by Seth Ring
Leaning heavily on the iron spike in the center of the room, the only things keeping him from sprinting forward were his iron self-control and his fearsome grip on top of the metal spike. Looking around at the corpses surrounding him, Thorn could feel the murderous drive trying to control him, telling him to rip into the greater werewolf.
His gaze eventually settled on the greater werewolf who was beginning to slowly make his way toward him from the throne. As the boss monster broke into a charge, one of the few remaining parts of Thorn's mind that possessed restraint recognized the danger and let go, sending him hurtling to meet the greater werewolf.
Issuing a roar of superhuman force, Thorn met the boss' charge. With an ear-shattering boom they collided, sending dust and blood flying. Smashing a fist into the greater werewolf’s chest, Thorn felt a razor-sharp claw pierce his chest in return and only a desperate twist of his body prevented it from cutting into his heart. Still, the fury gripping him did not let him back down as he threw blow after blow at the greater werewolf, forcing it back.
Snarling, the greater werewolf slipped to the side, striking again. Its razor-sharp claws cut into him. Fiery pain erupted in his chest as blood spurted out, soaking the front of his body in gore. Darkness began to creep into his vision and Thorn could feel his strength draining quickly despite Velin’s attempts to heal him. Yet in the haze of his fading consciousness a stubborn ember glowed, refusing to be extinguished.
Scenes from his childhood flashed across his eyes as the world grew dark. At three, already tall enough to look out over the window sill at the kids playing outside, unable to leave the house due to his condition. Age six, blowing out the candles on his birthday cake, only his aunt and nurse there to celebrate. The stark white walls of the hospital where the doctors finally put a name and description to his condition the day after his ninth birthday. The lonely hours that stretched into days, weeks, and months when his aunt was away on business.
All his life he had been alone, isolated and protected from the world and anything that could harm him, protected from himself most of all. And now that he had the chance to experience true freedom the monster in front of him was trying to take it all away. Intellectually Thorn knew that giving in to his unbelievable fatigue would simply send him back to the spawn room, a simple rebirth of his avatar.
Yet, for whatever reason, Thorn could not tolerate the thought of it. The ember of resistance that burned in his soul ignited and his slipping hands tightened on the massive spike he was leaning on. Peering through the haze at the wavering figure of the leering werewolf who had stabbed him, Thorn grimaced in pain and his hand closed over the massive claw that impaled him, holding it fast as if letting go meant the end of everything. The ember burst into flame, a flame that raged through him, forcing a low rumble out of his chest as he straightened up from his slumped position.
The greater werewolf simply couldn’t believe his eyes as before him the gore-slicked figure held on with a desperation that was out of this world. The fearsome grip crushed the bones in the werewolf’s wrist, yet no matter how it struggled, it could not break free. In growing horror it watched as the monster who had walked into its lair began to straighten up.
Looking into Thorn’s eyes it saw nothing but the mad promise of death and its instincts kicked in, forcing it into a mad scramble backward. The greater werewolf firmly occupyed the highest spot on the local food chain, but right now it felt like nothing more than a rabbit being hunted. Or rather, the greater werewolf would have scrambled backward if his claw was not caught firmly by Thorn’s hand.
Thorn, barely aware of his actions, continued to hold onto the struggling werewolf, his right arm straining at the firmly planted metal spike in the center of the stone floor. Heaving upwards with a herculean effort, the veins on his arm bulging, Thorn’s strength overcame the spike and he ripped it from the floor. Thorn hoisted it like a giant club, bringing it down on the now whimpering werewolf with tremendous force that crushed its skull like an egg, blood and brain matter coating the impromptu weapon.
*Ding*
Greater Werewolf defeated: You have gained the favor of Hati. [Wolf Hide] Unlocked
Ability: Avatar of the Wolf
Because you carry the essence of the Moon Wolf, you have gained the form of the wolf. As you grow, you can adopt features of the Moon Wolf Form.
Wolf Claws: You gain the Claws of the Moon Wolf
Wolf Hide: You gain the Armor of the Moon Wolf
Wolf’s Rage: You gain the Strength and Speed of the Moon Wolf
Wolf Helm [locked]
Wolf Form [locked]
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Still caught in the grip of rage, Thorn’s eyes fixed on the throne where the greater werewolf had lounged when they first arrived. Carrying the corpse of the greater werewolf in one hand and dragging the six-foot-long metal spike in the other, Thorn stalked to the throne. A warm golden light surrounded Thorn as he advanced, stabilizing his injuries and restoring his strength. Sitting down on the throne, Thorn gave off a barbaric air.
His ruined and bloody armor and the massive rusty spike resting against his leg presented a frightening picture, reinforced by the body of the greater werewolf dangling loosely from his other hand, its legs splayed across the steps leading up to the throne. Across the room, Velin kept Mina back, continuing to heal Thorn as she watched the blood in his eyes fade.
After a few minutes of frozen silence, Thorn woke from his rage, the day’s last light peeking through the window and bathing the room in a soft glow. As he blinked the room changed, its dungeon-like air vanishing, replaced by decoration one would expect in an ancient castle.
Old but regal tapestries adorned the walls, faded and moth-eaten. A red carpet ran down the center of the room from the large double doors leaning precariously on their hinges all the way up to the platform where he sat in a large wooden throne. Around the outside of the keep, the thick, gloomy mist that had blocked out the sun slowly faded away. A ripple seemed to pass through the valley, lifting the silent, oppressive air that had once smothered the forest.
His mind still bleary, Thorn ran his hands over the chair, marveling at the detailed workmanship of the lifelike wolves that formed the arm rests. The corpse of the greater werewolf had disappeared from his hand and turned into a large black wolfskin carpet, its scarred head staring at the door from under the wolf throne. After blinking a few times a notification caught Thorn’s attention and he clicked it open resulting in a torrent of messages blocking his vision.
By the door, Mina slowly calmed down the frantic Akira, stroking the Ailuridae’s fur as she observed the changes in the dungeon.
“Boy am I glad we’re his friends.” She mumbled. “He soloed a boss with no effort.”
“On that we agree. Apologizing to him was certainly the best idea you have ever had.” A small smile grew on Velin’s lips as she watched Thorn who was frowning on his new throne. “Come on, we should go greet the new Lord Greymane.”
As they approached, Velin watched Thorn carefully. She had seen a frightening rage in his eyes as he ripped the greater werewolf apart and was slightly worried that rage still consumed him. Seeing that his eyes were clear, she gave a small sigh of relief and bowed her head slightly as Mina spoke.
“I can’t believe you killed that monster by yourself!”
“Only thanks to your help.” Thorn smiled, standing from the wolf throne and walking down the steps. “Velin, if it wasn’t for you and Akira healing me I don’t think I would have survived.”
“Happy to help. Did you complete the quest?”
“Yeah, though we still have to go back to the temple in the village to unlock it as a respawn point.”
“It looks like you unlocked your title though.”
“Yup. I’m officially the new Lord Greymane.” Thorn swiped through the notifications that had popped up after the fight.
[Wolf Hide]
A cunning wolf chooses to avoid the strikes of its enemy. But wh
en they must take a blow, they rely on their tough hide to minimize the damage. Due to gaining twice the necessary favor, [Wolf Hide] has unlocked and you have cleared the penalty for unlocking [Wolf’s Rage] out of order.
[Wolf Hide] increases the defensive capabilities of any armor you wear.
Quest Updated - Lord of Greymane - Complete
Elder Thomas, the Greymane Village leader, has asked you to break the curse hanging over these lands in order to claim your position as the Lord of Greymane. In order to break the curse sit in the Wolf Throne while wearing the Ring of the Wolf Lord. As an added requirement defeat all the werewolves in the castle.
100/100 Werewolves
1/1 Greater Werewolf
Rewards:
Title: Lord Greymane
Area: Greymane Castle
Area: Fang Forest
Area: Greymane Village
Area: The Twins
Lord Greymane (Unlocked)
You have defeated the previous Lord Greymane in battle and claimed his castle as your own. You are now known to natives in the surrounding area as Lord Greymane, ruler of Greymane Castle and the surrounding lands.
+Strength
+Dexterity
+Constitution
+Intelligence
+Wisdom
+Charisma
Unlock Ruler Management Screen
Ruler Management Screen Unlocked
All good rulers need to be able to manage their territory. Access the [RMS] by saying RMS. As you gain areas they will be added to your [RMS], allowing you to manage them more effectively. Currently your [RMS] governs the following areas:
Greymane Keep
Fang Forest
Greymane Village
The Twins
Greymane Village has been unlocked as a starter village. Players who start the game as Wolfkin or become Wolfkin will start in Greymane Village. Return the statue of Hati to the temple in Greymane Village to enable it as a respawn point.
Due to the opening of a new starter village, Wolfkin has been unlocked as a playable race. New players, or players with a corresponding race change token will be able to select Wolfkin as their race in 14 days.
Sorting through all the various alerts took a while and by the time he reached the end, Thorn had a better idea of what was going on. By killing the greater werewolf and sitting on the Wolf Throne, he had completed both of his objectives. Not only had he lifted the curse for the quest that Elder Thomas had given him, but he had also unlocked his [Lord Greymane] title and now he was officially the Wolf Lord, ruler of Greymane Castle and the surrounding lands.
Mina and Velin had gone to explore the rest of the second floor of the keep while Thorn looked through the [RMS]. Opening it up, he began to scan its options. The basic menu was divided into four sections, each representing an aspect of governance. In the bottom right, there was a timer showing there were fourteen days before players would be able to select Greymane as their starting location.
The [RMS - Economy] tab-controlled things like taxes, trade goods, guild rules, and various agricultural sliders that determined what seeds the native farmers had access to. After that came the [RMS - Citizen] tab that controlled various decisions related to the population of his land as well as containing statistics on the levels of happiness, wealth, health and other factors that his subjects currently enjoyed.
The other two tabs were the self-explanatory [RMS - Military] and [RMS - Diplomacy] tabs. All in all, the [RMS] was complex and as highly detailed as Thorn expected. The only things that took Thorn by surprise were the fact that the Diplomacy tab also contained a plethora of options for running an intelligence agency and that the Military tab already had several soldier natives listed as waiting to be claimed.
Curious, Thorn selected the name of a captain and pressed the button to claim his soldier. A moment passed and then, with a slight popping sound and a bright flash of light, a large wolfkin stepped out of the air.
Easily standing at 7’ 6” the muscular but lean wolfkin looked quite dashing in his brown and grey leathers, a massive longbow slung across his back and a sword by his side. Black fur, which covered him from the top of his ears to the end of his tail, except for a section around his neck where the fur was tipped with silver, created a striking contrast with his green eyes. About the same time he appeared so did his status and Thorn noticed that the native count in the [RMS] rose by one.
Name: [Del’har]
Race: [Wolfkin]
Health: [100%]
Mana: [100%]
Titles: [Vassal of the Wolf Lord]
Conditions: [None]
Abilities: [Wolf’s Howl], [One with the Shadows]
“My Lord.” Said Del’har, falling to a knee, his right hand over his heart and his head bowed in a typical warrior salute. “I am here to serve.”
“Oh, eh...rise?” Thorn coughed, embarrassed, at the Wolfkin’s unexpected action.
“Thank you my Lord. Have you decided how I may best serve you?”
“Uh, no. How would I go about doing that?”
“Simply select the citizen tab in the [RMS] and select what role I should be assigned next to my name, my Lord.”
“Oh, got it, thanks. What sorts of skills do you have?” Thorn asked as he fiddled with the [RMS] interface.
“My Lord, I am trained as a ranger, with a focus in using a bow and tracking. I am also trained as a leader and before my fall I was the leader of the Greymane’s First Company.”
Thorn mused for a bit, considering various options before finally deciding that Del’har would take up his old position. Like that, Greymane Keep gained its first captain. Going back to the military tab, Thorn found that the other soldiers listed were now grayed out. Seeing a symbol in the top right corner of the screen with a zero next to it, Thorn realized that he was out of the resource he had used to purchase Del’har.
Putting that aside for the moment, Thorn looked through the other tabs. As he did so, a couple of things really stuck out to Thorn.
First, the economy of the area was in shambles. Currently the castle required 300 gold a month to keep up, but since it hadn’t been paid in years, there was a massive amount of work that needed to be done to restore the castle. On top of that the surrounding area brought in a bit less than 400g a month in taxes, but taxes hadn’t been collected in years either which resulted in a completely empty treasury.
Second, Thorn currently only had one subordinate, Captain Del’har, and the whole region only had 65 people listed as citizens. The castle alone needed a minimum of 75 people to operate normally and while the surrounding lands could easily support thousands more, at least 50 people were required for Greymane Village to operate.
The first problem was easy enough as Thorn had incredibly deep pockets and could simply finance his new land indefinitely without any issue. The second problem was trickier. The lack of population meant that he couldn’t throw money around and hope to succeed. While it looked like he could buy the currency he needed to hire native soldiers, he really needed builders, hunters, farmers and other skilled craftsmen which were much harder to find. Facing a massive shortage of people, there did not seem to be an immediate way to improve the situation.
The girls returned from looking around the keep. As they approached Thorn they were stopped by the tall wolfkin captain, who rested his hand on the pommel of his sword as he watched them warily. Seeing the protective gesture, Thorn smiled and waved him aside.
“Captain, these are my companions Mina and Velin. You don’t need to stop them. Mina, Velin, this is Del’har, the Captain of the First Company.”
His eyes still alert, Captain Del'har greeted the girls with a warrior’s salute and stepped to the side, staying at the bottom of the steps leading up to the throne.
“Well, aren’t you moving up in the world.” Mina teased, laughing. “You have your own minions and everything.”
“Came with this ruined castle and tons of debt. The whole region is an absolute wreck. I
’m honestly not sure if this title is a good or bad thing.”
“Definitely a good thing.” Velin assured him, handing him a silver statue. “We found that in the lord’s chambers. It looks like the statue you need to return to unlock the spawn point. So far, things have turned out as we planned. What are you worrying about?”
“The valley is in shambles and we only have two weeks until players start to show up.”
“Sure, but if we can weather this first rough patch, controlling the region will bring a lot of money.” Mina chimed in.
“Eh,” uninterested by the earning potential of the region, Thorn shrugged. “It looks like the first issue we have to deal with is the lack of people. Rebuilding the castle, expanding Greymane Village, and harvesting the resources of the region are going to take a large population. Given what we know about how valuable controlling a region is, we will soon have people coming to see if they can wrestle this area away from us and we need people of our own if we want to stop them. But to support people we need infrastructure, which we need people to build. See the problem?”