and for the last time, we are eternally grateful for your presence!"
With that last sentence he bowed one last time and got off the podium.
Some players started to line up in front of him with their questions but the ones looking more seasoned went straight to the board the Association had set up.
Luckily I was by far the closest to the billboard so I hurried there as well. Interacting with the post summoned a menu with all the available quests.
Bandits near Silver Cove
Required rank: Iron
Wolf infestation in Shademere Forest
Required rank: Iron
Mercenaries needed for Count Vizgrad's retinue
Required rank: Silver
Quest limit: 20
Pest control
Required rank: Copper
Herbs for the Spring Festival
Required rank: Copper
Time limit: 7 days
A timed quest, huh? From the sound of it it was some kind of a fetch and collect quest. I didn't know if the rewards for timed quests were better than regular ones, but there was no downsides in accepting it.
I also accepted the Pest control quest as it was an unlimited one, and since there were no other quests available for Copper rank adventurers, I moved on.
I opened the quest hub and read the descriptions of the 2 missions I took:
Both of these quests required me to go out into the wilds, and judging by the names of both the herbs and the animals, most of them should be plentiful and I should be able to find them close to each other.