The Mountain Valley War

by M. A. Carlson

  You have been offered the mission to assist in breaking the siege of the Flattop Mill and to recapture it for Hammerton’s usage.

  Reward: Experience, Increased reputation with Hammerton Military Structure, Bonuses Available

  Do you accept this Mission?

  Yes

  No

  “Now, I do not care how you accomplish your objectives, but they must be accomplished and soon. Complete these tasks and report back for further instruction,” the Colonel finished before stalking away only to pause. “Oh, and if I see any of you in here again without your honorary ranks displayed, you will be barred for 24-hours,” she stated, continuing her departure.

  I had been given the title five days ago but had completely forgotten about it. I didn’t even know what the benefit of the title was.

  Hammerton Captain (Access to Hammerton War Effort Missions, Assign Missions up to 10 Adventurers Rank Lieutenant or Below, Free Military Rations)

  Did that mean I could now assign the missions I was just given up to 10 other adventurers?

  “I just got a notification, there is a new system window called ‘War Effort’,” Olaf answered. “Looks like there is an option to ‘Assign Mission’.”

  With a thought, the new ‘War Effort’ interface came into view. It had a list of active missions, bear hunting, patrol capturing and the new brewery and mill attacks. It also showed the available resource statuses listed giving the same information as the diorama, but no map or locations.

  This was new and exciting. I had never played a game where rank actually mattered beyond giving you access to better equipment. I actually had authority within Hammerton to issue missions to other players. Ten players weren’t many, but if Rose, Baby, Micaela and Olaf all had the ability to issue missions as well, then we could build up a pretty good-sized group of players to attack the objectives we were just given.

  “Hey, Olaf!” someone shouted from the entrance of the room. It was Icyhot and his group minus Duncan.

  “Icyhot!” Olaf greeted him in return.

  “Man am I glad to see you,” Icyhot said.

  Icyhot didn’t look much different from the last time I saw him except that his nameplate now read . He had leveled up quite a bit since we last saw him. A glance behind him showed his entire group, also now sporting the Hammerton Lieutenant titles. They were followed by a group of about 20 excited and happy players, many of whom I recognized from the first battle for Hammerton. I also noticed a lot of life suddenly get restored to the previously milling adventurers. Many of them starting to crowd around Icyhot.

  “Why’s that?” Olaf asked.

  “Because, now we can get a really large party and do some real missions,” Icyhot said. “It took days to convince the Colonel to let us help reinforce the Lumbermill and with us only being Lieutenant rank we could only share the mission with five players each,” Icyhot explained, answering a great deal of my own questions. Most importantly, why the adventurers were crowding around Icyhot and his people. If Icyhot was the only one that could assign something that resembled a better mission, then I would probably be crowding around him as well. “But like I said, now that you are here, we should be able to get a bigger group and hopefully better missions.”

  “Okay, I just had two missions made available,” Olaf said, jumping right into it. “We can attack the brewery or try to help retake the mill.”

  “What does the brewery even do?” I asked.

  “I was wondering the same thing,” Rose said, joining the conversation.

  “Morale,” said Icyhot. “Who would have thought that Dwarves morale rises and falls with the availability of their beer?” he asked sarcastically.

  Ignoring the sarcasm and focusing on the problem at hand, I knew from the state of Hammerton’s resource list, they could desperately use a morale boost, it might even make taking some of the other resources a lot easier to recapture. It would also help to eventually improve the production. “I vote for taking the brewery first.”

  “I thought you might,” said Olaf.

  Icyhot grinned. “Seems the Major here has some new mission for us, boys and girls,” he stated loudly, getting a cheer from the players. “Also, seeing as we have a Major, a Captain and three more Lieutenants, we should be able to take along quite a few more of us this time.”

  “We could take the entire room with us,” I said, counting on being able to include Icyhot and his people in the body count.

  “Jay, do you have more Insignias?” Icyhot asked, turning back to his small feathered friend.

  “Of course,” said Jay, fishing through the bag that hung at his waist before producing several strips of gold cloth.

  “You should all wear one of these,” said Icyhot, passing one of the cloth strips to each of us.

  Hammerton Insignia – Cloth - +20-Endurance, Durability 15/15 – A symbol of loyalty to the City-State of Hammerton. Those who bear this mark are to be known as allies in the fight against Anvilton – Made by Jay Fabulouso

  I spread the cloth strip out in between my hands, it was maybe a foot long by two inches wide and stamped in the center was a white hammer. “What is it?” I asked, worried it was a headband.

  “It’s an accessory,” Jay answered. “An arm accessory to be specific. After the jerks from Anvilton tricked so many of the players that night, Icyhot suggested having a way to identify friends wouldn’t be a bad idea. That’s where these came from. The symbol is actually an enchantment placed by the head of the temple here, it gives you an ‘Ally of Hammerton’ buff. Not much of a buff though as that’s all it does but at least is looks fabulous! Also, 2-Gold please.”

  I looked and saw Jay staring at me expectantly, preening as he adjusted the gold cloth wrapped around his arm, the white hammer visible. A quick look around proved all the adventurers wore one. It only took a second to do the same, plus an extra +20-Endurance was nothing to scoff at.

  I paid the 2-Gold, it was worth it as far as I was concerned.

  “Right, enough of that,” said Icyhot. “Olaf, you’re the boss, now get us those missions.”

  Olaf cleared his throat once. “Yo, listen up,” Olaf’s voice boomed loudly through the room, easily catching the attention of all the adventurers. “We’ve been assigned a mission to capture the ‘Hammered Dwarf Brewery’. We can take 60 more of you with us. Who wants in?”

  There was a sudden uproar, as if the adventures had received a massive injection of adrenaline. Of the slightly more than forty adventurers that were hanging out in the room, not one of them wasn’t clamoring for a spot. Between them and the more than twenty Icyhot just returned with, we had a pretty large force to be reckoned with.

  “Alright, tanks report to Rose Thorns or Rock Dudson, healers with Babies Breath, Dawn Rises, Kimmie Underwood, and everyone else come see me, Icyhot, Jay, Micaela or Bye-bye Jacko to receive your mission,” Olaf ordered loudly.

  It took less than 20 minutes to offer everyone the mission. As a result, we ended up with 9 tanks, 16 healers and 48 damage dealers. Thankfully, with Icyhot and his team, we were able to accommodate all the adventurers, forming one very large raid group.

  “Alright, you’ve got your mission now pay attention!” Olaf shouted over the excited din. “We’re going up the mountain to the ‘Hammered Dwarf Brewery’. It is currently under the control of Anvilton’s forces and they aren’t going to give it up without a fight,” Olaf paused to point out the location on the large diorama, causing the lights in the room to dim and a spotlight to shine on the map location.

  “The brewery has been in their possession for two days already, which means they are going to be fairly well dug in and we can expect resistance. Though how much resistance is unknown, so be ready to die a few times in the attempt to take control of it. The good news is, that with just two days, they haven’t had the chance to bring in any cannons according to the limited scouting report,” Olaf continued.

  “Our primary objectiv
e is to capture the brewery and free the captured workers. Secondary, we are to capture as many of the Anvilton forces as we can,” Olaf stated, the lights in the room returning to normal.

  “Are there any other players there?” someone near the back of the crowd of adventurers asked, the voice was familiar, but I couldn’t place it. I assumed it was someone I had met during that first attack on the city.

  “Unknown,” Olaf replied. “Which brings up my next point, I need a few volunteers to scout the area once we get up there.”

  “Ooh, ooh, send me,” someone shouted excitedly. “I’m a Scout, I mean, my class is Scout, that’s totally my job!” The speaker slipped between players until he stood right in front of Olaf. I think he was a Sprite. He was short, though not as short as Baby, and very lithe. His clothes looked more like leaves than cloth or leather so I couldn’t be sure what he was wearing. His nameplate read .

  “Great,” said Olaf, smiling down at Leafy. “Anyone else want to go with him?”

  There was just one more volunteer, a Thief name . He had the shady Thief look down with his dark clothes and a hood that cast his face in shadows. He was one of the higher-level players of those waiting for a mission. I also didn’t recognize him from the first raid which meant he was probably newer in the province.

  “Okay, so we’ll move as a group until we’re about a mile from the brewery, then we can send in the scouts. Once we know what we’re up against, we can plan our attack,” Olaf stated loudly.

  “What if there are players?” the same voice from the back of the crowd asked again. It was so familiar to me.

  “Then we’ll deal with them,” Olaf answered.

  “No, I mean, what if there are players that are . . . you know, like level 50 or something?” he asked again.

  Olaf looked to me, asking permission to let the player know about my spell ‘Justice Bringer’.

  It wasn’t much of a secret at this point, so I just shrugged. I trusted Olaf to use his best judgement.

  “We have a way around that,” Olaf stated.

  “Right, like what?” the player insisted.

  The player must have been short, I couldn’t see him over the assembled crowd.

  “We have a way to level the playing field, basically to scale everyone to the same level,” Olaf replied.

  “How’s that work?” the player asked.

  Olaf frowned, rather than answer he waded through the crowd with Micaela, Rose, and me just behind him. The crowd parted for us only for Olaf to suddenly freeze, causing me to bump into him, and Rose into me.

  I stepped back from Olaf, confused by his sudden stop. Olaf looked back to me then forward and back, fully turning to face me, his arms out to his side as if he needed to protect whoever was behind him. “Uh . . . Bye-bye . . . try to remain calm.”

  I felt my eyebrows furrow in confusion. “Why wouldn’t I remain calm?” I asked, trying to peer around Olaf, who moved with me to ensure I couldn’t see.

  “So, the one asking, is wearing a Hammerton Insignia. He’s clearly on our side now . . . but . . . well . . .” Olaf stumbled over his words.

  “Oh, just show him already,” said the player. “I can’t wait to see the look on his face.”

  Olaf cringed, looking at me sorrowfully.

  “I’m sure it will be fine,” I said. I was more curious than anything, plus I was dying to know who it was with the voice so familiar to me.

  I was stunned by what I saw. Pwn Star69 was sitting down with his back against the wall. In an instant my spear was out, and I was leaping through the air only for Olaf to tackle me before I was more than an inch off the ground.

  “What are you doing?” I demanded, struggling to free myself.

  “Remember what I said, he’s wearing the Hammerton Insignia. That means he’s on our side. If you kill him, you’ll be banished per your own contract,” Olaf tried to reason with me, succeeding in getting me to stop my struggling.

  “But he’s with Anvilton,” I countered.

  “Wrong!” Pwn snapped. “I was with Anvilton. After you and your friends ruined my plan, I was made persona-non-grata. Because of you, Anvilton declared me an enemy. And well, the enemy of my enemy and all that.”

  It sounded plausible, which made me think it was a trap. “He’s obviously lying. This must be a trap, a trick of some kind. Maybe an illusion.”

  “Why don’t you kill me and find out?” Pwn asked, spreading his arms wide, inviting me to kill him. Something I was very tempted to do. “But if you’re wrong, you get banished, did I hear that right?”

  I wanted to kill him even more now. I took a few cleansing breaths, trying to calm myself down. “Let me up,” I snapped at Olaf.

  It took me a minute to calm down. I was cursing the contract I made the whole time. Before I left Root City, I found out about Anvilton hiring players as mercenaries, promising money and quests to anyone that would sign on with them. As a result, I had a similar contract drawn up with an in-game lawyer. One of the stipulations I made for the Hammerton contract was that if anyone killed a local or Hammerton aligned player then that person would be banished from the province. I never thought I would be the one on the verge of being banished.

  “You’re not going to kill him, right?” Olaf asked.

  “Not right now,” I said. His death could wait until Hammerton was safe. And if he really was a spy or this was a trick, I would kill him anyway.

  Olaf finally let me up and I climbed back to my feet, my glare never leaving Pwn.

  “Good boy,” Pwn said patronizingly, enjoying my fury and impotence in equal measure. “Now, where do I sign up for this mission? I’m looking forward to getting a little payback on those Anvilton pricks that cast me out.”

  Olaf sighed, “Alright everyone, let’s move out. I want to finish this mission before nightfall.”

  “When this is all over, we can settle things once and for all,” Pwn said as he walked past me, following the rest of the crowd out of the command center.

  I would have chased him down and killed him then, consequence be damned, if Rose had not taken my hand in hers.

  “It’ll be okay, Jack,” Rose said softly, calming me a little further.

  I took a few breaths, I needed to focus on breathing, or I was going to do something really stupid and this was not the time to be doing anything stupid.

  Chapter 24

  “We should have split into smaller groups,” Olaf griped for the third time. Traipsing up the mountainside with so many gamers made a stealth approach all but impossible. Hopefully, those guarding the brewery wouldn’t have any scouts around.

  “You know one of the groups would have gotten lost,” Micaela commented. Then looking at her axes, she added, “They don’t have your sense of direction.” The fact she was addressing one of her axes was only slightly disturbing, in fact, it was something we had gotten used to. But I must admit, it was getting a little weirder. “You can’t all talk at once, calm down, one at a time. Butch, stop bossing the others around, I’m the boss . . . yes, I am.”

  “Should we be worried?” Rose asked, looking sidelong at Micaela.

  “I’ll be honest, I’m starting to get really worried about her,” said Olaf. “My wife, she’s been quite the free spirit since we left the military, her lifelong rebellion against that life as she calls it. But this is starting to get out of hand.”

  “Have you tried talking to her about it?” Baby asked.

  “I’ve tried. But every time I bring it up, she denies it, brushes it off, or she ends up in an argument with her totems,” Olaf replied.

  “When we get back to the city, maybe we should confront her about it?” I suggested, worried for my friend who was still arguing with her totems, her steps slowing down.

  As if realizing she was falling behind, Micaela snapped, “Enough! We can discuss this later when we are not on a mission.” Her minor outburst seemed to have resolved whatever the issue was, and she was now joggi
ng a little to catch up to us. “Sorry about that, the kiddos demand a lot of attention,” she stated once she came back alongside Olaf.

  “You know, that’s been happening a lot lately,” Baby commented.

  “Has it?” Micaela asked. “I think you’re imagining things,” she tried to play it off until suddenly she snapped, “shut up!” She wasn’t looking at Baby when she said it, instead, her gaze was drawn downward.

  “Babe, if you want to sit this one out, you can head back to town. Maybe take a nap or something,” Olaf tried to gently persuade his wife.

  “Nonsense, I’m right as rain,” Micaela replied, her eye twitching after she said it. “On second thought, I guess I’m a little distracted. You can handle this without me, right?”

  “We’ve got this,” said Rose, reassuring our friend.

  “Great, Vision, why don’t you stay and help them out,” Micaela suggested, looking to spot a few feet away that was vacant only for the blue ghostly spirit wolf to appear in it.

  “You got it, boss!” Vision enthused.

  “Great, one less voice,” Micaela said, sounding relieved. “I mean, one less thing to worry about. With Vision scouting for you, nothing will get missed. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really trust that Thief and Scout that volunteered,” she quickly amended. “Anyway, I’m just going to run back to town. See you later, have fun storming the brewery.”

  I could only watch as Micaela rushed away, talking to herself the entire time, except I knew she was talking to her totems.

  “Did she say voices?” Bushy asked.

  “I’m afraid she did,” Olaf replied. I could tell he very much wanted to follow after his wife.

  “You can go after her, we’ve got this,” I offered.

  “She’ll just clam up again,” Olaf said with a heavy sigh.

  “Boss has too many spirits,” Vision said, drawing all our attention.

  “What do you mean?” Olaf asked, looking to the pup.

  “Shaman can only listen to so many voices, but Boss does not want to let any of them go,” Vision answered. “Eventually, some will leave her to save her from herself . . . but mostly just to save themselves.”