A slightly altered frame had appeared..
CHARACTER CREATION
NAME
RACE
APPEARENCE
ADVANCED APPEARENCE
CLASS
PROFILE
SPECIALITIES
ITEMS
START IN: Epic City
PLEASE SELECT WHAT YOU WANT TO ALTER
I didn't bother to check the screen. There could be another outage any minute. Forgetting the all-important word "You never get a second chance to do a first impression" I entered SUBEY DE RAN; ELF; NORMAL; STATESQUE; ENCHANTER; DRAWN TOWARDS WIZARDRY; IMBUE ITEM; STANDARD ROBE, SANDALS.
I could fill in more items later. The only thing I actually entered as planned was the name - a hero from a book of my childhood. I was too eager to wait now. I pressed the proper keys twice as an "Are You Sure?" sign showed up. The screen turned into a "Now Loading" message. I Waited. And waited. It took more than a minute. Much more than it should have taken according to the manual.
It started with a smell. A smell of salty water. I didn't experience a transition, rather a darkness which gradually opened into light, action, sound. And smell. I think that was the strangest of all. In a dream you don't recall smells, not normally at least. This was weird. Real. I saw a coastline and I was standing close to a wall. Probably the wall to epic city. I was wearing the robe and the sandals. I realised with a sigh that I had done very little to equip myself, and also that I had chosen a slender, almost weak character. I had forgotten to change the stats and probably this was typical for a mage. I pondered returning to the start screen when a bright light suddenly appeared on the horizon, incredibly fast engulfing all of my vision and ..
I was back in the chair. It was pitch black. Another outage. I checked my arms and legs, remembering the talk about chock in the manual. No problem there. My adrenalin was flowing, mainly in rage over the outages and that they had to happen now. Then there was another sudden light. The power was back and the screen showed "Now loading" again.. Strange? No start sequence?
