by Grey Arney
Before transforming Fish into a bird, he instructed the goblin to fly over the war party and report back by Messaging. Then he transformed the humans and dwarf into Golden Eagles, and they flew off with him towards Aurora.
Before they had arrived at Aurora, Fish sent Arcturus a message.
>>Fish: Boss, I don’t know how, but it seems like there’s more of them than before.
>>Arcturus: How many?
>>Fish: I don’t know, it looks like every single one from the Mudluck camp is here.
>>Arcturus: Can you try to estimate a number?
>>Fish: Hold on…
After a moment, Fish continued.
>>Fish: I suppose around five hundred, maybe as many as seven hundred. And that’s not all. There’s more red ones now, and more blue ones like me. They’ve brought lots of supplies. Wagons. The good news is they’re moving pretty slow. It might take a day or two for them to arrive at Aurora.
>>Arcturus: Thanks for the information. Can you come back to Aurora now?
>>Fish: Coming.
As they hovered over the skies of Aurora, they saw bodies littering the ground below. Players were frantically running around and yelling. The place was on high alert. Arcturus swooped in ungracefully to land on the street, and was soon followed by his entourage of humans and three goblins.
A shout echoed across the short, stucco-painted buildings as someone caught sight of goblins in Aurora, and the armed militia came running. Most of them looked like fighters or rangers, including one high-level warrior in gleaming plate armor, and also some unarmed players.
The warrior in the plate armor spoke, “What are they doing here?” he demanded, gesturing towards the two goblins.
“They’re here to help,” said Arcturus. “As am I.”
“We don’t need any more ‘help’ from goblins. Can’t you see what’s going on here?” he said, gesturing to the bodies piling the street.”
“There isn’t much time,” Arcturus responded. “I am here to assist, but you’re going to have to give me a chance. Where is William?”
Hearing this name seemed to disarm the man. He turned to someone else and motioned for them to run off and fetch the village chief.
When William arrived, it couldn’t be more clear that he was in over his head. His face had gotten red and his eyes had droopy bags underneath them.
“William,” said Arcturus. “A goblin war party is approaching from the east.”
“Yes, well we’ve already been attacked. And now anybody who tries to leave the village ends up dead.
“I’ve been watching the goblin camp and none of them have left until just now. Who is it that attacked?”
“I’ll show you.”
The group followed him down the street to where the surprise attack had been carried out. There were over two dozen player bodies. People were weeping. And there was something else—goblin corpses.
Arcturus turned one of the corpses over with his foot. Its skin was the color of dark red wine, and its eyes were completely black.
“What happened?” he asked.
“These ones suddenly appeared out of nowhere and ambushed us. There was a panic, and some people tried to run off into the woods. We were able to kill some of them, but the rest disappeared. Now, all around the outskirts of the village, we keep finding people’s heads mounted to pikes. It looks the players who ran away ended up like that.”
“It’s a scare tactic,” he said. “To keep people from leaving Aurora.”
“Well it’s working.”
“William, I’d like to help here. But there’s not much time. I have reports that the main war party will be here in two days at most. There are over five hundred goblins coming. Will you give me temporary command of your village?”
The sweaty man nodded eagerly, relieved to share the burden.
“Okay, good. First of all, you’re my second in command. My third-in-command is Fish. He’s a goblin.”
“Some people are not going to like that.”
“Well, they’re going to have to get over it. Fish came from the Mudluck camp, he knows more about them than any of us. How many players are available to defend Aurora?”
“Our militia numbers just over a hundred.”
“And what kind of capabilities do they have?”
“Mostly ranger-types, with some warriors. Two mages, but both fairly low-level. It’s hard to level magical skills out here.”
Arcturus was surprised to find that so many players chose to follow this predictable path. He had arrived in Lydia just days before and had already discovered some of its deepest secrets. Everybody feared death, even though they’d come back eventually. Starting a new character in a frontier town like Aurora, it would be relatively safe to level Archery, hunt animals, and stay near the town. But players following that strategy would never acquire great power.
The wilds promised grand adventure and limitless treasure, but the fear of death and its consequences had prevented most players from leaving their own doorstep to discover it.
“Okay, William, could you please help me move all of these goblin bodies somewhere out of sight? But don’t disturb them any more than necessary."
William gathered the militia leaders and told them of the new change in command structure. There were grumbles, but the reinforcements were appreciated.
The goblin bodies were moved into an alley behind one of the buildings. Arcturus posted guards at each entrance, giving himself some privacy. He invited William to see what he was going to do next.
Arcturus put his hands on one of the dead goblins and began casting Simple Undead Servant.
Your Death Magic is not high enough to raise this creature at its most recent level. It will be raised at Level 1. Continue? (Yes/No)
The goblin shuddered and convulsed, coughing up blood the color of grape juice. It lifted its head and stared at Arcturus with empty eyes.
Now that the creature was one of his minions, Arcturus was able to check its Character Display.
Character Display
Ash Goblin (Level 1)
HP: 25/25
Mana: 25/25
Short Blades: Level 10
Stealth: Level 15 (Base 10 +50% racial bonus)
Racial ability: Concealment. Renders user completely invisible for 30 seconds, once per hour.
Invisibility effect can be canceled by attacking, being attacked, touching a player or construct, or using any ability other than Stealth.
You have improved Death Magic (Level 16)
Your Death Magic is now stronger.
These goblins were natural assassins. Now that it was a Level 1 minion, it was almost useless. But before it died, its Stealth level must have been high enough for it to walk into Aurora unseen in broad daylight, before commencing its deadly attack.
Arcturus commanded the Ash Goblin to activate its Concealment skill, and several of the guards shrieked as the undead creature vanished into thin air. He ordered it to approach William from behind and tap him on the shoulder. As soon as the goblin tapped the man, two things happen. First, the goblin’s invisibility effect was canceled, causing it to reappear abruptly. And second, the man nearly had a stroke.
He explained his findings to William. The man nodded nervously, his paranoid eyes darting about. He did not seem comforted by this demonstration of the Concealment skill.
“Next, we need to build some defenses. How far is it from the cliffside in the north to the edge of the river?”
“It must be at least a half a mile long. There’s just no way we can build a wall like that in such a short time.”
“Let’s go have a look.”
>>Fish: Hey Boss, I’m approaching Aurora, where are you?
>>Arcturus: I’m on my way to the eastern entrance. Can you meet me there?
>>Fish: You got it!
Then he sent another message, this time to the Keeper of Thanatos.
>>Arcturus: Is there a way to message multiple players at once?
>>Keeper of Thanatos: Yes, you can send an announcement. It’s a one-way message. Recipients will not be able to respond.
Arcturus gathered the names of the residents of Aurora from William, and then sent a message.
>>Arcturus: Hello, everybody. Can you see this?
William nodded. Throughout the settlement, others looked up in confusion or excitedly confirmed the announcement with each other.
>>Arcturus: During this time, I can communicate with everyone here instantly. So if anything happens that the whole group needs to know about, please let me know and I will get the word out.
Arcturus met Fish at the entrance to the village, and saved him from being gutted alive by the six guardsmen posted there. They had already received word of the change in management, but the sight of a goblin in Aurora put them on edge.
Wary of destroying the town by earthquake, Arcturus walked some distance beyond the village’s boundary and knelt down onto the ground where he began probing with his Earth Magic. Creating a canyon here would cut off the approaching goblins and give the village more time to prepare.
Feeling the earth, he found that the whole expanse of land around him was composed of solid rock bed. He tried to split it with his Earth Magic but it held like glue. There wasn’t even enough topsoil here to plant a line of trees.
He continued probing out, further into the plains, and discovered that the bedrock ended there. While he could create a canyon there, it would be much further out, and the goblins would easily circumnavigate it.
“Hey, Fish,” Arcturus said.
“Yes, Boss?”
“When you were approaching Aurora, did you see the elementals? I told them to travel along the edge of the forest.”
“Yeah, they were almost here when I passed them.”
Arcturus turned to William.
“Gather every player in the village here, except for those needed to guard it. We’re going to build a barrier half a mile wide, and we’re going to do it by the end of the day.”
The man stood there, blinking at him.
“There’s just no way it can be done,” he said, shaking his head.
“Yes, there is.” Looking around, Arcturus pointed to the south, where his twenty-seven sprites were quickly approaching the village, blending in with the tree-line. His massive golem lagged behind them.
Everyone set to work building a barrier from lumber that they harvested from the forest. The trees they used formed logs that were anywhere from six to eighteen inches in width, and each tree could typically be chopped into an average of three logs. The length of the barrier needed to be half a mile, which is over 30,000 inches. Since the logs were an average of around nine inches wide, and each tree could produce three such logs, they would need at minimum 1,110 trees to form the barrier.
Chopping down 1,000 trees is not easy but carrying them for half a mile is even harder. Thankfully, the earth elementals were able to do that part with no complaining. But they still needed the trees chopped for them. Arcturus used his Earth Magic to embed a huge axe head in the golem’s arm—an upgrade that was good for more than just chopping trees.
Arcturus walked up and down the barrier site, designating where the logs would be set. There was enough topsoil to make a ridge that was three feet high, which he sculpted using Earth Magic. At the top of the ridge, supports would be set into the soil, and then logs would be laid across the supports from behind, forming the shape of a lean-to.
The players weren’t able to do much heavy lifting, but they monitored the progress and intervened whenever the automatons encountered obstacles.
Even with over a hundred volunteers and dozens of super-strong elemental servants, building such a large section of wall in one day was no easy task. The quality of work was poor, and the barrier was incomplete in many places. Arcturus ordered the sprites to continue working on it all through the night, as they had no need for rest.
The next step was to position the ranged attack. The hunters were assigned to teams of three to five members and given positions on the rooftop. They were equipped with standard arrows and flaming arrows, which had strips of oily cloth tied to the base of the arrowhead. Each position was equipped with a torch, and the ranged fighters were instructed to wait until they saw the first flamed arrow before they followed with their own. Arcturus didn’t have much hope that the barriers could be ignited because the freshly-chopped wood had a high moisture content. When the sprites were done with the barrier, he would instruct them to add piles of flammable twigs and brush to the base. Even a small conflagration might discourage the advancing horde.
When the golem had finished its share of the lifting and carrying, Arcturus ordered it to march directly into the river running astride Aurora, and wait there, submerged in the water, for his next orders.
Before the others went to sleep, Arcturus tasked the nearby wildlife to be his eyes and ears, watching the wilds surrounding the village. Despite the need for well-rested troops for the next day, he doubled the number serving in the guard. All players were asked to take a four hour shift patrolling with torches, and each patrol had one Dire Bear as a show of force. The Ash Goblins didn’t come looking for trouble that night.
At the dawn of the next day, the approaching army could be seen on the horizon of the Great Plains. They materialized there as little toy men, marching and pulling wagons and supplies. Instead of beasts of burden, the wagons were pulled by groups of lower-ranked goblins.
Throughout the night, the wooden sprites had toiled tirelessly, and the desultory barrier of logs was now splayed haphazardly in the shape of a rough-hewn river that flowed from the mountain to the forest. It was inconsistent, and there were many gaps. It looked more like a pile of construction scrap than a wall, but it might slow down the advancing troops.
At the current pace, the goblins would be within arrow’s range in an hour. Arcturus toured the once-sleepy village with William and Fish, looking for gaps in its defenses and making last minute adjustments.
The strategy was not complex, as Arcturus was no military thinker. He had read The Art of War as a young man, but its verses dealt mostly with psychological warfare, and he remembered little of it.
>>Arcturus: I’ve left my camp. I’m in Aurora waiting for the goblins.
>>Lily: I wish I could help, somehow. I’m pretty far away right now.
>>Arcturus: It’s okay. There’s not much you could do anyways, especially in the day time. But there are a lot of them. If I die, please take care of Lyle.
>>Lily: If you die, Lyle and I will be waiting for you up on the cliff.
As the horde approached, Arcturus used his wolf form to work his way towards the barrier. Shifting back into human form, he hid behind it and waited, gathering Earth mana around him. His higher level of Earth Magic gave him greater command than ever before. After ten minutes, he had tendrils of Earth mana probing in every direction, leeching magic from the tectonic plates below.
Then he visualized the area for his strike. It appeared on his map as an ominous red circle. Right now, only a few of the advancing party were stepping into it. Those in the rear were parking their wagons and preparing to charge.
All there was to do was wait. Greater numbers of the enemy gradually accumulated in his strike area. The vanguard was now so close to the wooden barrier that he was sure he could smell them. Rotting onion, ice cream, and smoked loincloth.
Arcturus waited as long as he could, until the first of the goblins was within a stone’s throw. The arrogant little pigs were traipsing up towards the barrier like lackadaisical children on a school field trip. Unable to wait longer, he launched the opening salvo that started the battle, before shifting back to wolf form and sprinting back to the village.
Behind him, the first sounds of alarm began. The soil of the Great Plains had begun to shift and loosen, as a yawning cavity opened below. There was a great seismic disturbance that was felt as far north as Eastport as the plates underneath the earth shifted and pulled apa
rt. Hills were formed around the valley as if the whole topography were a big tablecloth that had been torn in the middle and bunched up around the edges.
Rifts formed in several places, sucking in goblins of every rank. Soil shifted and sank, and enemies standing too far from the rift to actually fall in it still found themselves drowning in an ocean of sand, sputtering and coughing mud as they choked on the dirt and sank deeper towards the depths.
Arcturus was back now at Aurora’s edge, watching his notifications carefully.
You have leveled up! Level 24. You have new skill points to spend.
He quickly tallied an estimate of the casualties, and concluded that he had wiped out fifty or more goblins, with more dying each minute. The rate of experience gain slowed down as the enemy commanders comprehended the threat and redirected the advancing combatants around the rifts and pools of quickened sand.
The results were not very encouraging. The attack had trimmed off no more than ten percent of the oncoming horde’s numbers, but that wasn’t nearly enough. And there wouldn’t be another chance. The bedrock that Aurora was built on was too firm.
By luck, the approaching enemies were forced into a more concentrated formation by the initial attack. Their new trajectory funneled them towards the part of the barrier that was closest to Aurora’s center—where the sprites were laying prone, disguised among the logs, waiting for the moment to attack.
The first of the goblins had gotten past the barrier, and none had noticed the large tree-like creatures crawling slowly along the ground. Using the same technique as before, he used Messaging to create a new group, and sent an announcement to the elementals, ordering them not to attack yet.
Then he got a message that forced him to take his eyes off of the battlefront.
>>Fish: Boss! More Ash Goblins.
>>Arcturus: Where?
>>Fish: Everywhere. Under attack!
Turning around, he saw a gruesome scene unfolding. The players who had been waiting in groups were struggling as midnight-purple goblins appeared from nowhere. There were already many casualties. On a rooftop to the north, Arcturus saw a body that had been slashed and then thrown backwards off of the roof, arms akimbo in a bloody mess.
