by Dean Henegar
Boots of the Long Stride. These sturdy armored leather boots magically adapt to provide a comfortable fit for the wearer. The hardened leather and bronze reinforcements do not hinder comfort or movement. Defense +1. Once per day the wearer can make a “Long Stride”, instantly teleporting to any new point that is visible within 50 yards of the wearer.
Banner of the Broken Chain. This banner was awarded for freeing a band of enslaved dwarves and goblins. The banner provides a +1 bonus to attack for all forces under your command. The banner must be attached to a battle standard to provide benefits.
I would keep all three items for now. The only thing I was loath to use was the dagger. Daggers had always been just a backup weapon for me, used much more often for eating than fighting. I had a feeling I wouldn’t want to eat using a dagger that had the blood stains of its victims etched onto it. Even though its item level was higher, I would stick to my short sword as my main weapon. I wouldn’t be sad if I had to sell for coin, or use as a quest reward. The boots fit wonderfully, and the daily ability would fit right in with my play style. I would equip the banner to the battle standard the next time we moved out.
Making my way to the new exchange to see about selling the ore, an angry voice accosted me.
“Old man Raytak! You are sooo in trouble right now! Walk into the lake up to your knees and yell I am the unicorn queen to find my unicorn eh. I did that, and did I find a unicorn? Nope. Just a giant crocodile thing that ate me! Crunchy was sooo mad I had to tell him not to eat you just now. What do you have to say for yourself?” Yendys shouted at me as she made her way past the merchant stall she had been shopping in.
“Uh oh,” I whispered, as the angry halfling and her unicorn beetle companion stomped toward me. I quickly tried to think of an out, something, anything…nope, I had nothing. “Sorry bout that?” I pitifully offered. My pathetic answer made Yendys turn red, nearly shaking with anger.
“Ohhhh noooo, you don’t get off that easy. You better be at the inn later. We’re going to have a duel! If I win, you have to call me the unicorn queen whenever we meet. If you win, I’ll let this go, though Crunchy may still carry a grudge,” Yendy’s informed me before stomping away. I guess I was going to get to try out the Petty Dispute’s new dueling arena. I hope the kid takes it easy on me, my class isn’t set up to handle duels very well. I really didn’t want to call some kid the unicorn queen for the whole time I’m in the game. All in all, I guess it was my fault she was killed on the dungeon run. I had no idea she would have thought I was serious about the unicorn thing. I made a promise to myself that I would make it up to her group, since my actions caused them to fail their run.
Chapter 23
I felt I had wasted enough time shopping and getting accosted by angry ten-year old kids, so I made my way back to the town hall to check in with Delling. The town hall had the same hazy look to it that my garrison did. Delling must have just started an upgrade as well. The door to the mayor’s office was closed, but that didn’t stop the sound of heated yelling from coming through. Two town guardsmen stood outside the door and looked like they were torn between bursting in to help, or standing where they were.
“You men, what’s going on in there?” I ordered. I wasn’t in the chain of command for the town guard, but something about seeing an angry officer made them forget that.
“Sir, um, the negotiations are getting heated. We wanted to check on the mayor, but he ordered us not to enter no matter how loud it got,” the guard offered. Just as the guard finished, a loud crash sounded inside the room. Drawing my sword, I burst through the locked door, tearing it off its hinges. The sight greeting me was not one I expected. The old dwarf, Lhargen, was there smiling as he shook Delling’s hand. The mayor’s table lay upside down on the floor with a dwarven mining pick driven through it.
“I think this is the beginning of a good friendship between our people, Mayor Delling. I look forward to having some ale with you in the inn later. I hope they have something strong enough for our tastes. Drinks are on me! One for you too, Raytak,” Lhargen told me as he pulled his pick from the table. The table cracked in half completely when the dwarf finally got it unstuck. Lhargen slapped me on the shoulder as he passed by me, leaving the town hall. “Watch out ye don’t stick yerself with that butter knife of a sword, Raytak,” Lhargen joked as I slowly sheathed my blade.
After the dwarf was out of earshot, Delling let out a sigh of relief and sat back into his chair. Shaking his head at the destruction of his office, Delling set about gathering the sheaf of papers that was strewn about.
“What just happened? I thought you were being murdered and I burst down the door to see the two of you are now best friends,” I muttered as I stood there dumbfounded.
“Luckily, I was able to read up on dwarven negotiation strategies before Lhargen arrived. They love to bluster and posture while negotiating deals. I think that’s why they have so much trouble reaching agreements with the other races. I knew I had to just give it right back to him as soon as Lhargen began making unreasonable trade demands. It’ll cost me a new table,” Delling told me as he glanced at the door, “and apparently a new door, but we have a trade deal between our people. We have exclusive rights for them to sell their ore at our exchange. That will bring a huge amount of coin into town, if they get their mine working like I think they will. The big dustup here at the end was due to the last caveat I threw in. They must help the Bugtug tribe to get their mine in order. Chief Bugtug is no miner and none of the goblins with him know much more than the basics. If we can get our own mine working efficiently, we can both begin to receive more resources. I had to negotiate that we would pool our ore with theirs when they sell to keep the market more stable and not undercut each other. The dwarves hate the goblins, but they finally realized that the ones here are not a threat and are, in fact, going to be their allies. Between that, and the mutual defense agreement I signed on your behalf, we’re looking good. In fact, this deal just leveled me up to level five finally!” Delling beamed as he explained what had happened.
“What mutual defense agreement? Don’t I have to sign that type of stuff?” I questioned.
“No, the AI let me negotiate it for some reason. It was pretty basic, or I would have run it by you first. We have to come to each other’s defense in times of need and our forces have free passage in each other’s holdings. You get a permanent base located at the mine and also at any other critical locations that may pop up in the zone. Lhargen seems to think there are other dwarven ruins in the zone just waiting for his clan to rediscover. I figured that would make things easier for you, with your garrison holding a defensive position near the mine. They are all for it now that the threat is recent, but it would have caused trouble down the road if we didn’t formalize it in the agreement. Other than that, the town hall will soon be level three. Once it’s done, the next step, you’ll be happy to hear, is improving the guardhouse and jail,” Delling smiled as he told me, rightfully proud of his accomplishment. The deal for the ore reminded me that I had some I needed to get rid of.
“Delling, I got some copper and tin ore as a reward for defeating the slavers. How do I sell that? Can I send it to the exchange, or does that come under our new agreement with the dwarves?” I inquired.
“Yeah, it’s probably best if we include it with what the town has. Don’t want to give Lhargen any reason to try and renegotiate. My table hasn’t even been repaired yet, I’m not sure what he’d break if we had another negotiation. If you open your trade tab I’ll take it and have the town give the estimated value in gold or resources, whichever you think you’ll need,” Delling advised. I thought that, with the garrison leveling up, I would likely need both.
“Can I get a bit of both? I need gold more, but the garrison is now level 2 and I’m sure further upgrades will cost quite a few resources, as well as gold,” I told Delling. He nodded as he sent the trade request. I accepted and looked at the deal.
Trade offer: 9 gold, 50 resources fo
r 100 copper and 12 tin ore. Do you accept? Y/N
I accepted, figuring Delling was giving me the best offer he could.
“I did have some bad news for us, as well. The group of players trying to eliminate the ghoul threat was wiped out. They wanted another go at it, but the system would only let them make one attempt at the quest. Did you want to give it a shot now?” Delling asked.
“Definitely. I owe that ghoul lord some payback. Can you send me the quest?” I asked and Delling got that glazed look on his face that all players get when they’re looking at their interface.
“Uh, oh. You may want to check this out. Looks like the players failing on the quest has increased the difficulty,” Delling told me as he offered the quest to me.
Rise of the Ghoul Lord, updated. The adventurers assigned to defeat the ghoul lord have failed. Their failure has fueled the ghoul lord’s ambition. The entire zone will be consumed by their voracious appetite if the threat is not eliminated. This quest is now a level 6-8 elite raid level encounter. This quest should only be attempted by a full party of well-equipped adventurers. To fail again will only continue to increase the threat that the ghoul lord, Dunderman poses.
Reward: 2500 experience, 100 gold, 500 resources. Other rewards may become available based on performance.
Wow, that was a serious reward. I guess raid level encounters offer much better rewards. Hopefully I can beat this ghoul, now that I have my full force available. I accepted the quest and another prompt appeared.
The difficulty of this quest has enabled a raid party to be formed. The commander will be able to form a party with up to ten other players in order to complete this quest. *Note, the ability of the commander class to form a raid party is given on an exception basis, due to the unique threat this encounter poses to the entire zone. Under normal circumstances a commander class player cannot join or form a raid party.
“Well, it looks like I’ll need to recruit some other players. I think I know of a halfling and her friends that I owe a favor to after getting her killed in the dungeon. Do you know of anyone else that might want to join up?” I asked Delling. I found the number of players being limited to ten to be a bit strange, as usually raids have larger numbers. I chalked it up to the AI always trying to balance things to make them challenging, but fair. The fact that a raid didn’t always equal twenty to forty players, or that a party was always five players, made the game more dynamic. There was an openness and a refusal to be locked into standard design decisions with this game, which made me feel the game was living up to its name of being limitless.
“Not really. I’ve met a lot of players, but for the most part I can’t tell you if they’re anyone you would want in your party. You may want to check at the inn this evening. I know its cliché, but it really is a great place to look for adventurers. You can even duel them at the inn’s arena if you want to check out their skills. Anything else going on? Otherwise, I want to finish upgrading the town hall before I head over to the inn to meet with Lhargen. I also think I need to hit the merchant shops to buy a hangover cure, something tells me that the old dwarf is about to drink me under the table.” Delling grinned as he told me, anticipating a good time.
“I’m going to check out my new level two garrison. See you at the inn later,” I told Delling as I made my way back to the garrison.
The level two garrison looked much more impressive than the simple collection of barracks buildings we had before. There was now a proper wall surrounding the area. The wall was made of logs and looked sturdy enough for a basic defense. There was a catwalk around the wall, so troops could defend and patrol the wall. In fact, I could see several defensive garrison troops were already heading up to the wall to keep watch. There were now 15 much larger barracks buildings situated inside the garrison. The buildings were made of sturdy logs with small arrow slits carved into them. The barracks buildings would now serve as a defensive hard point if the walls of the garrison were breached. My favorite part was the new headquarters building. The headquarters was no longer attached to the end of a barracks. The building itself was simple and sturdy, a smaller square shape instead of the rectangular shape of the barracks. The headquarters featured a mantrap entrance setup, to further enhance security. Anyone entering would have to get through two sets of doors that could be locked at any time, all the while being open to fire from the murder holes in the ceiling above them. The flags of the Imperium, as well as the 1st Legion of Hayden’s Knoll, were proudly flying on tall poles outside the headquarters.
There were four defensive garrison soldiers on guard just outside the headquarters. After retuning their salutes, I walked into the front door of the headquarters. I found myself in the mantrap, locked in a small ten-foot-long hallway with stout doors on either end. Above me were six-inch diameter murder holes in the wood ceiling and I could hear a guard up there, ready to fire a crossbow, or drop a javelin on me if I had happened to be an intruder. The inner door unlocked as a guard opened the door for me. A small desk facing the main door was manned by yet another guard and there were several small offices on either side of the room. Toward the back, and past more secured doors, I found my quarters. My quarters were still simple. I had a small desk, a cot, and a file cabinet. The décor was the same as every other military office I had seen in-game. My office led to the war room. The war room was the same as before, save for being a bit larger. I walked to the war table and opened the interface, filtering to review only things that were new, or had changed. I reviewed the general upgrades that the level 2 garrison provided before starting with the defensive garrison, curious to see what had changed with them.
Garrison Level 2: You now have unlocked the ability to queue upgrades. Now that you have access to a steady stream of resources, you can select the build order and have the structure automatically built once the proper amount of resources are gathered. The necessary gold will be taken from your funds once all the resources are gathered. This will enable the commander to update the garrison while in the field for extended periods.
Item Received: You have received a campaign map. The campaign map allows for limited interaction with the war table while in the field. The commander can receive recon reports and monitor build queue, and set rally points for replacements, but cannot make changes to build queue while using the campaign map. Many of the upgrades available in the supply depot can also be ordered out in the field, allowing for extended campaigns. *Note: Supply depot upgrades arrive via a supply wagon. The wagon will be defended by a nominal force and can be lost in transit, forcing the upgrade to be purchased again. Make sure you are in a safe area to receive supplies before ordering.
Defensive Garrison:
Southern transition point: Three squads of soldiers and five scouts.
Hayden’s Knoll crossroads: Two squads and two scouts occupy the fortified crossroads.
Southern roadways: Two squads, each led by a scout, now patrol the road network.
Mines/Foul Spore Pit dungeon: Two squads of soldiers and two scouts.
Hayden’s Knoll: Three squads and one elite soldier.
Stonefinder Mines: Three squads and two scouts help to defend this critical resource and respawn point. The mine is located on a high point with a defensive wall surrounding the area. Obstacles and traps are placed on the slope to deter attackers. Two observation towers have been built by the dwarves, who allow one of the towers to be manned by Imperium forces. The dwarven observation towers are fortified and can be used for firing missiles, as well as for keeping a watch on the immediate area.
The campaign map was just what I needed. The ability to queue buildings will help as well, now that we had a trickle of resources coming in. Coin would be the ever-present problem it had been, at least for the foreseeable future. The defensive garrison force upgraded numbers weren’t bad either. I moved on to check the recon report, which showed only the now upgraded threat of the ghoul lord. Closing the recon tab, I opened my favorite part…upgrades.
Garrison
Upgrades:
Garrison Level 3: 1500 resources, 250 gold. The level three garrison provides significantly upgraded defenses as well as the capability to house an entire battalion of soldiers.
Supply Depot Level 2: The level 2 supply depot allows for access to more powerful equipment and gear from across the Imperium. Cost, 150 resources, 25 gold.
Level 2 Aid Station: The level 2 upgrade to the aid station transforms the aid station into a field hospital. The field hospital will improve troops health, resistance to disease, and resistance to poison. The commander can also pay a small fee to reserve a respawn spot for specific, named npc’s under his command. The respawn is available only for named npc and cannot be used on any generic ones. If killed, key npc’s will respawn back at the garrison. A fee is required in advance for each respawn. Respawning npc forces are subject to the same respawn timer as players. Cost, 150 resources, 25 gold.
Level 2 Recruitment Center: The level 2 recruitment center improves the respawn rate of replacements as well as unlocking the ability to recruit auxiliary forces. From across the Imperium, various specialist troops are available for hire. You have to pay to unlock each troop type and there may be a longer wait time for spawn/respawn depending on the types of forces recruited. Cost, 150 resources, 25 gold.
Engineer Barracks: This building allows for the recruitment of Imperial Engineers. Engineers are a new type of advanced soldier, giving the commander a wider variety of forces to choose from. The engineers are famed for their ability to create hasty defenses and to build siege equipment. Many an enemy thought themselves safe inside their walls, only to find those walls pounded to rubble once the engineers showed up. Cost, 150 resources, 25 gold.