Rick stood nude in front of the fellow elf, wondering to himself why his wife had never mentioned to him before about starting without wearing any cloths. The weather was none too warm, and her nipples hardened a bit as a cold wind blew in from the second-floor open windows of the nice wooden lodge that she was standing inside of.
"Welcome. I am Xantan. You will find suitable clothes in the chest to your right," the NPC repeated, taking little interest in her nudity. She nodded a bit and stepped over to the chest, reaching in and pulling out whatever cloths she could find within. There was a plain brown linen shirt, white boxer-looking underwear, a simple white bra, and a pair of ratty leather paths that looked like they had been worn by every new character since the game launched… kind of smelled like it too.
She looked around and didn't see a changing area, frowning to herself, she looked to the NPC who politely moved to face the window. "There is a note for you, Fiona," Xantan said, "by the stairs," he said motioning a hand in the direction of the stairs leading down to the first floor. "I hear it is urgent.
"You mind closing that window?" Richard asked, hearing his character's female voice for the first time. He hadn't been ready for that, nor there being an urgent letter for him.
Fiona reached down and pulled up the underwear up her legs, and though it initially did not fit properly, it suddenly was the right side. She smiled and reached for the bra, beginning to put it on, she held it behind her and was about to do the straps when it went ahead and did itself. Must be handy for men who've never worked a bra before, she smiled, looking at the pants.
"We all ended up in different places," came Jean's voice from somewhere over her shoulders. Fiona turned to look but didn't see anyone there. "Jean?" he asked, and the NPC looked back at her. "Not you. Did you hear that?" she asked.
"No madam," he said simply, "Perhaps it was a whisper."
"It sounded like a whisper," she said, not knowing what exactly that meant, pulling up her ratty leather pants which, like the underwear, suddenly fit perfectly. "It sounded like she was behind me," she said as she slid the white linen shirt up over her head.
"You don't know how to Re-Whisper, do you?" came Jean's voice from behind Fiona, and she turned and looked again. "If you can't get to the Menu system, you're going to be in trouble… stuck, even," she said, thinking over some horror stories, "Depends on how you set it to respond, but I think the default is crossing your index and middle fingers on your right hand and holding them up to your ear," she said, waiting for Richard to respond.
Fiona ran a hand through her platinum blond hair, looking over at Xantan again thinking he was a little too handsome to be greeting nude elven women on their first night in The Kingdom. She smirked and walked over to the stairs and picked up the two pieces of parchment laying there. Glancing to Xantan one last time, she turned and headed down the stairs.
Rick crossed the fingers on Fiona's right hand as he was told and began to speak. To his surprise, her lips did not move, and he could hear his own voice normally, speaking out into the cold first floor air. "Wasn't expecting that," he said. "How are people supposed to know these things?"
"Read the Instructions," Mrs Richardson replied in Richard's ear, "You may play a games, but never one like this. When you get done with this sitting you should pull out the book I made and flip through it," she said.
"You made a book?" Rick asked, surprised.
"There was a PDF for each class, race, setting… hell, there was a whole 100 pages on the Character Creation portion that showed what you get when you hit the Advanced button on the scree," she said, thinking about it. Jean was always well studied in anything she cared strongly about. "I printed everything out on the school's dime and wrote little notes in pen on the sides of pages," she said, realizing he was just standing somewhere listening. "Are you read to depart where you are?"
"Not yet. Reading a message, might be a quest," he continued to speak in his own voice as a friendly maid of the house walked by, not looking at him, and not seeming to hear the Whisper conversation. "Wait," he said, thinking about it, "If we all ended up in different places, where's Anna? She's not alone is she?" he asked, worried.
"I retrieved her first," Jean said, calming him. "I forgot only characters under level ten can start play in the same town at any time… so you and she could have, but since I'm borrowing this level twenty, I couldn't have. However, there is Summon Partner," she noted.
Fiona nodded to herself, not thinking for a moment that Jean couldn't see her. She pulled up one of the piece of parchment and saw that it was from the Developers. It was easy to tell, because when she looked at it, a little hologram of the PHUK Logo floated above the page in 3D space in her vision… something that only happened on official documents.
"The Developers wish to apologize to our Newest Players," she read aloud as she put held the parchment with both hands, "As the Patch Notes detailed, there has been a Hack put to The Kingdom, so many already active characters are currently playing creatures and races not of their choosing," she said, looking around, realizing that's why Jean paused on some Witch he'd never seen her make.
"Furthermore, the sever load has reached dangerous capacity most probably due to only New Players being able to make New Character. We have had an overabundance of New Accounts, most likely Existing Players wishing to have a character of their choosing rather than playing what they were dealt." Makes sense, she thought. "Therefore all new characters have skipped their usual starting towns, begin at Level Five in one of the designated Outter Hub cities of their race, and unfortunately start unclothed."
Ah, an explanation, she smirked, heading for the front door. "The last item is a Known Issue, and we have streamed in a patch to at least put a chest of clothing in the same room as you start. We apologize for the inconvenience once again, and hope that you enjoy you time in The Kingdom.
Fiona Silverwing stepped up to the front doorway that lead into the log cabin she had arrived in The Kingdom of. Outside was a city built of logs and tree-houses, a forest out beyond, and mountains out even further away than that. There was cool mountain air, but it didn't effect her as much now that she was clothed.
"Well?" came Jean's voice over Whisper again. "Are you ready hun?"