“Where the hell did you come from?” I asked, panting from all of the excitement.
“…it…doesn’t matter,” she stuttered, “Let’s just get this done!”
I could see that Bones was doing a much better job at being a tank than I had done, with him only taking around ten to fifteen percent of his health bar in damage at each blow from the club. What was worse though was the noise that it made every time it made contact and splintered his skeletal form.
With an additional back-line spearman it only took four more hits for the ogre’s health bar to be reduced to dust and he stiffened before falling backwards to the ground with a thud. The goblin was still in his clutches and I could tell that he wasn’t coming back.
I was silent as I took in the scene before me, my breath heavy and my shoulders rising and falling in rhythm with my exasperation, it was only when Rachel laid a hand on my shoulder did I return to the moment. She was holding out a large plate of armour towards me.
“This is what I was doing,” she said quietly. “I wanted to make you something to say thank you for teaching me the skills you have learnt but before I knew it almost a week had passed! You kind of get engrossed in these things, don’t you.”
I took the armour from her hands and was greeted with an information panel.
Steel Cuirass
Quality: Good
Durability: 50/50
Armour Value: 20
Crafted by: Rachel
This is a good quality item. It will fulfil its intended purpose dutifully and will stand the test of time, however it is not likely to turn any heads.
Bonuses:
Soul bound: Crafted by the player Rachel for the player Tandy, this selfless labour has ensured that this cuirass can never be forcibly removed from the owner.
Indestructible: When the durability of this item is reduced to zero, it can still be used for half of its base values. It can be repaired by any person with the crafting skill.
Intricate: Considerable time and effort was placed into the crafting of this item. Critical Hit Chance +2%
“Rachel, I don’t know what to say, I…” I began sincerely but I was cut off by a goblin-esc shout from atop the wall. Perhaps the ogre hadn’t been alone.
I put on my new armour which seemed to fit me like nothing I’d ever worn before, snug yet still movable, and climbed the wall followed by Rachel to where my now seemingly rather meagre force of ten archers stood, all of whom were looking out into the forest at something I wasn’t quite able to see yet.
“What is it?” I asked but nobody needed to answer because as I spoke I saw the movement. First there was one, then two, then five, then ten ogres of all sizes, not just the adolescent that we had killed inside the camp, and they were heading right for the wooden walls that I knew wouldn’t be able to hold them back. In an effort to bolster my defensive lines I brought up the breeding hut’s information panel and spent every scrap of food I had on goblin warriors. If I’d had more time I might have tried to augment them so that they were better suited to their task but as it was I didn’t, I did notice though that “Dwarven Miner” was now an option for me to summon, at the low low price of thirty food.
I told one of the goblins on the wall to go and tell the new warriors to pick up weapons, preferably bows and arrows, and come right back to the wall. As an afterthought I added the instruction to go and find Grish and bring him here as well – I didn’t want to get into a fight without my able Lieutenant again.
When my new archers arrived, along with Grish who was looking terribly sheepish but who also carried a bow, I arranged all twenty-five of them along the wall and ordered them to raise their weapons in a state of ready but not to fire until my explicit order. It really doesn’t take a genius to figure out what happened next – one of the new goblins let an arrow fly into the crown of ogres that was amassing on the outside of the wall.
If I’d been asked if I really thought the force had been aggressive, I would’ve said no, but after the flight of the single arrow – which by the way seemed to do no damage whatsoever – I would have said you bet your ass.
The only thing missing from the ogres who had started pounding on the wooden walls, were red eves and foaming mouths. They roared a terrifying chorus as they swung clubs, branches, other smaller ogres by the ankles and arms and god knows what else to shake the walls that we stood atop of in order to raze us to the ground.
I slid down the steps by the handrails with no thought of splinters, just knowing that I had to move quickly. I called the archers to follow me just in case the wall fell and they all went down with it and they copied my rather flashy move, which made me smile but I know it wasn’t the time.
I pushed against the giant gates with all my might until I could just about fit my body through – It wasn’t quite enough for my rigid new cuirass though, so I had to take that off and leave in on the inside of the wall.
On the outside of the gate I was met with the scene of dozens of ogres bashing against my wooden walls and suddenly I forgot what I had been planning to do. In the end, I decided to do the only thing I knew how to do well – shout.
“Hey, what are you doing to my wall!!” I called out in the loudest, most commanding tone that I could muster and the ogres all froze and went totally silent. The eyes of each and every one of them focussed on me, some of them had to turn their heads but it didn’t take long for all of them to find my small figure by the gates.
I am not ashamed to say it but I turned heel and ran. I ran as fast as I could knowing that my stride wasn’t quite as wide as the ogres and that if I stopped even for a second, they could catch up to and end me. I kept the camouflaged wall on my right side so that I wouldn’t lose my own bearings, but in the hope that the ogres themselves might get lost and be unable to find the settlement again. I know It was a long shot but I was hoping that Rachel might be thinking along the same lines and douse any fires or torches within the village.
I ran for at least a few minutes in straight lines, as I knew that any change in direction would probably give them the chance to catch up to me but I could hear their thundering steps approaching from behind me. I took one look over my shoulder and that is when it happened. A root that had grown out of and then back into the ground placed itself directly over the top of my foot and I fell flat on my face. It hurt, I mean it really hurt but in comparison to what I experienced when I managed to turn onto my back, it was put into perspective.
The first ogre to reach me was the biggest that I’d seen – presumably because it had either more powerful legs or a wider stride, or perhaps both. As soon as it was within striking distance it swung its club down into my groin. All of the air disappeared from within my body and I saw that the ‘critical hit’ had caused thirty points of damage. My mana pool hadn’t quite replenished itself again for me to use my healing spell, not that I think I would’ve had the time to cast it anyway, as a second club inflicted another twenty points of damage to my chest.
When I finally opened my eyes for the third time, another ogre was standing over me with a thick tree branch in its hands. It seemed rather bemused that I’d opened my eyes again, but it spared no time in extinguishing them for good this time.
You have died. Respawn in 1 hour. Your dedicated respawn site is Coyote Creek (Graveyard)
Note: As you are above level 5, you will suffer penalties for your death.
Once you respawn you will have the buff: Resurrection for three minutes. In this time, you will be unable to deal or receive any damage.
Coyote Creek Graveyard Level: 1
The graveyard is where a player will respawn if he is killed. The size and level of the graveyard will determine the bonuses or penalties that a player will receive due to their death.
At level 1, the graveyard will resurrect you with the following multipliers:
Respawn Time: Level/10 x 1 hour
Respawn Invincibility: 3 minutes (default)
XP Penalty: None Under Level 5. -1 Le
vel Over Level 5
NPC Resurrection: Not Available
Gear Penalties: +50% Chance to drop each item in your inventory at the site of your death
It looked as though I was going to be out of the game for just over an hour and again I watched my death over and over. Again It wasn’t like the kill-cams that I was used to from video games, rather my memory just replayed from my own perspective over and over with the pain I’d felt included. My initial thoughts of “It definitely wasn’t something I’d want to experience again” echoed in my mind, I was right that time and if I said it again I’d be right again.
The time finally came for my resurrection and I hurried out of the darkened graveyard towards the village proper, it seemed that Rachel had indeed shared my desire to hide the village by dousing the illuminating flames and relying on staying well hidden in the dense forest, behind our camouflaged walls. Thank god for Rachel.
Through the darkness, I struggled to make out the shapes of anyone at all and I hoped that meant that the panic was over and everyone had simply returned to their beds, but deep down I knew that wasn’t the case. Arriving at the gate that I’d passed through previously I could see that it had been left ajar, but on the far side and outside of the walls I could already see the telltale signs of battle. Fifteen Goblin bodies lay motionless on the ground and the air was thick with death and silence.
A hand reached from the darkness and grabbed onto my shoulder but before I could make any noise towards exclamation a second hand covered my mouth and I was led inside the walls and into the shadows. To my relief it was just Rachel, and beside her, Ushuk, Snafu and Grish. She placed a single finger over her lips to convey an order of silence, which I took instant heed of.
“Shhhh,” she whispered almost inaudibly, “they might still be out there.”
“You mean they haven’t attacked yet?” I asked in an equally hushed tone, “I thought they’d have come straight back in?”
“When you led them away, we hid the village. Put out all the flames and silenced everyone inside – I don’t think they know where we are any more” she replied.
“What about those?” I gestured towards the fallen goblins on the outside of the gates.
“They went to help you but were dropped almost straightaway by the ogres,” Rachel explained. “After you took them out of sight though, they didn’t come back.”
I thought about that for a moment, how had they managed to find us in the first place – assuming that they were looking for us – and then be led so easily astray and to not be able find us for a second time?
“Do you think…” I spoke slowly “do you think that they found us by accident?” I asked having come to that very conclusion.
Rachel, who clearly had not had this thought scratched her chin. “Maybe? But why would a whole tribe of ogres just…” she stopped mid-sentence and her head dropped. “It’s them isn’t it?”
“Them?” I answered reflexively before I had the chance to think. “Theodore.” We chorused.
“You think they would be able to just order ogres around like that?” I asked.
“Maybe not order,” Rachel said, “but they don’t need to be under orders do they – they just needed to be displaced in our general direction.”
That made perfect sense to me, why would they want to do any of the hard work themselves when they could benefit from the terror that two individual groups would reign down upon each other. Of course they could kill or torture the ogres, and of course they could do the same to Rachel and I (assuming that they are still unaware of the status of Coyote Creek) but why not just raid the ogres until they were forced to move onward into our territory and let us fight it out between ourselves? Maybe they wouldn’t get any experience or loot from it, but I bet it would have given them a good laugh.
“They really are despicable human beings,” I said as distastefully as I could manage.
Something occurred to me as I spoke, I still wasn’t wearing my armour that I’d taken off to fit through the gap in the gate. I pawed at my chest and looked at the ground around me in more of an instinct than actually looking for the thing.
“Looking for this?” Rachel asked as she held the cuirass at her arm’s length toward me. “It may be soulbound, but that doesn’t mean you can leave it lying around and expect it to materialise in your inventory whenever you want it.” I could hear the smile in her voice and it made me smile too.
“That soulbound?” Ushuk interrupted our one-on-one.
“It is, is that…alright?” I asked, somewhat shocked by his question.
“Not normal to see soulbound items in forest. Hard to find always!” he affirmed.
“I made it,” Rachel answered him.
“No you didn’t.” Ushuk snorted
“I did, I promise!” Rachel protested.
Ushuk didn’t answer for a short while and the silence had just about got unbearable when he finally spoke again. “You make for me?”
“Of course!” Rachel replied happily but our increased volume levels had apparently not gone unnoticed, and we were silenced by the roar of a nearby ogre.
We froze and silenced ourselves again and after a few minutes of nothing happening, we allowed ourselves to breathe properly again. If I’d been alone at this moment I might’ve been terribly worried, but with the company that I was currently keeping I was kind of having a good time in a strange way.
“Of course,” Rachel repeated in her now hushed again tone. Ushuk didn’t answer but positively beamed at her.
We were eventually interrupted once again by noise outside of the walls. It wasn’t the sound of a mighty ogre in anger though, this time it sounded more like a group of smaller beings hurrying through the forest as best they could while trying to keep quiet but failing quite miserably. Peering through the gap once more, not far from the walls I could see a small group of orcs traipsing their way quickly over the thick undergrowth. The group of five looked well-armed, with each one wearing leather armour and carrying either an axe, a sword or a crossbow. These creatures as it turned out were either much smarter than the previous wave of ogres, or they could simply see in the dark, I say this as not long after making eye contact with the lead ogre, he roared and made a beeline straight for the crack in the gate. I had no time to close the gate or prepare any additional defences – this was it, the fight for my life…again.
Before the charging group made it within striking distance, Bones rose from the ground just a few inches in front of me and bore their initial attack, a noble feat which I was eternally grateful for. He didn’t fall under the somewhat loud clash of steel against bone, rather he stood his ground and received another three blows which gave me time to accept a spear from Rachel and for Ushuk and three other goblins to take their positions around me. I could see that as the orcs were all at level ten, we didn’t stand much of a chance against them, especially with how well armed they were. Our only chance was – and I was grateful that Rachel had already come to this conclusion as well - to close the door on them. They were smaller than the ogres and it looked as though they’d have a significantly more difficult time in razing the walls to the ground than their bigger, stronger cousins.
We were right. The gate was eventually closed and only one of our party was lost – Bones had stayed on the outside of the wall to act as crowd control and although I knew that he’d be back it still didn’t make me feel any less proud or mournful of his actions and loss.
We all sat on the ground with our backs to the gate as the grunts and bangs of the orcs trying to reach us echoed through the village, but it didn’t seem to strike fear into the residents as not so much as even a single torch was lit to see what all the fuss was about – Rachel had done a good job at enforcing her blackout.
Chapter Twenty-Three, Siege
I
t wasn’t the perfect night I had to admit, well far from it actually. Not only had the orcs decided to conserve their energy and set up camp right outside of our gates, but
the ogres in their infinite wisdom – or sheer dumb luck – had slept on the other side of the village, meaning that we were actually completely surrounded – not that either of our enemy knew it. Although the ogres still didn’t know exactly where we were, as if they did they would simply knock the walls down, but they must’ve had the general idea that we were close by. I wondered if the new day would bring them back when the village awakened and the general noise of daily activity would draw them.
Throughout the night, our siege partners were joined by a whole host of what I’d always considered as the dark races, Gnolls, Gnomes, Goblins, Orcs, Kobolds, Imps, Gremlins, Hobgoblins and Bugbears just to name a few and some I couldn’t even recognise but shared a similar darker looking disposition. Today was not going to be a great day as far as I could see.
One thing that dawned on me very early was the fact that there was no way I could send out any of the feeders to get our usual food supplies – and that meant that the siege had become much direr much quicker than I’d anticipated. I wondered how much food we would produce with just the farm, but even if we could make enough it meant that there would be no way to mine or cut down the trees – as both of these areas were outside of my walls. Now I understood why medieval castles would sometimes surround their work zones with admittedly lower quality, but still useful secondary walls.
So I had no food surplus, very few battle-able goblins, not enough SP to do anything useful with and no ideas on what I could do to get us out of this little predicament we’d somehow found ourselves in.
“Have you thought about crafting turrets or something?” Rachel asked after I’d conveyed my worries to her. “It seems like really this could’ve happened at any time, but you’d never have been ready for it.”
The Copper Rose Page 31
