“Uh?” I crooked an eyebrow at the mage in surprise. “Sure, just don’t hurt the tree. If we could also have a copy of your results…”
“Of course!” Donovan said enthusiastically, starting to inch his way back to the Town Hall. “Thank you, Lyrian! I’m eager to get started on it right away!”
“Let me know what you find!” I called out at the departing mage’s back. At least he’ll be out of trouble for the day.
Grabbing the box once again, I set off towards the fire pit, which was also conveniently near the yard where the Militia was drilling.
Seems like Caius is getting more than he bargained for. I saw the spindly half-dark elf surrounded by four members of the Militia, each taking turns to attack him with their spears. In his hands he twirled a practice staff, methodically batting the attacks out of the way. But he’s learning quickly and will probably need to apply a few levels worth of points into Strength and Agility.
Continuing to watch Caius fight, I tossed the chitin into the fire pit without any ceremony, happy to be rid of the mess. Someone would light a fire at some point during the day to burn any other garbage that was collected.
“Ho, Lyrian!” I heard the Bann’s voice shout out. Turning, I saw Aldwin waving me over to the militia yard where the whole group, along with Caius, had just taken a break from their training.
“I had heard that Caius volunteered to put himself under your tender clutches,” I said with a smile as I stepped out onto the yard. “So I figured to stop by to make sure I was going to be getting my Warlock back in one piece.”
“Ha! He’s doing fine!” Aldwin exclaimed with a laugh. “He’s a natural with the staff and with a little bit more conditioning and practice, he’ll be able to knock you down without breaking a sweat.”
“That’s great news!” I replied nodding happily at Aldwin and the sweat drenched Caius that had gingerly walked over. “How are you making out, Caius?”
“Everything hurts and I want to die.” Caius gasped as sweat continued to pour down his face. “But it’s something I need to do.”
“Oh?” I asked, with curiosity. “What’s on your mind?”
“I had a hard time yesterday,” Caius said slowly as he sucked in air. “Especially with landing a touch on a creature and I don’t really have a fancy shield like Halcyon to hide behind if things get rough.”
I nodded in understanding. “You want to be able to keep up.”
“Yeah… I just feel like I’ve been scrambling up to this point,” Caius replied with a sigh. “Making great progress so far, though, hoping to pick up on some more unarmed as well. Aldwin is just teaching me everything as it comes.”
“Best way to do it,” I said in full agreement.
“Are you off to dig, Lyrian?” Aldwin asked, indicating the neatly measured section Ritt had staked out before Jenkins’s wrath caught up to him.
“Not yet.” I shook my head, indicating the direction of the workshop. “Just felt a little cooped up in the workshop, so I decided to stretch my legs and throw some scraps in the fire pit. I’m headed back to making more Tribuli for the other ditch still.”
“Ah,” Aldwin said with a nod. “We’ll be drilling a bit longer, then it’ll be off to digging for us. Speaking of which, we best get back, muscles don’t earn themselves after all.”
“They sure don’t.” I agreed, waving goodbye to the group. “Have fun Caius!”
***
The rest of the morning for me was a blur of wood and sawdust as I sat in the workshop with Jenkins crafting Tribuli after Tribuli. I lost count of how many I made over the course of the day, losing myself in the simple, yet rewarding task. There was a steady stream of villagers that popped into the workshop, dropping off handfuls of wood, or grabbing as many of the giant caltrops as they could safely carry, and emplacing them in the ditches for us. It allowed us to continue crafting without our work piling up around us.
By the time the late afternoon had arrived, Jenkins and I got word that the second ditch had been appropriately filled with enough Tribuli to thwart even the most determined attacker from safely making it across. Grabbing a pair of shovels, we wasted no time in joining the rest of the village in digging out the final, and longest stretch of our defenses.
Despite needing to put the finishing touches on the second ditch, the rest of the village had made excellent progress today, largely in part to Drace’s incredible strength and stamina. Working a line all by himself he was able to carve through the earth like butter, tearing huge shovelfuls of dirt from the ground with every thrust. While not able to match Drace’s speed, Halcyon was right beside Drace, waist deep into the ditch, working tirelessly without complaint.
Amaranth’s voice echoed in my mind.
Amaranth said
North and then East. I mentally made a note to try and teach Amaranth about compass directions when I had a chance.
Happy to know that my familiar was capable and willing to fend for itself, I returned to digging. With the added hands today, it looked like there was a good chance of being able to finish the final ditch before the day was over. That left us with plenty of time tomorrow to craft the needed Tribuli to fill it.
Fortunately, it wasn’t much longer after I spoke to Amaranth that Sierra, Constantine, and Natasha returned from their day in the field. The sight of our scouts returning back safely was met with waves and cheers, quickly followed by a trio of outstretched shovels to help with the dig. With the extra help arriving and the ditch nearly completed, everyone quickly found a second wind, eager to finally be done the hard work of digging and have the majority of the defenses completed.
Sliding up beside us, Sierra and the others quickly filled us in on their day.
“Not too much to report for the day today,” Sierra began. “We ranged about half a day’s travel to the south and a bit to the east, mostly retracing the steps that we originally traveled to get to Aldford.
“There’s hardly any cover out that way,” Constantine added as he dug. “But it’s also pretty easy ground to travel over. No sign of any Adventurers out that way so far.”
“Stronger predators are moving into that region though,” Sierra continued. “I don’t know what changed in that area, but most creatures are in and around level 8 now, and we saw a handful of those level 10 wolverines Drace fought the other day too.”
“Yeah,” Constantine said in full agreement. “We had a reasonably easy time of it since we’re well leveled and decently geared. But unless the coming batch of adventurers are a hell of a lot more leveled than we’re expecting, any that wander into that area are going to regret it.”
“Happy to hear about that.” I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that we still had a bit of breathing room around the village.
“Natasha also manage
d to reach her base class today,” Constantine added bringing the scout into the conversation.
“Ah!” She squeaked, hearing her name. “I did! I am now a fully-fledged Scout like Sierra! These two have been so wonderful in sharpening my skills! I had never thought I’d be able to progress so quickly!”
“That’s great news, Natasha!” I beamed with a smile. “I’m happy you’re fitting in so nicely here.”
“Me too!” she added with a shy smile as she continued to dig.
“Have either of you seen Donovan today yet?” I made a motion indicating the glowing tree at the heart of the village.
“We did…” Sierra started to say with a shake of her head.
“…he’s camped out under the tree,” Constantine finished with a shrug. “Found a table and chair from somewhere and dragged it out there, writing furiously.”
“He barely noticed us when we walked by…” Natasha added with a shake of her head.
“Is that unusual for him?” I asked, remembering the Bann’s words about House Denarius, along with my own assessment of the man.
“No, not really,” Natasha admitted. “He’s always seemed driven by his work, and a little too focused at times.”
“Hmm. He doesn’t really seem like the type that should have been chosen to lead your expedition.” I said bluntly.
“I… had thought the same thing,” the young scout said with some embarrassment. “But I didn’t think it was my place to say anything, I was the least experienced novice in the expedition. I just focused on doing what I was told, and tried to learn from some of the more experienced scouts.”
“Hmm.” I paused to think for a moment. “Did anyone else step up to fill Donovan’s… gaps, in leadership?”
“Well, the Scoutmaster did his best, his name was, is Bax Rafferty,” Natasha said with a sigh as she thought about her missing comrades. “But ultimately the mages directed where the expedition went.”
“There were other mages?” Constantine asked.
“Yes, three,” Natasha replied. “They kept to themselves really, constantly focused on all of their equipment and barely spoke to any of us. To be honest, they seemed rather agitated most of the time. I don’t think their experiments were going that well.”
“Donovan mentioned the same thing,” I confirmed, wondering if whatever agent House Denarius deployed was one of the mages. Given her relative youth and inexperience, it was hard to suspect Natasha as filling that role. Would they have chosen a non-spellcaster to be an agent?
“Amaranth mentioned that he smelled traces of goblin throughout the wood,” I told Natasha. “With any luck, we’ll be able to track them down, and see if we can find out what happened to the rest of the expedition.”
“Hopefully,” Natasha said softly.
We dug until the sun went down, everyone working tirelessly to have the final link of our defenses completed. As the distance shrank and space to work became tighter and tighter, a sense of eager anticipation arose, as a handful of us worked to bring down the final patch of dirt. If someone tired, another was ready to step in and take their place.
Unable to stand up to our determined effort, the final wall of dirt succumbed to our shovels, connecting the entirety of Aldford’s defenses into one near seamless piece, save for strategic patches of dirt, that could be quickly used to enter and exit the village without having to wade through a sharpened wall of Tribuli.
“We’ve done it!” I called out to the crowd, being greeted by the enthusiastic cheers and applause of the gathered villagers. “We have taken the first steps to ensuring the safety and prosperity of Aldford!”
“No longer will we be threatened by goblins or harassed by spiders!” I continued. “We will finally be able to sleep in peace, knowing that we can be safe in our own homes! You should all be proud at what we have accomplished here over the last few days!”
Pausing for a moment I looked around the cheering crowd, trying to make eye contact with as many people as I could.
“Our work is not yet done, however! For we will have to prove that we have the strength to stand on our own, that we are a beacon of surety in these lands for all those who wish to live in peace!” I raised a fist up high. “In the coming days, other Adventurers will begin arriving to Aldford and our surrounding territory! Among those, there will be wicked and greedy hearts that will look upon our work and seek to steal it for themselves! By my word, their craven hands will find Aldford a thorny prize to grasp!”
“But fear not!” I assured the crowd. “For every heart that holds malice, there will be two filled with virtue! Hearts that will understand and appreciate the hard work that we have put into the village! These are the souls that we will invite into our village, to better strengthen us, and to better strengthen Aldford against those who would wish it harm!”
“Should any doubt of my words cross your mind, look upon the Spider Queen’s Skull, now mounted on the Town Hall wall!” I saw tired determination on the faces of the villagers as they nodded at my words.
Having withstood both a goblin and spider attack in the same week, they were no longer unbloodied settlers staking a claim far from home. They were now pioneers living on the very edge of a dangerous and uncharted frontier. On a primal level, they accepted it now and were prepared to rise to any challenge put before them.
“As for tonight! Let us rest in the glory of a day’s hard work!” I called out, finishing my speech. “I don’t know about you all, but I am certainly ready to sit down!”
The crowd continued to cheer all the way to the Town Hall.
Chapter 34
Sunday, February 10th, 2047 - 6:21 am
Aldford
Good morning players!
CTI would like to remind all Long Term Play Players about the 10 day (240 hour) limit for continuous play. If you do not log out before you reach the play time limit, you will be automatically logged out by the system!
Minor play time extensions may be granted by the system in while in Combat or engaged by a Story Event on an ad hoc basis. However, CTI encourages players to plan accordingly and to log out ahead of their play time limit expiring to prevent any issues from occurring!
Thank you, and enjoy your time in Ascend Online!
-CTI Development Team
The next morning found me in a grumpy mood as an impatient Sierra and Constantine dragged me out of bed early to have their armor repaired before they departed for the day again. Our earliest estimates had the Adventurers arriving late today or by the end of the day tomorrow, which understandably had everyone more than a little nervous, and short tempered.
“We need to get moving, Lyr…” Constantine said impatiently as he progressively dressed himself in the gear that I had managed to repair so far.
“Calm your shit!” I snapped at the rogue, stripping a large piece of chitin from the armor I was working on. “If you wanted me to move faster, then you should avoid getting yourself stabbed in the chest.”
“But-”
“I don’t care!” I interrupted whatever Constantine was about to say. “Go be useful and create me another mana-infused carapace.”
“Gah!” A sound of frustration escaped Constantine as he left to do as I had ordered.
“You’re headed off to the southeast today.” My clipped words came out as a statement, rather than a question as I looked at Sierra.
“Yeah.” Sierra nodded quickly, sensing that I wasn’t overly amused at the moment. “There’s quite a bit of ground we haven’t covered yet. If the Adventurers have taken a direct path here, we’ll hopefully be able to spot them.”
“And when we spot them,” Constantine added optimistically, placing the requested carapace on the workbench. “We’ll have Amaranth and Sierra shadow the Adventurers, with Natasha and myself coming back to warn the village.”
“Good,” I stated, tying off the stitch I was working on and grabbing the carapace. “We’ll know where the both of you are via Party Sense, and once the Adventurers get
closer, Amaranth can give me real time updates via our mental link.”
“What are we doing to do then?” Sierra asked quietly, for all the planning that we had done so far, the Adventurers arrival to Aldford was one that we had no idea how to predict.
There are just too many contingencies.
“We’ll play it by ear,” I said with a shake of my head. “My gut could be wrong, and they may be happy to have a place to rest and relax, or…”
Ascend Online Page 37