Nova Terra- Greymane

by Seth Ring

  Power and speed are the hallmark of the wolf, yet physical prowess is not the wolf’s greatest asset. The true strength of the wolf lies in its companions.

  You gain the ability to rally your allies, granting them increased stamina and health regeneration and allowing for the use of the [Pack Travel] ability in combat. This ability can only be used when at least one ally is present.

  Both [Oration Proficiency] and [Rallying Cry] would only strengthen Thorn’s leadership, so he selected the Dawn Form, watching as his ability changed to [Martial Form: Dawn]. With his form selected, Thorn looked at the last ability his [Disciple] class granted him.

  [Basic Weapons Mastery]

  You gain basic proficiency with the following weapons: Daggers, Short Swords, Long Swords, Staves, Clubs, Axes, and Bows.

  *status*

  Name: [Thorn]

  Race: [Titan]

  Health: [100%]

  Mana: [100%]

  Titles: [Battle Mad], [Wolfsbane], [Lord Greymane, the Moon Wolf], [Friend of the Earth], [Inheritor]

  Class: [Disciple]

  Mastery: [None]

  Allegiance: [Temple of the Moon]

  Abilities: [Wolf Lord’s Howl], [Avatar of the Wolf], [Call the Pack], [Blessing of the Moon], [Presence of the Wolf Lord], [Martial Form: Dawn], [Basic Weapons Mastery], [Oration Proficiency], [Rallying Cry], [Pack Travel]

  The trip back to the keep took a bit under three hours due to the [Pack Travel] racial ability that the Wolfkin possessed, an astounding feat considering the number of young and elderly in the crowd. When the spires of the keep came into view above the trees the jogging Wolfkin broke into cheers, increasing their speed.

  Leading them through the gate, Thorn had them set up camp in the courtyard while he went to bed. Velin and Mina had logged out, leaving a message that they would be back in the morning so Thorn settled in for what was left of the night. Staying up all night was not a problem, but some habits were hard to break.

  The sun was shining brightly through the narrow stone window when Thorn woke up the next morning. Yawning, Thorn rose from the floor where he had slept and stretched his body, the yawn changing into a grumble as his arms hit the ceiling. Most of the keep’s ceilings were barely over nine feet tall, which annoyed Thorn to no end. Opening up his friends list, Thorn saw that both girls had logged in so he made his way down to the courtyard.

  Velin was chatting quietly with Elder Havva and the captain while Mina stood nearby entertaining some of the Wolfkin children by creating small creatures with ice. Akira, sitting on Mina’s head, saw Thorn as he walked out of the keep’s double doors. Chirping with excitement, she dashed over, bounding up Thorn’s body and hopping excitedly up and down on his shoulder.

  [Master! Master! You’re back! Why’d you leave? Why didn’t you bring me? I don’t want to stay with that older sister! I want to stay with you!]

  “Haha. Hi, Akira.” Pleased to see his battle pet, Thorn fished out a pastry from his inventory. Stroking her fur as she chattered at him, Thorn walked over to Velin and the two Wolfkin.

  “Greetings, Lord!”

  Upon seeing him, the Wolfkin, who were standing around the yard dropped to one knee, shouting out together with one voice. Slightly taken aback, Thorn grimaced. Somehow, he could not get used to this. Seeing that the Wolfkin remained kneeling, he frowned.

  “Rise.” Nodding to the Elven War Priestess, Thorn greeted Elder Havva and Captain Del’har. “We’ve got plenty to do, so let’s get started. Velin, have you filled everyone in on our situation?”

  “No, I was about to start.” Velin shook her head, her serious eyes fixed on Thorn. “Would you like to?”

  “No, go ahead.”

  “Alright. As I was saying, we are in a precarious position, though it certainly is not as hopeless as it was. We have ten days until the shrine at Greymane Village is activated as a respawn point. Once that happens, the valley will be announced as a new player location. At the same time, we will see an influx of Wolfkin players. In fact, if trends hold, we will see at least five million Wolfkin players over the next year. Every time Nova Terra releases a new playable race we see large influxes of people buying race change tokens.

  “We have three main considerations. One, holding the valley. We can treat this as two tasks. First, the keep contains a control point. Currently, the throne is set as the control point. If enemies hold the throne, they can forcefully take control of the keep. Second, the shrine in Greymane Village. Controlling the spawn point will grant an advantage to the team that holds it since they can allow their own forces to spawn while blocking others. This concern has to do with our immediate enemy.

  “The guild Ragnarok operates in this area and has been looking for the valley for the last two weeks. It is highly likely that their scouts will find us within the next five days and that their main force will not be far behind. Ragnarok is a fairly large guild, but thankfully, the group operating in this area is no more than 1500 players and supporting natives.”

  “1500? That’s a pretty sizable group.” Thorn muttered, looking at the 200 wolfkin he had.

  “Correct. 250 Crimson Snakes, 250 player guards, and approximately 1000 native guards. The force is not a cohesive army, though all of the players have a reasonable level of skill.”

  “Alright, continue.”

  “Apart from our approaching enemy, we have two other considerations. Infrastructure and population. I mention these together because they are so closely linked. Currently, the valley has been almost entirely reclaimed by the forest. This is to our advantage as it will prevent mounted troops and heavy siege weapons from being brought in. At the same time, this is a problem for us because we don’t have the infrastructure to set up a profitable territory.

  “A profitable territory needs food and money to operate, and the facilities to generate them. However, to build the facilities, we need population. To generate population, we need excess food, money, and time. As you can see, this is an issue for us. Because of our approaching enemy we do not have the time necessary to build defensive fortifications and we do not have the population to recruit guards or soldiers.

  “This is our basic situation. We lack infrastructure and population and have an approaching enemy. However, we do have a number of things going for us.” Velin paused and looked at Thorn. “First, we have absolute command due to your position as Lord Greymane. That cannot be underestimated. Second, we have about 200 combat ready disciples from the Temple of the Moon, courtesy of Elder Havva.

  “Mina did not find the bandits, but according to reports from the village, they’re a group of 100 former soldiers who are operating on the edge of the valley. Since they were once soldiers we might be able to absorb them and bring them back into our army. We also have almost 50 hunters from Greymane Village. While this combat force is not nearly as large as our enemy’s, it is better than nothing. Third, we have guild backing of our own. If Atlas is willing to inject funds into this territory then we might be able to squeeze through.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Stepping over to one of the walls of the keep, Velin projected her map onto it, zooming in to show the valley. Three spots were marked out in red, eye-catching among the many other markings and notes on the map.

  “The valley is a naturally defensive position with a single entrance, a pass between the Twins. This means we have three important locations. First, we have the keep which holds the control node for the valley, located at the far end of the valley. At the other end we have the entrance to the valley. This is the only known way into the valley. Close to the pass we have Greymane Village where the respawn point is located. We need a plan that will cover all three of those locations.”

  Stepping forward, Thorn examined the map. Mina and Akira had finished mapping the whole valley in the day he was gone. After a moment of thought, he turned to Elder Havva.

  “Elder, is there any significance in the positioning of the old temple?”

  “Hmmm? You mean h
ere, where we stand?” The elder peered around as he thought about it. “No, not that I know of. The original temple was built on top of the village that our people originally settled. Over time, the village became the temple and a second village was started. That is where Lord Greymane and the Night Walkers were based. When the temple was destroyed, the Greymane of that generation built this keep.

  “The temple will exist wherever the Wolfkin build the altar. Tradition has dictated that the statue of Hati watches over the valley, but when we fled the valley we moved it with us, carrying it to the village in the mountains. You would know better than I if Hati required the altar to be constructed in a specific place.”

  “Good.” Thorn grinned. “I’m going to be moving the temple.”

  “Moving the temple? What temple?” During the conversation, Mina had wandered over. Now that there was a chance to jump in, she did not want to miss it.

  “Here.” Thorn’s large finger landed on the entrance to the valley. “We will place the Temple of the Moon in the pass that leads into the valley. I think it would make more sense to control the entrance then it would to try and control the rest of the valley. Frankly, if we can’t control who gets into the valley then there is almost no point in trying to hold the keep. On the other hand, this will allow us to keep a firm grip on the resources we’ve discovered.”

  “Oh, did you see that we found more of those glowing rocks when we were mapping?”

  “Yeah, I noticed that. According to Elder Havva, it sounds like those stones are moonstones. The Wolfkin use them to improve their racial abilities. They will be a great source of income if we get a lot of new Wolfkin players. Thanks for mapping everything.” Thorn smiled at Mina and turned to look at Velin. “If we want to build a fortress monastery in the pass, what do we need?”

  “Time, people, and money.” Velin pulled out her notebook and began scribbling in it with a frown. “There are a couple ways to build new buildings in Nova Terra. The first requires the labor to be performed in game and, so long as the material is available, costs nothing but time and effort. This is by far the most popular way to build. The other, less popular way is to pay for the game to construct a building from scratch. This would automatically create the structure in-game according to a blueprint that the player inputs. While this seems easier than building by hand, it is not a good option for us.”

  “Yeah, it’s a trap.” Mina tossed in from the side.

  “Trap? What do you mean?”

  “The cost rises exponentially per feature you have the system build. It is much more cost effective to spend the money buying the materials and hiring workmen.”

  “But that takes time. Something we don’t have the luxury of.” Thorn’s eyes locked on the Elven Priestess’.

  “I don’t think you are recognizing the depth of the cost. Building a house would bankrupt most people, let alone a castle. We should spend our effort on a defensive line. Or trying to negotiate.”

  “Negotiate?” Thorn’s voice dropped slightly.

  “Yes. Ragnarok is not unreasonable. While we currently hold the valley, there is little chance that we will be able to keep it once the Crimson Snakes find it. I could use my connections to help us negotiate a split. Then we would at least be left with something.” Noticing that her surroundings had become silent, Velin looked up from her writing to find Thorn staring at her with a dangerous look in his eyes.

  “Velin, I am going to assume that you are making that suggestion out of your concern for our group’s wellbeing.” Thorn’s deep voice was not loud but it still sent a shiver down the spine of everyone who heard it. Slowly lifting his hand he planted a finger on the map. “We will not negotiate. If Ragnarok wants to take something else from me they will pay for it in blood. We build the new temple here.”

  Palpable waves of force radiated from Thorn, causing everyone around him to instinctively cower. There was a bloody edge to him that had not been present the last time Velin had seen him. Rather than struggle against his aura, she bowed her head.

  “I’m sorry, I spoke out of turn. I did not think through the issue properly.”

  Hearing her admit her mistake, Thorn’s anger lessened, though a burning ember of discontent refused to be extinguished. Taking a deep breath, he did his best to soften his demeanor.

  “Let’s continue. Knowing that we lack time, what do we need to do?”

  Finally free of the paralyzing aura, Mina was about to throw a fit until Velin caught her eye, giving a shake of her head. Biting her lip, the short Ice Witch scowled and stomped off. Ignoring her, Velin resumed where she had left off as if she had never brought up the idea of negotiating.

  “Without time, we will need people and money. A lot of money. Nova Terra is not a pay to win game, even though money can be spent on an astounding number of items that grant advantage. Anything that can be purchased can be earned in game and the cost for purchasing through the store is beyond prohibitive. Building is a great example of that. A house costs a million credits base. Each room doubles the cost.” Not seeing a response from Thorn, she sighed and continued.

  “To top it off, there are no ready-made designs for sale. If we want to buy a castle, we’ll need to buy plans. This will add expense as well. Prices for property blueprints are astronomical since it is assumed that only those who are too rich for their own good will bother paying the system to build.”

  “Money is not an issue. I’ll handle that part. How do we submit the design?”

  “If you’ve ever accessed the Fantasia shops from inside Nova Terra, it is the same. There is an office that handles building requests.”

  “Thanks. I need to deal with Greymane Village and the bandits. Please organize the Wolfkin here and move everything of value to the entrance to the valley. I’d like you to organize them into groups and have them patrol outside the valley. We need to know when Angdrin gets here. I’ll meet you in the pass in two days.” Not waiting around to see how she took his commands, Thorn turned and left, heading for the throne room.

  Watching his broad back as he walked away, Velin closed her eyes and sighed. Furious, Mina ran up to her.

  “How could he do...”

  Before she could continue Velin blocked her mouth.

  “Leave it. We were the ones that disappointed him first. It is only reasonable that he be on his guard. Plus, I was overstepping my bounds so it is only right for him to chide me.”

  “What? No way! This isn’t how you treat friends.”

  “It’s more complicated than that, Mina.” Frowning, Velin lifted a hand to rub her temple. “We’re friends that picked our own interest first, friends who tried to take what was rightfully his. And now we’re his employees.”

  “But.”

  “Leave it.” Velin hugged her friend tightly. “I know he said that everything could go back to normal, but it will take time. Time and effort. No matter how much he wants to pretend everything is okay, there are bound to be wounds. And if this is the only cost to regaining his trust, it is worth it. Now, let’s get these Wolfkin organized.”

  Inside the keep, Thorn was walking up the stairs glumly. His outburst seemed to have come from nowhere, blazing into existence before he could control himself. Even now, he could feel the uncomfortable burn of his anger, settled firmly in the pit of his stomach. He had not meant to take it out on Velin, but when she mentioned negotiating with Ragnarok he had almost lost it completely.

  It had only been with supreme effort that he had not accused her of being a traitor right then and there. He had managed to hold the words in, but Thorn had no doubt that she had guessed exactly what he was thinking.

  “So much for trusting,” he sighed. Despite his nice sounding words and his best intentions, he seemed to have fallen at the first pass. Walking into the throne room, Thorn pulled up the [RMS], immediately noticing that the population count had shot up by 500. After hunting around for a moment he found the button to relocate the valley’s control point.

  Reloca
te Control Point

  Selecting Yes will convert the control point for this territory into a [Control Orb] for 24 hours. Using the [Control Orb] will allow you to set a new Control Point for the territory. After 24 hours the [Control Orb] will expire and the Control Point will return to its original location. A Control Point can only be assigned once per week.

  Would you like to relocate this Control Point?

  Yes

  No

  Hesitating for a moment, Thorn finally punched the no button. His plan was to handle the village first before he built the new temple at the entrance to the valley. With three to four days left to go before the enemy arrived, Thorn was confident that he had time to move the Control Point later. Having decided to wait, Thorn took stock of what he still needed to do.

  There were only a few days until the Crimson Snake scouts would start arriving, so he wanted to make sure that the important defenses were in place first. Not only did he have to relocate the temple, but he had to help rebuild Greymane Village, and deal with the bandits. Truthfully, Thorn was not confident that they would be ready in time for the influx of players, which would complicate things immensely.