Last Horizon: Live

by Daniel Schinhofen

  Surprises Incoming

  Dumadin blinked as he logged in, stretching his body as he did and wondering if Ashley had taken his advice in the email he sent to her when they logged out twelve hours ago. His friends appeared a few moments later and the group hopped out of the wagon to find Felton.

  Felton looked at them with tired eyes, “Today was fucking hell. We lost another two people to the ambushes. Also getting past one of the respawn points was a damn nightmare. They went with ambushes with ranged weapons from the little cover there is beside the road. Tall grass and trees means ambushes right now. Ashley was here for a few hours and saw the first two ambushes and how we adapted to them.”

  Dumadin nodded, “Who did we lose?”

  “None of the merchants, but still townsfolk,” Felton sighed. “It was a long and brutal day. We covered all the wagons and got the NPCs into them since the wagons don’t take damage. We have players driving each one. The first attack is what cost us the two people, they got feathered and killed before we could react. After that first one we were more cautious, but the second attack almost cost us another NPC. After that we covered all the wagons and switched to player drivers, we also sent out groups to scout ahead and look for likely spots. They uncovered a few ambushes and took heavy losses, but broke the attempts up.”

  “Fun times,” Terets muttered shaking his head. “Did it look like both groups all day?”

  “I would say most of them, though we didn’t see a lot of stealth based people. So who knows, tonight maybe you will have sneaky guys to deal with. Anyway, I’m beat and going to go spend some time with the wife relaxing. Good luck and see you in the morning,” Felton climbed into the closest wagon and logged out.

  Dumadin blinked, “Wait, if the NPCs are all in wagons where is Bjorn?”

  “Up here leading the caravan still,” Bjorn called out in a clear voice. The group went to the front of the wagon to find Bjorn driving his wagon, pipe in his teeth. “He told you all there is to know right now.”

  “So why are you not in a wagon like the others?” Kittish asked.

  “Because I can take the damage, remember who you are talking about. I used to adventure with Thallien and Bettie after all, so I am very hard to kill.” Bjorn smiled grimly, “If the Beast didn’t kill me, why would these people with a few arrows?”

  Dumadin took the time to really examine Bjorn and blinked at his level seventy status. “I see, never even thought to really look at you and the other merchants before in that way, Bjorn.” His friends were also surprised when they examined Bjorn. “Is anyone else even close to you here?”

  “Camelia be about half my strength as well as Alvira just a touch under her,” Bjorn mused. “The others are still a touch stronger than you at this point in time. You haven’t really been growing in strength by spending all your time with us.”

  “This is much more important,” Dumadin replied firmly. “We will grow later after you’ve been safely escorted to the castle.”

  “Fair enough,” Bjorn said. “Good news. Tabitha will be with us tomorrow along with my surprise. When we passed through the last village I was able to find out via the post. She sent a message when she reached the other village between us and Veno.”

  “Wait, I thought she was in Veno,” Amythyst blurted.

  “She only went there to pick up a package for me,” Bjorn grinned. “She has been riding back to us ever since she arrived there. Tomorrow night when we camp she should meet us.”

  “So what is this mission you sent her on? You said you would fill us in when you had your answer.” Dumadin prodded the dwarf.

  “I sent her to get what we needed for a more robust defense. She will be here with what I asked for tomorrow. If you will wait just one more day you will see.” Bjorn chuckled grimly, “No more deaths after that.” His whole demeanor showed he was done discussing the subject right then.

  The group exchanged glances but let it drop, “Okay, we look forward to tomorrow then for two reasons. To find out what the hell you have going on, but more importantly to see Tabitha again.” Dumadin finished and dropped back with his friends. “Guess we should go check on players and townsfolk alike.” The group split into pairs and started to circulate to check how morale was holding up.

  When they gathered back up almost an hour later Terets had a frown on his face. “Dumadin, I’ve been thinking about what Bjorn said. Tabitha left on the second day and now she’s a day away from us. That means she didn’t waste any time in Veno at all and must have a mount. Which means Bjorn had to have already made preparations for whatever it was either the day we left or the night before that.”

  “Hmm. I’m really curious as to what he thinks will completely eliminate any more deaths.” Dumadin mused briefly, “How are the players and townsfolk?”

  “The players are still into it, but the excitement is waning. As Bjorn pointed out no one is leveling this way. The townsfolk are starting to become more depressed with the deaths of two more of them.” Terets stated simply with a small shake of his head, “It has the look of something that is going to get worse for us.”

  “That’s about what we found as well,” Kittish cut in. “The number of new players showing up is way down and those that have been here for a few days are starting to lose interest.”

  “Not a lot we can do about it, sadly,” Dumadin grumbled. “I really hope Bjorn’s surprise is as good as he hopes.”

  A few moments later Bjorn called a halt to travel for the night and camp was set. Dumadin found the scouts from the night before and had them split into groups of two and go before and behind the caravan to spot. The pairs of scouts took off with broad smiles, promising to make sure the camp would be warned. With Felton’s warning in mind Dumadin and Terets went around seeing who had abilities to negate stealth. Besides the four guards, two of which were sleeping, only four players had taken the right ability. When Dumadin explained his worries to the four players they agreed to his plan, setting up stations in each direction with their backs to the NPC tents.

  “That should negate any stealthers from coming in sneakily,” Terets said. “I’ll see if I can’t cajole our stealthers into going into ambush mode next to the spotters.”

  Dumadin nodded looking over the camp and trying to think of what else they could do to prepare for the unknown. As his mind worked on the problem Kittish moved up behind him and hugged him, pulling him from his thoughts. “What’s the matter?” He asked, immediately thinking something was wrong.

  “Nothing. I wanted a hug and you were lost in your own head.” Kittish said simply, releasing him. “Maybe you should go relax for a bit with Alvira.”

  Shaking his head Dumadin replied, “Not until after the first attack.”

  Kittish shook her head, a frown marring her features. “No. You will go enjoy yourself now. We do not know if they will even attack tonight with all the trouble they caused today. So instead of waiting for something that might not come you will go have some relaxation now. Alvira is already waiting for you, I made sure of it. Now go.”

  Closing his eyes Dumadin sighed, a small smile crossing his lips, “I see, a conspiracy is it?” He opened his eyes to find Kittish meeting his with love and determination. “I concede for now and will go to see her, dear. But only if you come with, that is my price.”

  Kittish smiled broadly and chuckled wickedly, “Oh that price is a very hard bargain indeed. Well come along then, and let us see what me and Alvira can do to cause your muscles to melt for us.”

  A little over an hour later Dumadin emerged from Alvira’s tent, leaving Kittish behind still entwined with Alvira. He was smiling as he got his helmet on and looked around to find Terets for the latest intel. As he looked around for Terets, Kristof came walking over to him. “Evening Kristof, how are you doing tonight?”

  “Alright for now. Hopefully as good as you later, though,” Kristof chuckled his eyes flicking to the tent before going back to the dwarf. “I told Camelia I would drop by after we knew if
an attack was coming.”

  “Well, from what the others told me about this morning it’s a coin flip. Lots of action today which might mean not as much tonight. Take the advice I got and go see the woman now, we might not get any fighting worth the name tonight.” As the words left Dumadin’s mouth the player who was on anti-stealth duty near him stiffened.

  “Dumadin,” the player said softly his head not turning, “we have twenty stealthers coming in from directly in front of me.”

  Dumadin turned his back towards the direction the man had indicated and lowered his voice to Kristof. “Go get the close players ready for this fight, do not draw attention if you can avoid it, though.” As he said that to Kristof he opened a conversation with Terets. “Terets, we have twenty stealthers coming in from behind me to the tents. Grab anyone close to you and get ready for the party.”

  Checking his map, Dumadin noticed the enemies would have moved right past Terets, who was in stealth next to a wagon they had already passed. Taking a second, Dumadin downed one of his Stoneskin potions as he thought of a quick plan. Turning slowly as if making small talk, Dumadin touched the spotter’s shoulder. “Good job, rogues get ready. I’m going to go walk into the mass of them which will get me mobbed. Get ready to hit them when they drop stealth.”

  Dumadin patted the spotter on the shoulder and chuckled, walking towards Terets as if he was carefree. His skin was crawling, knowing that the stealthers would be all around him and that this was probably going to kill him at least once. After about a dozen feet ten people stabbed him almost in unison, dropping him dead in the span of a second due to the bonus for backstabbing someone from stealth. As the attackers appeared though, they were cut down in turn by the stealthed defenders who had been near the tents.

  Those defenders in turn were attacked by the rest of the attacking groups, looking for an opportunity like this. Terets, Kristof and the people they had been nearby jumped into the fight at that point as well. The commotion was noticed about then by the other players in the camp, who turned all their attention on the attackers as well. When the dust settled, the twenty attackers were dead and Dumadin was standing up. Only one defending player had been killed, and only because he was level five and didn’t have the hit points to survive a single ambush attack from a level fifteen rogue with good gear.

  “Well, that was fun,” Dumadin coughed as he stood up.

  “Had to be the bait, huh?” Terets said, coming over.

  “I’m sure Executioner put bounties on our heads. So yeah, I was fairly confident that I would get ganked hard. Note to self- ten rogues who attack from stealth can wreck me even with a Stoneskin potion.”

  “Good thing you can stand back up,” Kristof said, shaking his head. “Otherwise you would end up spawning with them at the shrine and I’m sure they would just love to keep killing you.”

  “Oh, no doubt,” Dumadin laughed, “not my idea of a good night at all. Anyway, that’s done with for now, so why don’t you go see Camelia.”

  Kristof turned away, waving backwards as he hurried off, “See ya.”

  Terets laughed, “That didn’t take much did it?”

  “I was telling him to go just before the attack came in.” Dumadin said before raising his voice a little, “To you four who are being our eyes. Thank you, this is exactly what I wanted to stop. You four are epic right now, even if you didn’t personally see them this time. Keep it up, right now you are literally life savers.” As he finished talking the four people being their eyes sat a little straighter and prouder. He went to each of them and gave them ten gold each, “A bonus for doing the important but boring work.”

  “Good pep talk coach,” Terets smirked. “Any words of advice for an idiot who gets himself ganked?”

  “Yeah, next time send the lippy rogue.” Dumadin quipped back.

  “Oh ouch, I felt that one” Terets muttered as Amythyst closed the distance to them.

  “Keeping the fun all to yourselves?” She asked, looking at where the defenders had just finished looting the attacking player’s bodies.

  “Meh, it was over in seconds. Not a lot of point trying to drag everyone in.” Dumadin shrugged, “Next time you can be the bait if you want.”

  “I would have just gotten someone to toss an AoE on the spot they were at, instead,” Amythyst said with a raised brow.

  Dumadin opened his mouth then closed it and laughed, “Point, set and match to the healer. If you can wrangle at least four folks who can do exactly that and get them to set up next to our eyes here, that would be great.”

  Amythyst nodded, “See what you get when you use someone with a brain to do the planning?”

  Wincing, Dumadin touched his chest, “So much sharper than a serpent’s tooth. I think you’ve spent too much time with Terets. You used to be such a quiet and unassuming girl when we first met.”

  “Oh no, this is your fault,” Terets told Dumadin as he hugged Amythyst. “You were always going on and on when she joined us, after all.”

  Dumadin hung his head, “Et tu, Terets. Beset upon by my friends, oh what did I ever do to deserve this?”

  His friends just chuckled at his theatrics and went off to find some players who could set up the plan Amythyst had come up with. Dumadin watched them go with a smile on his lips before he turned to Alvira’s tent and with a shrug went back inside to kill another few hours.

  Only one more attack come that night, this time from each direction from the same twenty attackers. With the camp knowing the plan they were prepared for when the AoEs went off. The attackers had just a few seconds of surprise before they were mobbed to death with brutal efficiency. No other attempt was even made so the rising sun found the Caravan breaking camp and rolling out soon afterwards.

  Two hours later Garthur showed up and greeted the quartet. “Any news?”

  Terets filled him in on the two attacks last night, “So it was pretty lackluster. Which means you very well might have a busy day again. Bjorn is saying tonight will see Tabitha reunited with the Caravan along with some surprise he sent her for. We have no idea what it is, but he seems certain it will mean no more deaths.”

  “Damn, I wonder what it is,” G muttered. “I wonder if we can get small breaks in today so I can pop in later and find out what it was.”

  “We shall see,” Dumadin said as the friends climbed into Bjorn’s wagon. “Not sure if they will shift tactics again today, but stay on your toes.”

  David gasped in pain as he left the game. His whole body felt compressed and heavy to him with a sharp pain near his left shoulder, he panted slightly as he tried to sit up in the pod. Miriam stood next to his pod, concern and fear written on her face. David patted her hand and gave a small smile as his breathing became a little easier. “Wow, that was not very nice at all,” he said softly as he took the pills and glass of water from her hand. Downing his pain pills, he was grateful for Miriam’s help as she helped him out of the pod. “Thank you, hun.”

  Seeing that he was breathing easier again, she chalked it up to the sudden transition to being in pain and not having his medications in his system. “You okay now?”

  “Yeah just got hit by the pain was all,” He let her help him into the bedroom and onto the bed. “Just give me a bit for the meds to kick in and I’ll be good for dinner.”

  She hesitated before kissing him softly, “Okay. Call if you need anything, I’ll get dinner started. I’m thinking peanut stir-fry tonight would be good.”

  David just nodded as he tried to relax, “Sounds good to me.” He heard her leave the room and sighed deeply, feeling wrong for lying to her. He knew he had just had a small heart attack, his dad had them before he had died as well. He knew the symptoms all too well from helping his dad through the last few years of his life. He knew the last sign for his cancer was his heart giving out, his doctor had told him, and this first attack would be followed by more. He knew he was being selfish by not telling her but he didn’t want her to fret even more during his last days. “Jus
t let me go on for two more weeks,” he said to himself softly. “I want to finish what I started there.” He drifted into a fitful rest for a bit before Miriam came to wake him for dinner.

  They ate in silence as David considered a couple of times telling her and not doing so each time. When dinner finished they cuddled on the sofa and turned on GNN to see if Ashley had any updates running. Sure enough, GNN was running her last report about her being there for the attacks the morning before. She described the first two attacks, how the attackers had perfect ambushes set up. Following that with how Felton had rallied the defenders and come up with the counter plan to force the ambushes out. She also stressed how the NPCs mourned for the loss of two of their number, as anyone would mourn for a friend who was killed. Before the recap ended she stressed again how people should be again considering how they viewed Last Horizon and the people they interacted with there.