Defender Light Online Four

by Larcombe, Tom

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie woke in the morning and the first thing he realized was that he hadn't posted about a bard the way he'd intended. Tiana was still fully asleep, so he relaxed in the bed and opened his browser. It took him a while to find where the post would be appropriate, but five minutes after that he'd posted an invitation for a bard to visit, with directions from Brightport to the Meadowlands, and an offer of an escort if the bard wanted to wait until the next time Bjorn went on a trading run.

  He slipped out of bed without waking Tiana, then dressed and headed downstairs. A deep breath fed him the scents of fresh-brewed coffee and warm bread, which was almost enough to wake him by itself. A few minutes later he was headed back upstairs with a tray, setting it down and starting in on his coffee as soon as he was in the room.

  As he'd expected, the scents got Tiana stirring, and they chatted about plans for the day as they ate breakfast, or at least they chatted after she got her first cup of coffee in her.

  They were headed downstairs when someone's voice from the common room caught his attention.

  “... it must be a glitch, I'm telling you. If it's affecting all of us, it's got to be a glitch.”

  He recognized the voice, and turned to find Becky, Paul, and Delilah sitting at a table. Becky was gesticulating wildly as she spoke, while Paul and Delilah looked much calmer than she did. Eddie hurried over, figuring if there was a glitch he could hand deliver the problem to Aaron.

  “What's the issue?” he asked.

  Paul and Delilah had seen him coning, but Becky's back had been to him, so she startled and spun around.

  “Don't do that to me!” Becky said. “Don't sneak up on a body that way.”

  I wonder if this is how Karl feels when he's accused of it. He, at least, is in Sneak most of the time he does it though, I just walked up openly.

  “Um, I didn't sneak up on you Becky, I just walked across the room normally. You were kind of engrossed in whatever you were talking about. Speaking of which, you found a glitch? What is it?”

  Becky took a deep breath, then looked at Paul, who gestured towards Eddie.

  “He's got an in with the debugging team. Tell him about it. I still say that there's probably a reason for it that we haven't thought of,” Paul said.

  “It's like this,” Becky said. “All three of us have noticed that when we get paid, there's five percent less to it than there should be.”

  Eddie blushed. He knew what the problem was, and they should also. He thought there had been a zone wide announcement about it.

  “Um, that's me, or really the town, I guess. Didn't you see the message a while back about taxes? All financial transactions in the town are taxed at five percent. The game does it automatically and supplies the collected coin to the town coffers. That's what's paying for the new buildings going up now.”

  “See,” Paul said. “I told you that was probably what it was. There wasn't anyone coming around to collect taxes, so you can just replace the missing sum with what you were saving for taxes.”

  Becky looked uncertain, like she wanted to say something but was resisting.

  “Go ahead and say it,” Eddie said.

  “Couldn't you warn a person first?” she asked.

  “The game did, that's what the zone announcement was about.”

  “No, I meant for each transaction, so we don't forget.”

  Eddie turned away from Becky, staring at Paul, before he rolled his eyes. Paul suppressed a chuckle, but stayed silent.

  “Really?” Eddie asked. “How many transactions do you have per day?”

  “I don't know, anywhere from ten to fifty or so,” Becky said. “Sometimes people go to respawn and come back, but I don't charge them to go across the bridge when that happens.”

  “So, you want to get a message every time someone hands you coin that's taxable?” Eddie said. “Get the same message over and over that many times per day? Wouldn't that get a little irritating after a while?”

  “Yeah, but...” Becky said, stopping and snapping her jaw shut.

  “Here's an idea for you,” Eddie said. “Ask Karl to make you a wood-burned sign that lists your prices and mentions that the tax is automatically taken from each transaction. Then any time you see it, you'll be reminded about the tax, if a reminder is what you need. But on that note, I think I probably ought to make signs like that for the marketplace and general store as well. The NPCs don't seem to notice the tax disappearing, so I don't have to worry about it for the inn or tavern at least since those all have NPCs taking the money.”

  Paul nodded.

  “Although one on the town hall mentioning that all financial transactions are taxed might be good also, just as a general reminder for anyone doing business on their own,” he said.

  “That's a good point.”

  “Marketplace definitely also,” Delilah chipped in. “I was kind of confused as well. I don't know how many players will use it, but some of them have claimed stalls now and then, so...”

  “Done. I'll try to think of anywhere else that might need a sign then get Karl to make a whole bunch. Those don't take him long, so he'll probably get it done in a day or two if he isn't totally engrossed in making new maps,” Eddie replied. “Oh, and have him leave the number for the percentage off the sign, get little hanging tags or something for that, because I plan to drop the tax rate lower, if I can, after everything's built.”

  Minor problem solved, Eddie turned back to Tiana. She'd been watching with a grin on her face.

  “Way to go, Mayor Eddie, sir,” she said, as he walked back to her.

  He groaned and made a wry face. Then gestured towards the door.

  After they'd gotten outside, she continued.

  “Seriously,” she said, “Becky's impatient. If you'd tried to just blow that off, she would've been on your case. I know you can't change the game to do what she wanted, and I don't think she really wanted it, just wanted 'something done'. Your sign idea was good, and heads off any problems with her about the whole issue that you might've had if you'd done nothing. Plus, it puts the onus on her to take care of it so she can't complain if it doesn't get done.”

  Tiana stopped and thought for a moment.

  “Correction, she can't legitimately complain about it not getting done. At least not to anyone but herself. So, my statement stands. Way to go.”

  Eddie shook his head.

  “It's just stupid. I can understand being upset over money missing, but she'd obviously heard the tax message if she was setting some aside for that. Why keep going on the complaints when your problem is solved?”

  “Embarrassment most likely,” Tiana said. “She was embarrassed that she didn't get it, didn't understand what was happening. It looked like Paul had tried to explain it to her and she denied that, so she had to keep going to deflect, right?”

  Tiana spread her hands wide in the universal gesture of 'I don't know'.

  “You managed to short circuit that by giving her a solution that was her own responsibility to implement. That's why she just stopped short like she did. Understand, I'm just guessing here, but I have gotten to know her fairly well so it's probably accurate.”

  “Well, I'm actually kind of happy they mentioned it. I wouldn't have thought about signs mentioning the tax if they hadn't. Like I said, the NPCs don't need it, but the players might.”

  “Not if they've read the help file they shouldn't,” Tiana said.

  “What, there's a help file on taxes?”

  “No, on the Meadowlands.”

  Eddie pulled up the help file on the Meadowlands and didn't see what she was talking about. It did have an additional mention that there was a town of the same name in it, but that was all.

  “What? The Meadowlands help file is just like it always was, it just mentions the town itself now.”

  “Try looking for help on 'town of the Meadowlands'.”

  Help town of meadowlands, Eddie thought.

  Meadowlands (Town):

&n
bsp; Built by Eddie Hunter, the Town of the Meadowlands is located in the Meadowlands zone. It contains one starting point for Human Player Characters as well as being a focal point for Hammer Dwarf Players and Goblin Players. The town contains the following constructed resources: Freyja's First Temple, Eddie's Inn, a marketplace, a tavern, a leather worker, a tannery, a smithy, a cartographer, and a brewery. The town currently has a 5% tax rate on all financial activity within it. The town is actively under development.

  “Oh,” Eddie said. “I had no idea.”

  “I stumbled on that a couple of days back. Meant to mention it to you sooner, but... Well, things got a little out of hand for me and I forgot until just now.”

  Eddie nodded.

  “That's fine. Thank you for telling me though. That's kind of weird, seeing my name in a help file like that, but it's also a way to see what's complete without going to the town hall. So it might save me some time.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie and Tiana went around the back of the inn first, calling Lucky over. He would've just whistled from the road, but he knew half the people who had booked rooms at the inn weren't up yet, so he didn't want to wake them.

  Once they'd acquired Lucky, they headed down towards the crossroads. Eddie wanted to see the progress on the general store. When he'd left the night before it looked like all the basement walls weren't going to be completed by dark.

  Tiana had to stop by the temple, she was nearly done training her acolyte, and needed to run them through just a couple more things. After she did and the new acolyte had access to spells, they were going to be the one that wandered the town, healing people as needed. Depending on what spells they received there might be other things they could do also, so Tiana wanted to finish training the new acolyte if for no other reason than to find out what spells they got and make plans.

  Lucky headed off with Tiana after an imploring look at Eddie.

  “Go ahead, you'll be at the temple pond, I know,” Eddie said, grinning.

  Tiana shook her head.

  “It's kind of crazy really. She spends almost as much time at the pond as she does with you.”

  Eddie knew that she was exaggerating, Lucky was with him all the time except when he was doing construction. At those times she was either at the pond or hunting nearby, always staying within earshot in case he whistled for her, but he also knew just what Tiana meant.

  “Well, I'm not the best company when I'm building, so I get it,” he said.

  They split up at the crossroads, their two destinations were within sight of one another, so Eddie waved to Tiana just before he slipped into the basement.

  Sure enough, there's only two walls finished, but at least the other two are close to it. I kind of thought that would be the case, he thought. On the other hand I didn't expect Jern down here this early.

  “Morning Jern,” Eddie said.

  “Good morning, Eddie,” Jern replied. “We ought to be able to have these two walls finished by lunch if it's just the two of us. Maybe later if we get some of those other guys back here that were working yesterday.”

  “A little bit prejudiced there?” Eddie asked.

  Jern shrugged.

  “I'd never really paid attention to how much quicker things went as your Masonry score raised before. Now that you mentioned it, I have noticed. We're both much quicker than them.”

  “Go ahead and say it, you're lots quicker than me too,” Eddie said. “You've got what in Masonry now? A twelve or something? I've only got a six.”

  “I've got a thirteen now actually,” Jern said, “and the difference in speed is astounding when you hit the multiples of five. I can't wait to hit fifteen and see how that goes. You're at least over five, so you've got some speed and decent quality. I think only one of the other masons we had here yesterday was over a five, and he was supervising more than working.”

  “Well, let's get to work and see what we can get done before anyone else shows up,” Eddie said. “I'm assuming that they will, but probably not for a couple of hours at least.”

  Jern had already started one section of one of the remaining walls, so Eddie picked the section next to it and started working.

  Nearly two hours later they'd finished the wall and were taking a break when several more men came down the rope into the basement.

  “We can put those stairs in now,” Eddie said. “The wall they attach to is in place.”

  The others just entering looked at him blankly before one spoke.

  “None of us have carpentry, aren't the stairs made of wood?” he asked.

  Eddie nodded.

  “Alright, I can put those stairs in now. If you guys want to wait a half hour I can get it done now, or I can do it later on.”

  “We'll wait,” the man who appeared to be in charge of the new masons said.

  The masons who had just been arriving hadn't all gotten into the basement yet, so their foreman called up to them to stay up there, then the ones who'd come down shimmied back up the rope.

  “Huh, I would've thought they wanted to work with the way they came swarming down,” Eddie said.

  Jern cleared his throat.

  “Um, Eddie?” the dwarf said.

  “Yeah?”

  “You're the mayor of the town, the person who's been doing most of the building, and generally the in-charge guy. You just said 'if they wanted to wait' and they heard 'wait until I'm done here'. At least that's what I guess happened,” Jern said.

  Eddie shook his head.

  “Crap, you're probably right. I didn't mean it that way though. I should go tell them.”

  Jern laid a hand on his arm.

  “No, don't. Let them take it that way, but pay more attention to what you say to the locals in the future. For now, just get the stairs done as quickly as you can while still doing them well. It'll be better this way, and less confusing for the other masons.”

  Eddie sighed, but nodded to Jern. Then he shimmied up the rope himself and started selecting pieces of wood for the stairs.

  ~ ~ ~

  Even with Jern's complaints about the slower masons and the delay to allow Eddie to build the staircase, the last of the basement walls was finished by lunch time. Eddie and Jern were the last two out of the basement, carrying up the remainder of the materials that hadn't been used.

  “So the carpenters are on deck here for tomorrow,” Eddie said. “The only remaining masonry that needs to be done is the tower. I should check on that later today, but I'm sure they haven't finished yet. It's slow going on that when everything has to be hauled up a series of ramps.”

  “Think they need a hand?” Jern asked.

  “With where your masonry skill is? I'm sure they wouldn't turn you down, but they might try to put you under someone else's supervision. They've formed crews and I'm pretty sure they won't let you just hop in to work on it on your own,” Eddie replied.

  Jern frowned.

  “There's three more of those towers going up, right?” he asked.

  “Four, actually. If you count the tower in the center of the castle. That one's higher still, well it will be when it's finished at least.”

  “Then I'll hold off until I don't have to join someone's crew in order to do that work. I can still pull whatever points I'd get in Masonry on the later towers. Maybe I'll form my own crew? Hm, that might be worth looking into.”

  “Whatever you like, Jern. For now, let's go get some lunch.”

  Tiana and Lucky had been waiting for them up on the road, so they walked back to the inn, Lucky darting around back to where she could actually catch some fish and have a lunch of her own. The other three headed in and took a table, talking about the day.

  Jern seemed fairly enamored with the idea of forming his own crew. He was torn between making it all masons or a full building crew that included carpenters though. As he and Tiana discussed it, Eddie leaned back in his chair, checking his email while he waited for lunch to be brought to the table.

  The chair legs cam
e down with a loud thump, the noise added to by Eddie's hands hitting the table.

  “What is it?” Tiana asked, sounding nervous.

  “Nothing bad. I just posted in a forum about getting a bard here earlier today and I've already got a reply. Some guy, character name of Erich, says he'd be happy to do it. He used to be with a group, but stopped to do some research on spells and fell quite a few levels behind. He says he'd be happy to play in the inn during evenings for room and board, but only if I don't mind him trying to find an adventuring group or doing spell research during the day.”

  Tiana chuckled.

  “Now I understand your reaction. Sounds a lot like what your initial plans were, well minus the musical talent anyhow. Do your job and adventure while you can.”

  “You're going to bring in music for the inn? What kind?” Jern asked.

  “I didn't ask for any particular kind, or specify anything. If they're a world traveling mortal, then you might not recognize the music they play, but if they're any good you might like it even if you don't recognize it,” Eddie said. “Let me send this guy a reply, see when he can get here, okay?”

  The server set Eddie's lunch on the table in front of him, but Eddie was caught up in his reply. Despite not having specified a type of music, he did want to know what kind the bard could provide. He also wondered how long before the bard could get here without a teleport spell, Eddie wasn't willing to cover the cost on one and he didn't expect Erich to either. He was willing to pay Bjorn some extra to escort the bard back to the Meadowlands though.

  He'd asked Bjorn earlier and the hauler was going on another trading trip to Brightport soon. He'd scheduled his departure date for the following day and was spending today getting his cargo together. Eddie had provided some of it, the rare components on his farm having gotten ripe enough to harvest again finally. This time Bjorn had a hand in the packing of them, babying the vegetation so there'd be no bruising or anything else to bring down the value of them. Eddie hoped that the bard was somewhere near Brightport and could make it there in a few days, and told him so in the message.