by Andrew Lynch
Solemn nods from my friends. They knew this relied on assumptions, guesswork, and luck. But the alternative was death.
‘I think we all know where we need to start,’ I said.
‘A simple question,’ Ixly said. ‘How do we win this first battle?’
‘I’ve never played the strategy part of Tulgatha, but I’m guessing we need to do something about our walls.’
Everyone looked at the shoulder high, rickety looking wooden fence. Really just a few sticks in the ground roped together with vines every few metres.
‘That would be a good start,’ Ixly agreed.
‘I can set my cultists to work–’
‘No, use my Geeko. They are master stone workers. They can do it faster and at better quality.’
‘Okay. I’ll have to check my Altar, but with the resources you two brought, I suspect we’ll have enough stone to make some real walls. Maybe not enough to withstand siege weapons, but enough to give us an armour bonus and height advantage. Something to protect the archers, at least.’
‘Good idea,’ Bri said. ‘Although we don’t have any archers.’
She had a point there. The small blowdart guns I’d seen a few Geeko use, and the spears of Bri’s Fawns, didn’t have much range. They were short to medium range weapons. ‘Correct. Which makes our second task obvious!’
We all turned to the gate of Thanis where road travellers were being turned away en masse. Only a select few were being allowed in – presumably those that my guards deemed to have enough gold to be able to actually afford food at the inn, or training in the barracks.
‘Fling wide the gates,’ I muttered. ‘Time for a policy change. Let’s go!’
I made my way over to the entrance, Horace, Bri, and Ixly hot on my heels.
It was the regular guards on the gate, the very tree-like Spriggan, She Who Slays, my cultists, Teint and Nartok, and the three Stagodon, Tissith, Missith, and Sissith.
‘Greetings all.’
Tissith dropped a human and turned to me. Everyone bowed.
She Who Slays tugged nervously – if a screeching poltergeist tree could actually be nervous – at the robe she had in her branches, and Teint batted her hand away, whispering something to her. They both stood up a bit straighter. Right.
‘It’s not about that. Policy change. Let everyone in.’
Tissith looked down at the man he’d just dropped. The guy also had a black eye and I was willing to guess who gave it to him. He reached out a giant scaled hand. The man flinched away. Tissith grabbed him by the collar and set him on his feet, then pushed him through the gates into Thanis.
I turned to Ixly and raised my eyebrows.
‘They’re obedient, not polite,’ he shrugged.
She Who Slays took the next man in line, and screeched so loudly, people started to flee.
‘Okay everyone, huddle up.’ The guards pulled it in. ‘Good effort, but I’ve got a few ideas. Tissith, Missith, Sissith, you’re out. Guarding, yes. Diplomacy and acceptance, no. We’ve all learned something, so good job.’ They remained impassive despite my smiling at them. ‘She Who Slays, equally–’
She screeched at me, bits of sap flecking my face.
I blew a stray leaf from my mouth. ‘Bri?’
Bri stepped forward and placed a hand on She Who Slays’ trunk, which began to glow a pale blue. ‘You have done well, child. Now, you are needed elsewhere. The grove calls.’
A smaller screech this time, and Bri gave me a thumbs up.
‘Excellent. Teint and Nartok, you’re still in. Good job, use those silver tongues of yours. Treat everyone like they’re minor nobles. Everyone is welcome as long as they accept that they are joining me and will have to take orders.’
‘Woah,’ Bri said, taken aback. ‘You want them to actually join you? Become allies? Not just be in the village?’
‘Yeah, of course. I need them to fight. And let’s be honest, if they have an option to leave, they will when the Eastern Shadow turn up. It’s a simple trade. They want to be in Thanis, they have to follow orders.’
Bri shrugged. ‘Your decision, I guess. Not going to end well, though.’
‘When Angie was telling me about population caps for villages, she said that they could be exceeded. It doesn’t have to be sustainable, so why not?’
‘He’s not technically wrong,’ Ixly said to Bri.
I turned to the next NPC in the line. A tall male with the look of a hunter about him, and a small dog by his side.
‘Hello, friend. I see you want to join this fine village.’
He nodded. ‘I offer–’
I held up my hands to stop him. ‘All you need offer is your fine, strapping self, good sir. Faithful cultist Teint will work up some documentation, but I look forward to seeing you hard at work.’
I turned back to my guards. ‘See? It’s that easy. They all want in, and we’re going to let them. Hmm, unless we reach some hard capacity issues, but we’ll be more selective when we can. Teint, write a clause that lets us kick them out whenever we want.’
From inside his robe’s sleeves, where I’d only ever seen a knife appear, he pulled out a quill and parchment. ‘Very good, master.’
I turned back to my friends, and came face to face with a pissed off looking tree. That was just She Who Slays’ normal expression, though. I looked back to the road to see multiple groups of travellers obviously deciding to pass by the fork into my town, with nervous looks on their faces.
I cleared my throat and looked through the branches to Bri. ‘She Who Slays is a formidable being, so might I suggest we replace her immediately with three of your Fawns?’
That seemed to avoid an ear destroying screech from the Spriggan. Flattery could melt even the most ironwood of hearts.
‘And, Ixly, let’s get some Geeko up here.’
He scratched his chin thoughtfully. ‘Certainly.’
‘Excellent. They’re no longer guards, they’re promoters. My cultists have their silver tongues, the Geekos are, let’s be honest now, incredibly cute, and the Fawns… well, their top half is female and scantily clad. We’re covering all our bases.’
Bri looked like she was about to argue, but nodded. ‘Sex sells, and I don’t want to end up with no village. I’ll make sure the girls I assign are strategically clothed.’
‘We all do what we can for the war effort,’ Ixly agreed. ‘I too shall ensure my Geeko are female.’
I squinted at the giant albino lizard. ‘Huh. Didn’t realise any of them had a sex, if I’m honest.’
‘Oh yes. Very distinctive patterns, if you know what to look for. I don’t have many female Geeko with me, as they’re far rarer, but the males can build while the females recruit.’
‘I feel… I feel you’re missing the reason for the Fawns.’
‘I feel you’re missing a kink of the NPCs.’
Chapter 28: House of Painfruit
The tip of the knife pricked my finger, bringing forth the blood needed for the change.
I squeezed several drops out and watched the glowing blue berry turn red.
‘You know, red in nature means danger, right?’ I point out.
‘Yes. We’ve made it poisonous, so it’s turned red. Naterry are flexible fruit.’ Bri held hers aloft.
I looked around the table. Horace and Bri had changed their Naterry to red already, but Ixly was struggling.
‘Apologies. I only have a drum with me. Not exactly great for cutting.’
He leaned back and one of his honour guard passed him a small shard of black glass. A moment later, his Naterry turned dark red.
We all lifted the tainted berries and squished them together. I took a tentative nibble from the inner flesh. The sweetness was replaced with a bitter bite. I grimaced. The others had the same reaction as I, except Bri who had obviously known it was coming.
‘Phase one of your plan complete, Severo,’ Ixly said. ‘Pressgang everyone we can into service. What is phase two?’
‘Phase two is s
imple enough. Gear up. Or, at least, that’s my phase two. Let’s be honest, a dirty robe isn’t going to cut it against The Eastern Shadow.’
‘Correct,’ Bri agreed. ‘But as we don’t know how long till they arrive, we’ll want to stay close, which means no situations.’
‘Fair point.’
‘As mentioned previously, master, there isn’t anything living in the dead woods.’
‘Yes, you mentioned that when I asked if there was food. Just you cultists and some Moonbeasts. Primal and savage animals, twice the height of a human, with an innate grasp on magic, yes?’
‘Word for word, master, yes. Good memory.’
‘Thank you. Now, it has been brought to my attention that you cultists are rather pedantic. The situation has changed and I’m no longer asking about food sources. So, let’s try another question.’
Horace sat upright, removing the red naterry from his shadowed cowl.
‘Horace, is there anything dead in the woods?’
‘There are many dead things. The entire forest, as its name would imply.’
‘More specifically, are there animated dead Mobs that will give experience and loot when killed. Rekilled.’
He thought for a moment. ‘I believe there are, although I have never seen them. I have often heard… the other.’
‘Thoroughly creepy, but excellent.’ I turned back to Bri, taking a triumphant bite from my naterry, and barely avoided choking. ‘There. That will keep us within reacting distance of Thanis, and still let us grind some experience and loot.’
She leaned back in her chair. ‘So. That’s it? Get a few untrained NPCs and marginally better robes.’
‘And upgrading our defences. But yes, basically that’s the plan. I mean, unless something else comes up. It’s not like I’ve been around long enough to have lots of allies to call upon.’
‘Well. Shit.’
We all sat back at her honest assessment of our situation. The naterry was starting to go to my head.
No one spoke for a minute. I let the implications of this war settle on my mind. I’d die in the battle, obviously. But where would I respawn if I had no Altar? No Altar because I’d lose Thanis. I glanced at Horace. Despite never seeing his face, I’d come to quite like him. I remember Angie telling me that I respawn. Generic NPCs respawn. Followers don’t. I had no plan for falling back. No escape plan. There was no doubt this fight would be bloody. Would it even be worth winning if I lost all my followers, and Thanis was razed? Maybe I could still negotiate if it came to it.
Bri broke the silence. ‘Do you know why I play? Why I’m here at all?’
I mean, everyone played, so bit of an odd question, but she was clearly on the way to a point, so I stayed quiet.
‘Because in here, when I say something, people listen. I earned my followers’ respect, and now, when I speak, they listen. Not because they’re programmed to, but because I underwent the trials, proved myself worthy, and they know, to the core of their being, that I have worth. And how did I know how to do that?’
Rhetorical? No, she was actually waiting for an answer. ‘A quest told you to do it, and the reward you’d get.’
She pointed at me. ‘Yes! I wanted something, and the game told me what I had to do to get it. That’s why I play this game. Out of here, it’s like I’m level one again, going through some shitty tutorial. My parents don’t listen to me, but shower my brothers with praise. All I want to do is be treated with some respect. But…’
She waited for someone to fill in the blank, and I obliged, ‘But real life doesn’t tell you how to get what you want.’
‘This guy gets it!’ She waved a salute at me and took a big bite from her naterry. ‘In here, I’m given direction. I was promised a reward for taking action. I command vicious spirits of the forest, untameable by most. In the real world, I take action, I prove myself beyond any shadow of a doubt, and what happens? I get told to stay in my place.’
That explained a lot about the proverbial chip on her shoulder. Perhaps having a family wasn’t as straightforward as I’d thought. It still seemed, logically, better than being an orphan, though.
I didn’t know what to say to her. I’d always been in the HOPE engine. All through school, I always knew that I’d make my life in Tulgatha. From the way she was talking, it sounded like she spent more time outside than ingame. Did people really still do that?
‘I understand,’ Ixly said, saving me from my incomprehension. ‘I’m the same. I come here to escape from my family.’
I held my naterry up to my eye and inspected it, starting to feel a bit dizzy. ‘You sure the blood didn’t turn these into truth serums?’
Bri waved the comment away. ‘Just alcoholic.’
‘Not quite the same as you, I’m afraid, young druid,’ Ixly continued. ‘I don’t have a family–’
‘Hey, orphan buddies in the inn!’
Ixly looked at me gravely. ‘No, I’m afraid not. I had a family. In here, I still do.’ He turned to his honour guard and put a claw on one of their forearms. ‘I suspect I’m a bit older than the two of you. Bri, I strove for what I wanted, but nobody put me in my place. I got what I wanted. So I can’t understand your pain, but I still empathise with you, and if I can help, I will. But no, I had everything, and still life found a way to take it.’
A Geeko ran past the table on the way to serving another. Ixly smiled as he watched, clearly in his own little world of reminiscing. He let out a little laugh. ‘Reminds me of my son.’
‘Ixly,’ I said feebly, not knowing where to go with this. What did you say in this situation?
Bri interrupted before I could stick my foot in my mouth, by putting her hand in his. She didn’t say anything. I didn’t know if there were any words that should be said. She squeezed. ‘We won’t lose Thanis. Not with the three of us stood side by side.’
She caught his eye with an intense stare, and… I didn’t think she cared about us. She’d always acted like we were in her way. Well, me more than Ixly, but still. Was this an act, to comfort the poor guy who had just bared his greatest pain? Was she a bit tipsy and that’s just how she got?
‘Thanis isn’t going anywhere,’ I said. ‘Whatever happens, this village will stand.’
‘But how can you know, Severo?’ Bri asked, and for the first time, she wasn’t challenging me, she was really asking. She wanted someone to tell her everything would be fine. ‘Why am I better off staying here and fighting and losing everything? Why not just run?’
‘You won’t lose everything. It will be exactly like I said. We win the battle, and it will rally the world to our cause. We’ll be the first to turn the tide on The Eastern Shadow. Trust me.’
It all came down to a sixteen year old kid saying “Trust me”. I couldn’t give them anymore than that, because I didn’t know what I was going to do. But I was going to do it. Worst case scenario, I could do exactly what a warlock should do. Sacrifice.
‘I too, have problems beyond the obvious,’ Horace said to break the lull.
We all turned to him.
‘I may not be a player, so my problems are grounded in Tulgatha, but they are no less real. I face a trial of conviction. We face that, actually.’ He spread his arm to include the other NPCs. ‘I wished for a simple life in worship of the dark gods. Very stable and dependable, the dark ones are. Instead, I tried for more. I reached. I saw you, master, and thought that perhaps I could be more.’
I wanted to ask what exactly he wanted to be and how he thought I, of all people, could help him, but he was on a roll.
‘So, I usurped our leader, and led my friends down a different path. I now start to believe that path may have been ill advised. You speak of losing your relaxation time. Tulgatha is not relaxation for me. For us. It is life. If this doesn’t go well, then the best thing that can happen is death.’ He paused and hung his head. ‘I would ask a favour.’
‘Ask,’ I said softly.
‘If things go poorly. If, against hope and belief, The
Eastern Shadow brings Thanis to its knees… let us die.’
I could tell he didn’t mean “Let us die”. He meant “Kill us”.
‘I did what I did to the Emissary because his intentions were clear. Whatever it is they do, when they convert their enemies, their enemies are not the same. I would not see my friends succumb to such mental torture. We would die free.’ He raised his hood and for the briefest of moments the hearthfire flickered, illuminating his eyes, and they caught mine with a fierce intensity. ‘Can you do that for us, master?’
He would choose death, the true, non-respawning death, over living a life in shackles.
‘Horace, we don’t know for certain that the conversion changes your thoughts. Or that it can’t be undone. I don’t know if I can do what you want.’
He reached out a hand draped in dark robe and gripped my shoulder with more force than I’d expected. ‘Yet, you must. I know that I chose this path for you, but it was a decision for NPCs, not players. I had the strength to turn down the trade of slavery for an easy life. Now, I ask that you have the strength to carry through on my words.’
So, all that was on the line was the death of these NPCs who were seeming very real, and the escapism that two definitely real people used to forget their broken lives. I needed a plan.
‘I’ll do what has to be done,’ I whispered.
Horace let go and sat back in his chair. We all chewed silently on our nattery for a few minutes, and I could feel my mind clouding with sour thoughts of what was to come. Why on earth did people drink when discussing these sorts of things. Just made it harder to keep the negative thoughts out.
‘Excuse me,’ said a quiet voice behind us. I turned to see a man and his dog standing next to the table. It was the hunter I had encouraged in earlier today. ‘I noticed that you don’t have any kennels built. It’s fine for now, but you might want to consider building some. It will attract more hunters.’
The hunter’s dog growled at a passing Geeko that quickly skittered away. Bri began stroking the dog’s head, and I saw a small spark of green flutter from her fingertips as the dog relaxed.