“Every starting zone celebrated or cursed as their zone events began. These events allowed connection to the wider world. Successful completion meant that the players could venture into higher level zones. Failure meant a more complicated path to connecting, or abandoning the zone to start in a different area. The harsh reality of the game was a significant adjustment to the standard of the day with easy early leveling and a focus on end game.”
Excerpt from “NEMO – The New Old School” by Arwic Cragstone
Year 1, Month 1, Day 4, 11:00
The Millers’s Crossing town hall stood five stories high, made entirely from granite with crenellations and parapets atop the structure. It anchored a series of internal defense walls inside the town. Guards looked down on the square in front of the entrance to the building with bows in hand. Hundreds of players filled the cobblestone square, clustered around wooden quest notice boards. Players interacted in groups varying from single lone adventurers to more than a dozen at a time, selecting quests and then leaving the square to attempt them. A line of armored guards stood shoulder to shoulder on the steps to the town hall, turning away players who sought entry with rare exceptions.
Dozens of members of Risk of Injury were picking up quests at the boards, including many of the youngest children. Torgon approached the board and looked over the quests. There were quests for supplying food, quests for building materials, quests for basic weapons and more in the crafting section. Repeatable quests for locating enemy forces and for killing them featured prominently in the combat section. There were even quests available for players to take turns as guards on the walls in case of random attacks or incursions.
He noted with some surprise that the guild was ranked first on the overall points board, first on the logistics board and fourth on the combat board. Allestor elbowed him, “Gotta pump those numbers up on the combat side.” Torgon nodded absently as he looked closer at the chart. They were probably safe on the logistics side, but the values on the combat side would jump once there was heavy fighting. A flashing indicator alerted him to a new message inviting him to enter the city hall and discuss plans with Baron Abernathy, the mayor of Miller’s Crossing.
Torgon walked to the line of guards and paused before the lead guard addressed him, “The Lord wishes to see you. Head inside. One of his lordship’s stewards will take you to him” The guards parted enough to allow him to pass through and he continued up the steps into the entrance of the hall.
A harried man of middle years and a physique that hinted of too much paperwork greeted him as he stepped inside. “Please follow me, you are expected.” Torgon was quickly ushered into the Baron’s audience chamber. The room was not overly large, twenty feet on each side, but it felt more cramped. The side walls were lined with bookcases holding tomes and scrolls. A large map showing the Miller’s Crossing zone filled the wall opposite the entrance. Behind a massive mahogany desk, covered in papers, an imposing man sat. The baron was broad shouldered with an aquiline nose. His hair was greying, and his beard was sprinkled with the salt of years of experience.
Torgon gave a low bow then spoke firmly, “You requested me my lord?”
“Yes, yes, Have a seat.” Baron Abernathy rose and indicated a plush velvet chair across the desk from him. “I am Baron James Abernathy, and I welcome you to my office. Your guild has been doing exemplary work preparing this town for the possible hardships ahead. Miller’s Crossing has need of your services”
“You have received a Quest! Uncommon Guild Quest: Defenders 1. Requirements: Locate the main encampment of the hostile monster army. This quest must be completed before the army arrives at the walls of Miller’s Crossing. This quest is mandatory and cannot be refused, only failed. Time Remaining: Unknown. Rewards: Every guild member will receive 200 Free Experience, 20 Guild Contribution Points, and 5 Reputation with the town of Miller’s Crossing. The Guild will receive a significant number of points in the combat standings for the Invasion of the Monsters”
Torgon bowed his head to indicate acceptance of the quest. “We will endeavor to locate the enemy camp and take actions to delay or destroy their forces my lord. Do you require anything else of me or my guild at this time?”
The baron shook his head, “No, not currently. I know I can rely on your guild because you have more at stake than any other group out there. Keep supplying us and find out where they are. Find out how long we have. You are dismissed” The baron waved to the door and turned his head back to the papers on his desk.
The steward ushered Torgon out of the chamber and began leading him back to the square. Torgon turned to the steward and asked, “Do you know what the baron meant when he said we have more at stake?”
The steward paused, a quizzical expression on his face, “Are you not aware sir?”
“Aware of what?”
“If the town falls, everyone will be evacuated. We’ll all lose our homes, you included. You’ll have to start over in a new place with your personal homes and guild buildings destroyed. Your guild is the most developed and as such you have the most to lose of any guild here.” The steward resumed leading the stunned Torgon back to the crowds and his waiting friends.
Several figures he didn’t recognize were conversing with his party members when he returned. Hyperia introduced them, “Torg, these are a few guild leaders that have an interesting proposal for us.”
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One man stepped forward, his player ID showing him as Dirk Roughly, guild leader of the Swamp Donkey Hunting Club. “Thank you for the assist the other day. The Red Hat Raiders keep harassing and suppressing all the smaller guilds, trying to force us to join them. Me and my friends here have been sharing information and trying to help keep each other safe. Your guild keeps excelling and we’re struggling to maintain our gear. We wanted to know if Risk of Injury is recruiting.”
Torgon rubbed his chin in thought before answering, “Yeah, we are. We have an established guild base with a library, but we do have a few special circumstances. We’re top heavy with crafters and a ton of less than experienced players. If you join us, the target on your back will only get bigger.”
Dirk snorted, “Better a large target than a speedbump. If things keep going the way they are, we’ll all be confined to the town or we’ll be forced to go elsewhere. We don’t want to be trapped here or required to cater to the whims of those asshats. Most of us are better suited to dungeon running than open field battles, but we will do whatever it takes to stand up to those jackwagons.”
“Welcome aboard then.” Torgon shook hands with the various leaders and brought their members on board. Another two hundred people in the guild, albeit poorly equipped and limited in the amount of time they could spend. “We have lots of spare basic weapons and gathering tools at the guild hall. Prioritize upgrading everyone’s house to the basic level if you haven’t done that already.” He sent the dungeon information to the new guild members and updated everyone about the quest to locate the monster base.
“The library will let you get skill books for guild contribution points. Turning over materials, blueprints, skillbooks and gear to the guild storage can earn you lots of points. Another way to earn points is running quests or events that help improve the guild’s standing. Our larger quests always give everyone in the guild a few points so the roadblock on skills is going to be leveling them to free your available slots. I know that most of you are focused on PVE and monster fighting right now so the goblins and orcs are going to be right up your alley. We need to find cores so we can add a training yard as fast as possible to get everyone more familiar with PVP. The one thing that’s different for us is that we’re going to treat this like a world to live in, not a game to play.”
“Thank you Torgon and thank you to the rest of Risk of Injury.” Dirk motioned for everyone to start heading out. “We’ll get a few teams out scouting once they’re geared up. I can promise that we’ll listen and learn.”
Torgon smiled broadly at that, “That’s all we ask. After all, it’s easier to teach a complete noob how to be a solid team player than it is to teach a so-called expert anything at all. If we can sort out a way to get more metal, we can make enchanted gear too. Logistics man, that’s going to be the way to get ahead here and stay ahead.”
They led the newcomers to the guild base and began distributing gear. Basic weapons, including ranged options and any spare armor went quickly. Tools were handed out and Torgon sighed wearily thinking of all the fishing poles still needed. The faeries showed no such weariness as they welcomed their new guild mates with overwhelming enthusiasm, leading to many a shocked expression or bewildered player just stumbling around. The dungeon guide trading went live, leading to a trickle of new blueprints and a larger flood of goodwill towards the guild.
Hyperia turned to the lead party, “We need to prep. Grab skills from the library to flesh out our abilities, level any easy to raise skills for quick attribute gains and then we’ll spend the rest of the day and the night hunting for the base and some place to get more metals”
“That’s going to be extremely dangerous, I’m in.” Allestor beamed.
Torgon added, “I’ll assign the crafting buffs to Stabitha and Chef Bridges tonight. Potion and food production is always backlogged. Don’t forget to use banked xp either. We’ll meet back here in two hours. Other scouting parties are already searching for lairs, dungeons and anything useful, let’s hit the library first then tidy up.”
The guild library was a small stone building adorned with carved scrollwork with an entrance flanked by two pillars topped by ornate stone books. The interior was well lit with softly glowing magical lights. Wooden shelves filled the space in multiple sections. Each skill category had its own section with emptier sections detailing lore, research, plans, and the history of the world.
Torgon looked at his open skill slots, One combat, one general and three universal slots. He grabbed the Long Bow skill to fill his open combat slot before moving to look at the available general slots. The two most immediately useful general skills looked to be low light vision and stealth. There were tons of various types of analysis specializations and movement skills such as running and jumping but those were going to be long term prospects. He slotted low light vision immediately in his general skills. Being able to see well enough at night would be indispensable.
Torgon dedicated a universal slot to learning the stealth skill. Attracting less attention when moving would mean they could pick and choose their fights and avoid the more dangerous groups. Getting a leg up in pvp by becoming a virtual ninja could also be a whole lot of fun. The others in the party reached the same conclusions around those two skills.
He perused the magic spells they had but was disappointed to discover that no ranged healing spells were available. He decided to keep his last two universal slots open for things they found or for new crafting skills. The rest of the party added various abilities including more healing, ranged weapons and Dusty added shield and armor skills to make her tanking more efficient.
Torgon moved to the crafting area and made seven more fishing poles, bringing his craft tools skill to level 2 and giving him an additional point of agility. He dumped a further 2,100 free xp into raising his force shield, healing touch and craft weapons skills to level 2, netting him two points of intelligence and another point of agility.
They gathered back near the teleport arch and shared their new capabilities with each other. Dusty complained, “I still don’t have a taunt, and I don’t have a skill for a ranged attack. I’m a lot more survivable though, tougher and better able to use my armor and shield for damage mitigation.”
Ovarrix complained, “It’s hard enough specializing with these few skill slots, let alone the generalist builds we’re going with. We need to farm xp, hit that level 10 mark in as many skills as possible and open more skill slots.” Allestor nodded vigorously in agreement.
“Patience” Hyperia teased. “Until then just remember the 6 P’s. Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.”
Torgon looked over his group. Their spirits were high, they had 8 hours of daylight left and the ability to stay out all night. He took a deep breath to calm himself and said “Let’s go. Glory and loot awaits.”
