“Would stealth normally, not with this group,” Adonioth said.
Eddie understood that. Since Adonioth had also pulled out a bow, Allie had gone with her tank configuration. Between her and Jern, there was no way to move silently as both wore metal armor that rattled and clanked from time to time.
Adonioth headed out, straight through the forest.
“Find trail, know where then,” he said.
Before they found a trail, they found a small group of three goblins. The goblins themselves weren't any smaller than some of the others they'd seen, but Eddie reinterpreted Adonioth's words to mean weak, not small, as the goblins dropped quickly. A single arrow from Eddie's bow, a normal broadhead, managed to drop one of the goblins and the other two went down quickly also. Adonioth's shot hadn't dropped one but Eddie thought that might be because the elf was using stone arrowheads on his arrows.
The two goblins Eddie hadn't hit went down quickly when the tanks caught up to them. Even the unwounded one only took one hit from Jern to drop.
Huh, Eddie thought. Hammer Hold has their own newbie zone, the Meadowlands has Rat Woods, is this forest a newbie zone for the Forest Elf town?
He made a mental note to Evaluate the next goblins they saw and check their levels.
Adonioth found a trail shortly thereafter and he started moving more assuredly, as though he knew exactly where they were now.
They found three more small groups of goblins before arriving at the town and Eddie's Evaluates showed them to range from level one to level three.
Definitely a newbie zone then. Plus the goblins have some coins on them as well as primitive armor and weaponry. So maybe Ingolf's new settlement can be used as a base for people who want to use this newbie zone. It can definitely be used by anyone making a Forest Elf character and starting there, Eddie thought.
The trail had been rising for about a quarter mile when Adonioth stopped. A moment later he continued, moving more quickly, and Eddie watched as the Elf's head dropped out of sight quickly. Eddie took a few hasty steps, and then looked down into a bowl shaped valley with a pond in the center of it.
The trees in the valley were much taller than in the surrounding forest so their tops matched up in height. Eddie imagined that the only way to find this valley was to either know where it was or to stumble over the top of the little rise they'd just crested.
And even if the goblins did find it, they'd probably avoid it. If their levels are any indication, any sort of defense would lay the goblins out easily.
Adonioth made a strange whistling sound, three quick whistles at different pitches. A moment later Eddie saw Forest Elves standing in the trees all around him. Elves he hadn't seen at all until they'd revealed themselves.
Yup, the goblins wouldn't know what hit them if they showed up here, Eddie thought.
The group stayed back as Adonioth started speaking in that musical language again. Eddie turned to Allie, but she shook her head.
“They're going too fast, I can only catch about one word in five, plus they pronounce some of the words differently than I'm used to. I haven't used my Elfish language skill much and it's showing,” she said.
Eddie waited for a minute or two while Adonioth spoke and gestured. When the elves he was speaking to took on a sad look, Eddie was pretty sure they'd been told about the fate of the others from Adonioth's party. When Adonioth was done, he turned to the group.
“Come, I introduce Elder and you.”
Eddie was a little confused, he'd been scanning the floor of the valley while Adonioth spoke and while he saw some things that were definitely crafted and not natural, he hadn't seen a single house. One building in particular stood out. It was definitely a forge, the stone of the walls standing out against the rest of the surroundings.
Adonioth led them to nearly the center of the valley, then whistled again, a different pattern again. A rope ladder came spilling down out of the tree and Eddie looked up.
I'm an idiot, of course they'd use the classic trope of elves for Forest Elves, he thought.
Now that he was looking in the right place he saw numerous buildings, all situated in the trees, starting about thirty feet up and going much higher than that for the highest of them.
“Follow,” Adonioth said.
The elf swarmed up the rope, showcasing an Agility that must have been nearly the equal of Eddie's. Jern looked at the rope ladder, then at the buildings in the trees above, then shook his head.
“I'll not be doing that, lad. I'll keep an eye out down here, with my feet on the ground where they belong,” Jern said.
Lucky, who'd been following along, occasionally disappearing into the woods only to return a few minutes later, laid down next to the trunk of the tree.
“Looks like you'll have some company down here too,” Eddie said, gesturing towards the bobcat.
“Aye, because she's a smart cat, and has no desire to pretend to be a bird,” Jern said, settling in with his back against the tree.
Eddie went up the rope almost as quickly as Adonioth had. Karl had no problems either, but Allie and Tiana took their time, only starting the climb after removing their armor.
The rope ladder led up to a wide branch, wider than normal if Eddie were to guess. The branch was obviously a path connecting two of the trees that contained buildings. Adonioth was standing at the door to one of the buildings, speaking through it.
Once the whole party was up, Adonioth stopped speaking and knocked on the door. It swung open to reveal an elf who looked old. If he were human Eddie would say he was probably in his seventies or eighties.
But if they're following classic elfish tropes here, then this guy has to be centuries old, Eddie thought.
Eddie bowed his head to the older elf and the elf gestured for them to enter the house. Adonioth came in last, slowly closing the door behind him.
“It is said that we have lost some of our kin while learning of new neighbors,” the older elf said.
“Yes, Elder,” Adonioth nodded.
“I would hear of this from our new neighbors,” the Elder said.
“Address him as Elder,” Adonioth whispered in Eddie's ear.
“Well Elder, it was like this,” Eddie said, then proceeded to give the elder elf the story of their discovery of the goblin city, the rescue of Adonioth, and what occurred with the raid.
“So the goblin city is not a threat any more,” the elder said.
“I would say that they will be less of a threat,” Eddie said. “It was not destroyed, but those in charge were culled as were many of their warriors. With the way goblins breed though, I am guessing that the threat is not eliminated, merely contained for the time being.”
The elder elf sighed.
“That is wisdom. Believing or wishing something is so does not make it so. Something I wish were not true.”
Eddie blinked. He was pretty sure that the elder elf had just made a joke, and if he wasn't mistaken had very briefly cracked a smile as he did so.
“Well Elder, when we found that we had neighbors in the forest here, we wished to come meet them and perhaps establish trade. I've brought gifts based on what Adonioth told us.”
Eddie began to pull out the items he'd stored in his inventory to bring here. First there were several hundred broadhead arrowheads, following that were a number of basic metal tools, and lastly he pulled out a set of the lower quality smithing tools that were occasionally found in the goblin villages along with several iron ingots.
“Adonioth told us that you were lacking in metals, but that at one time you were not and had those who could craft them. So I brought a few metal basics, as well as the tools to work with it and a few ingots of iron to be worked. We can offer metals to trade, not a large amount, but some at the least,” Eddie said.
Now the elder elf did smile. He picked up the arrowheads, fingering them for a moment, then worked his way through the basic tools before coming to the iron ingots.
“I believe that trade could be
nefit both of our people. Let us discuss this,” he said.
~ ~ ~
Eddie didn't go for anything but one starting trade, where he would supply metal ingots in exchange for woodworking products. There was more that both settlements could offer, but he wanted someone else to negotiate the long-term trade. He'd done the same with the dwarfs and thought that the long-term deal had been far more beneficial to him and his settlement than his original trade had been, so he'd just get it started, then send someone to determine what would be appropriate for ongoing trade.
The elder had offered them a place to sleep for the evening but Eddie was pretty sure they could get back to Ingolf's area before dark so he declined.
Because I'm not going to be the one to tell Jern he has to climb a tree to get a bed, Eddie thought. Plus Lucky could probably get up here, but it would be awkward for her and harder still for her to get down.
He didn't even want to conceive of his extra-large bobcat getting stuck in a tree. The visual was ridiculous and the concept of how she'd react to it wasn't something he wanted to think about.
He'd found out that several people had started characters with the Forest Elf race, but they'd all left the settlement on finding out that any sort of metal was at a premium. He planned on checking the forums and seeing if anyone had commented on that. It was the only way he could explain that only a few players had started characters with that race.
So they headed out, following the map Karl had rough sketched as they moved earlier in the day. Eddie was planning on letting Karl and Allie go out mapping while he spent a couple of days helping Ingolf build his settlement. That should get a map good enough to detail the trails that led from the edge of the forest in to the Forest Elf town. From there, they could get the trade going and Eddie was sure that with the low danger level Karl would be back to map out the entire area.
The forest here didn't have the feel of the Forest of Fools, but Eddie wasn't sure just what the zone was called. That was something else he was hoping to pick up in the forum.
The group made it back to Ingolf's campsite just at the tail end of dinner and after they finished off what was left in the stew pot Eddie sat back and opened his browser. It didn't take him long to find a thread detailing the Forest Elf town. As he'd thought, the entries were mainly people complaining that there was no decent starting equipment there, nothing of metal that wasn't owned by higher level elves in the town.
He added a post of his own to the thread, putting in the date and the fact that the Forest Elves were going to be receiving metal as a trade good and should soon have a better selection of starting equipment available. He also picked up the zone name: The Elfwoods.
Closing his browser, he stood and looked around. It was just about dark now and a lot of people had already gone to bed. Not very tired, he stayed up for a while, staring at the stars in the sky and musing about how the game world felt so very complete, and offered things he'd never have a chance to see in the real world, including a night sky that was hardly dimmed at all by light pollution.
After a good night's sleep, Eddie was only momentarily surprised when Dominic and Tiana offered to go out with Karl and Allie to map.
“I saw a few things I could use yesterday, but we were moving too fast for me to harvest them,” Dominic said.
“I know the goblins are weak, but that doesn't mean there might not be larger groups that could really damage them, plus I'd be bored just staying here and watching you build things,” Tiana added.
Eddie understood, he did, Tiana could do some of the stonework, but there wasn't that much of it to do and Jern was more than capable of handling that on his own, never mind the three masons Ingolf had brought along. She'd be bored staying here and she had a chance to do something less boring, so he gave her a kiss and watched as the diminished party moved towards the forest.
Eddie turned his hand to his own work. Jern was going to finish off the stonework on the town hall with the other three masons today. While they did that Eddie, Paul, and the other carpenters were finishing off a second bunkhouse, this one with the dividers that Eddie had put in the one near the inn. The rooms they sectioned off were larger so couples and families would have some more private space.
By the time they finished the bunkhouse, the stonework was done for the town hall so they just moved over and started working on the wooden portions of the town hall. It wasn't done by the time the other four got back, but they'd gotten a good portion of it finished and Eddie estimated that it could be complete by the end of the following day.
The following day was similar, except the town hall was finished in the middle of the afternoon. Eddie immediately chalked Ingolf's name on the top of the spot for people allowed access to the control room, followed immediately by his own name. Then he and Paul just went out and sat down. Jern came over to join them after a few minutes.
“You were right Eddie,” Jern said, “those are foundations out there. Very solid ones at that. If you can alter blueprints to fit those foundations then Ingolf will be able to use those for some of the more valuable buildings, perhaps.”
“Well, if he wants to do that, he can send me the dimensions on them and what he wants those buildings to be. I'll see what I can do, or maybe ask Paul here to do it, I think he's better at that than I am,” Eddie said. “But for right now, I'm just going to relax and enjoy the peace and quiet.”
It was about half hour before dinner when the rest of the group returned. Dominic was bubbling over about having found several patches of plants that he could use in his potions. He'd found some the day before also, but those were mostly single plants as opposed to whole patches.
“I've got the map to where we got on that trail the other day, so we have a whole path to the Elf town,” Karl said. “Now I just need to make it neater and dress it up a bit, then I can start selling them.”
“Okay then, we ready to head back tomorrow? We can escort Paul since he's gotten his part done out here and the wagons will move faster empty.”
“Empty?” Karl said. “To hell with that, I'm going to be riding one so I don't have to walk.”
Eddie shook his head.
“You know what I mean. We'll move faster than we did on the way out here,” he said.
“I'm ready to go,” Karl said. “After I get these on the market I'll want to come back out here and map out the rest of that forest. But for now, I'm good.”
“Alright then, anyone else?” Eddie asked.
“I'll admit, I'm eager to get back and try my hand at some new potions,” Dominic added.
“Then it's settled, we head back tomorrow morning,” Eddie replied.
~ ~ ~
The return trip was as uneventful as the one out had been, but noticeably quicker.
“You know, if it weren't for the occasional goblin raids, all of the Meadowlands would be great for people to settle,” Eddie said.
“Yeah, but imagine the standing guard, or even army, you'd need to keep it safe with the goblins,” Karl said.
Eddie nodded, that was the way his thoughts had been going also.
“But I bet if we seed a bunch of herbs and stuff like that, things that normally only grow in the wild, we could mark their locations and just come harvest them every now and again,” Eddie said.
Now Dominic was interested.
“We've got enough terrain types out here to do a lot of different plants,” he said. “There's the open meadows, the river and pond banks, the lightly forested areas, there's even a few areas that are kind of swampy, aren't there?”
Eddie nodded.
“That's kind of what I was thinking. I mean, the more valuable stuff probably wouldn't do well that way, I'm sure the devs made sure of that, but a lot of the lesser things? For low or mid-grade potions and the like? I bet we could get a lot of that going out here. Let me know what herbs are in the recipes you get and I'll see if we can plant them in quantity in different areas of the Meadowlands.”
Dominic broke into a
grin. The biggest problem he'd run into so far in his alchemical endeavors was running out of the materials he needed for potion making, followed closely by a lack of potion vials.
“That'd go a long way towards my being able to keep us supplied with potions all the time,” he said.
Eddie grinned back at him.
“Think bigger. We'll need some more exports sooner or later and all adventurers need potions, right? So we can maybe ship some of those out, if you can make enough.”
“Oh, don't worry about that. As my Alchemy skill rises I can make batches of lower level potions or single higher level potions. The higher it gets the more I'll be able to do at a time.”
“Good, I've got Griff looking for a glass blower or whoever it is would work with glass and whoever he finds can make windows for the houses, bottles for the ale, and vials for the potions. If Griff can't find anyone, I told him to let Bjorn know and he'll keep an eye out for one when he goes trading,” Eddie said.
“Don't count your chickens before they hatch,” Allie said. “It's nice to plan things, but what if they don't go according to plan?”
“Then we rethink the plans?” Eddie said. “That's how I've been doing things so far.”
The group went mostly silent again then. Some just half-napping and the others lost in their dreams.
When they got back to town the first thing Eddie did was go to his own control room and place Ingolf's settlement under the jurisdiction of the Meadowlands.
“New Beginnings?” Eddie said, when he received the message acknowledging his action. “Ingolf named his settlement New Beginnings?”
Tiana chuckled.
“Well, that's what it is for him, and for those masons also, isn't it? Plus maybe for those Forest Elves, so it's only fitting don't you think?”
“I suppose, but...”
Eddie shook his head.
“You can always call it NB if you don't want to deal with the name, but it's done, right? He can't change that?”
“Not as far as I know, so you're right, as always.”
“And don't forget it,” Tiana said with a chuckle. “Really, it's not that bad a name though.”
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