Bastions

by Jeff Sproul

  "What does that mean?" Thrash asked.

  This time, Gregory spoke up. "It means that Melissa has acquired a large number of followers in the Mage World community. Even though I'm seen as her ally, me and my…scholarly types, are dwarfed by her war mages, by ten to one. Even if I wanted to overthrow Melissa, I couldn't. So, I've been using the intel I gather to warn other guilds. We’d been making some progress in curtailing Golem in Mage World, but Melissa's continued efforts of nurturing Golem were always putting the player base further and further behind."

  "How is she helping Golem?" Riley asked.

  Gregory turned and looked to Riley. "We are a guild that has been around for a long time. We've amassed many spells and are constantly researching more. I will say, in my defense, that even if I and my fellow scholars weren't helping Melissa, that her funds and influence would just lead to someone else helping her. Even my scholar comrades would surely aid her as her second-in-command, if I was out of the picture. But that aside, we are able to breach Sigil Online's other dimensions. We have been able to draw Golem to these locations through portals. We…or, I should say, Melissa, has also gained intelligence on paragons and hellions to determine good candidates for Golem to absorb. One of them, as I've been made aware of, was one of your…Bunker Brawlers, was it?" he asked, glancing to Sage, who nodded.

  "You're talking about Parviz?" Laura asked, but quickly her voice became a shout. "He was able to make portals and you guys captured him to feed him to Golem?"

  "As I said, it was not my doing. I didn't even know about this player or any of the others, until after the fact," said Gregory. "I've tried to limit player casualties as much as I'm able, without making Melissa too aware of my secret intentions to undermine her. It hasn't been easy, existing in her shadow, constantly trying to negate her goals."

  "What exactly is she after?" asked Aegis. "What's her end goal in all of this?"

  Gregory clasped his hands together, his gaze lowering. "She has been very effective at profiting from the destruction of guilds. She has attacked when Golem has their forces in conflict. She has an extensive surveillance network and we have, what I can only imagine are the best invisibility spells in Mage World. We are able to remain hidden from Golem while enjoying the spoils of its conquests. This has made our guild incredibly wealthy. And in that respect, we have all profited quite a bit in real life. Nobody realized how much money we could bring in until the first several guilds started to fall. But it hasn't been enough. Melissa just wants more and more. There's no stopping her. She shares the majority of what is acquired. Everyone in the guild profits from it. Everyone is making too much money to care about what happens to Mage World, and now, Sigil."

  "So Melissa is aiding in the death of two entire games, just to make some money?" asked Aegis.

  "Not just some money," Gregory corrected. "Quite a lot of money. You have to realize, that as Mage World fell, the players that were left were many of the hardcore players who thought they could ensure that the game survived. The price of items and materials went up. With every plundered guild, prices rose. The same is true for any significant battle or war. As assets are lost, and as players realize that they need more to defend themselves, prices go up. The same is currently happening with Sigil, but more slowly. Golem hasn't reached its pinnacle yet. But once it does, it will attack the major cities here in the center of Sigil."

  "Well, it's a good thing there's not much in the main cities, other than the majority of the populace of Sigil, and all our headquarters," Ava murmured.

  "Many players have ventured out into wild areas to build and hide and do all the things that came with the Bastions update," said Laura. "But yeah, there's still a ton of people in the city regions. But if Golem attacked in force from any angle, wouldn't everyone align against it? It can't possibly win in an all-out assault."

  Gregory and Sage exchanged a look, before Gregory spoke up again. "I heard about your battle…the one with that dragon and the nest and the three flying Golem bastions," said Gregory.

  "You told this guy about that?" Taurus spoke up.

  Sage held a hand up to quiet Taurus. "He already knew," Sage grumbled.

  "It's true, we were watching your fight from Melissa's headquarters," said Gregory. "It was quite something to see. There's never been such a concentrated effort of repelling Golem's forces before. Despite your losses, you all did quite well. You actually caused Golem a tremendous amount of casualties. But even so, Golem is quite prominent on using its forces the moment they're available. It's already rebuilding. It's gathering resources from numerous points. But…I guess this is where we get into why I'm here."

  "I've been waiting for that part," Taurus spoke up again.

  "Right." Gregory took in a slow breath, then let it out. "Golem is a hive-mind. Even if you attack one point, you can't actually kill it. It'll just reinforce the others and ensure that it survives. However, in its efficiency is its weakness. At this point, the vast majority of Golem is still in Mage World. Only a small fraction of its capability is here in Sigil. The portal that Golem used to get forces here, was…inaccurate. Just like when we research new technologies, Golem is under the same constraints. Another of Golem's weaknesses is that it technically can only use the things it absorbs. It can't utilize our magic spells, but it can utilize our technology and monsters."

  "You built the gate that led Golem here, didn't you?" Riley spoke up. "That's it, isn't it?"

  Gregory tilted his head from one side to the other. "Not exactly. Not directly, anyway. We were at the forefront of inter-game gateways. But there was a bit of a…rebellion, of sorts. Interestingly enough, it was not of my own doing, but of a sub-faction that had grown within our ranks, unbeknownst to me. From this rebellion, the long-researched inter-game gateway schematics were made available to several guilds. One of those guilds created the gate before we could. They used their gate and unwittingly lured Golem to their location. We utilized a separate gate, one that teleported all of us to a specific location. But this first gate was more rudimentary than ours. It took a lot of power to run, and Golem has to expend quite a bit just to keep it open for short intervals. This drastically limits its ability to send forces here. And there's no telling where those forces will end up upon arrival."

  "And what about the gate you left behind?" Riley asked.

  "It was set to self-destruct in an arcane explosion," said Gregory. "We didn't leave our gate behind in the off-chance that Golem would exceed our ability to profit from where it went. As long as we knew which games it was isolated to, we could tackle them one by one."

  "And this…rudimentary gate?" Laura questioned. "Golem has access to it?"

  "That's correct," said Gregory. "It's worth noting that while Golem has the capacity to create structures in which to create more minions, and siphon materials, it actually can't copy structures."

  "What do you mean?" asked Riley. "It can't recreate the gate?"

  "Correct," Gregory nodded. "Its ability to create buildings is severely limited to what could be considered basic nest functions. We've never seen it construct any of the towers, defensive structures, traps, or anything else that we've constructed in Mage World. It can utilize what it seizes, but if that structure is destroyed, then it can't recreate it."

  "So we need to destroy the gate in Mage World," said Riley. "That's how we beat it?"

  "How the hell do we get to Mage World?" asked Thrash. "We don't have a gate, and from the sounds of it, it sounds really expensive to make."

  "Well, it just so happens that one of the more enterprising guilds in Sigil made such a gate," said Gregory. "Actually, it appeared as though a second was about to be made. That nest you were at the other day had the proper energy signature, but something must have gone wrong. Regardless, one of the Sigil guilds…or alliances, has constructed a gate that is able to link with Mage World."

  "We need to warn them," said Laura. "We can't let Golem get its hands on it. Where are they?"

  "It's too
late," said Gregory. "The gate is already in Golem's control. But with Sage and Chrono's help, I've determined that it hasn't become fully functional yet. The gate requires a rare resource here in Sigil. It can't operate without it. I've come to the conclusion that Golem is trying to search for deposits of it."

  "Which resource?" Riley asked.

  "Stricris," said Chrono. "It's really hard to come by, and if a guild has an outpost located on one of the resources nodes for it, then they usually heavily defend it. Which is good, since it's making it extremely difficult for Golem to acquire. We don't have any outposts that are mining it, but we've found some of the crystals while killing monsters. But not in any significant quantities. And not enough to power a gateway for any amount of time, I'm sure."

  "But it's only a matter of time before it does, right?" asked Aegis. "Golem can still seize territory and work toward overpowering any bastion that has a supply of Stricris."

  "Which is why we're here," said Sage. "Gregory knows of the location of the bastion that Golem seized that has the gateway. For now, it remains unpowered. We have to assault this bastion and seize it from Golem. It's going to be highly defended, which means we're going to need everything we can muster. But at least we won't be the ones in the middle of a surprise attack. We can plan and coordinate accordingly. It's going to be a tough fight. Not only do we need to seize the gate, but we also need to hold it until we can acquire the required materials to activate it ourselves and launch an attack into Mage World and destroy their other gate."

  "So…we need the gate in Sigil to go to Mage World and kill Golem's gate?" asked Thrash.

  "That's what I just said," said Sage.

  "Right, I get it, but…Golem already has a gate, right?" asked Thrash.

  "Golem is in possession of a gate that requires an exorbitant amount of resources to utilize, and it's in Mage World," said Gregory. "If the gate here in Sigil Online is activated, it can transport a much larger portion of its force into the game. Essentially, instead of sending individual and sporadic units randomly across Sigil, this gate will open a doorway that will allow many troops to pass through at a time."

  "That sounds bad for us," said Thrash.

  "Very bad," said Sage. "But we do have a significant advantage at the moment," said Sage. "According to Gregory's surveillance of Golem, we dealt a heavy blow to Golem's forces. It's had a week to recover, but so have we."

  "The Weavers and Sappers aren't even here though," said Taurus. "Which means that you don't plan on including them in this assault, which makes sense, since they're still not up to the levels they’d been at. We can't possibly assault what is surely the most fortified Golem location with our reduced forces."

  "We can, and we will," said Sage. "Because if we don't, we're going to lose Sigil in a matter of months. Or in the worst case, weeks.. Now…the plan doesn't just include Crimson Alliance. We need to go on a propaganda offensive, just as Melissa has."

  "Propaganda offensive?" Laura asked.

  "Oh, right, I forgot to mention," Gregory spoke again. "Melissa's plans to nurture Golem extend beyond the game itself. She's used her guild to downvote and refute any post mentioning Golem's whereabouts. She has players who constantly troll the forums for posts about Golem. They then report the posts to her, which she quickly has her players downvote into oblivion so that nobody sees them. She's weaved a web that many people are believing, because her players have become adept at deceit."

  "So that's what happened," Riley murmured. "No wonder."

  Gregory nodded. "So you'll need to work out your own propaganda machine.”

  "How the hell do we do that?" asked Thrash.

  Riley chuckled. "Well, I think I have some thoughts in that regard."

  Taurus looked over to Riley. "Oh, that's right. It was you that attempted to trick my clan into falling for your little gimmick, back during the Hellions expansion."

  "Yeah, but it didn't really work, did it?" asked Riley. "At least, not the way we intended."

  "But it still worked," Taurus pointed out. "And it allowed me to regain control of The Pale Ones."

  "Unintended side effect, I suppose," Riley murmured. "But yeah, I was thinking we could play the same trick. Try and get the news to pick up some footage that would lure players to attack Golem in a few areas and thin it out? I mean, Golem is hidden at these outposts, right? Maybe we can lure some of the less intelligent guilds to commit their forces to seizing Golem's outposts because they look deserted."

  "One key problem is that Sigil Online doesn't have the popularity it once did," said Sage. "It might be hard to lure the media at this time. They tend to only report on exceedingly interesting information."

  Riley reached up and scratched at the side of his head. "I hadn't thought about that."

  Chrono spoke up. "Most guilds are going to do their own surveillance and realize that something weird is going on beneath the outposts. At least, they should. There are stupid guilds out there, with stupid leaders, but I doubt that we can truly count on them for this kind of plan."

  "Then why don't we trick them?" said Riley. "Let's form a caravan of our own. Something large. Something slow-moving. Make it look like we're trying to gain new territory. Then let's have someone in our ranks leak the info, that we're trying to seize these spots, despite the risk. Other guilds either know about Golem, or they don't. Regardless of which, we'll appear as if we know about the trap at these Golem locations, and other guilds will try to seize them first, right?"

  "I don't know," Chrono spoke up first, turning his head to Riley. "Our enemies are just as likely to attack the caravan."

  "Not if the caravan is well-defended," said Riley. "Everyone in the region knows that we have highly researched minions. Let's utilize those sky guards and some scorpions and really beef up the signature of the force. We don't need too many. We'd only need to move one caravan at a time."

  "It's just a bad plan," said Chrono. "There's too many things that could go wrong. We could lose resources for no reason, guilds have no real reason to fall for it, because if they attack the outposts that Golem has secretly hidden beneath, then they'd be expending resources to seize it, only to then have the prospect of fighting us."

  Riley sighed. "Ok, fine…you're right."

  "I appreciate the initiative," said Sage. "But our current plan is to—"

  "Use me as bait," said Riley.

  "What?" Sage asked in surprise.

  All eyes were on Riley now.

  "Golem wants me, right? I mean, it sent all sorts of crap at me. How about we use me as bait to lure Golem into spots that other guilds are going to be. Force those guilds to fight Golem, making them think that Golem is attacking them, but it actually just wants me."

  "Are you serious?" Laura asked. "You realize that we're really screwed if it gets you, right?"

  "Yeah, that's the whole point," Riley said, crossing his arms. "I'm sure Golem would love to get its hands on Chrono or Sage. Time manipulation, or base construction abilities. Both pretty good. But you're both hidden away here at headquarters most the time. Golem apparently keeps tabs on players. It wants me, so let's use that to our advantage."

  "That certainly wasn't my plan," said Sage. "But if you're willing to put yourself in danger, then I'm willing to work with it."

  "Oh, I don't plan on being in danger," said Riley. "If I'm going to do this, I'm going to need a way out. I'm probably going to need a couple different ways out, in fact. Else, Golem is going to realize that it shouldn't go after me if it knows I can flee. Probably, I guess. I have no idea how smart Golem is. Gregory?" Riley asked, glancing over to the mage.

  "I don't know if it will catch on," said Gregory. "You might be able to use the same escape method again and again, or…maybe not. I don't know."

  "There are some methods we can utilize," said Sage. "It's a worthwhile plan. I'll start making preparations. Make sure you're online tomorrow by midday. We need to have you in place to lure Golem to high-density guilds, to make the most out of
this plan."

  "Isn't this exactly what Melissa and her mages are doing?" asked Laura. "Something about this feels wrong."

  "We're just ensuring that the other guilds help us fight Golem and do their part," said Riley.

  "He's right," said Gregory. "I imagine with this plan that the guilds Golem enters into conflict with will actually take very few losses. It won't throw all of its forces at one single player. Unless it thinks it really needs that player for its purposes. It's hard to tell. But Melissa would seek to ensure that a guild is wiped out, even aiding in the attack if need be."

  "I still don't like it. We have a lot to lose," said Laura.

  "And for every guild that fights Golem, then that's an entire guild that knows Golem exists. It'll help spread awareness and reduce Golem's forces while we build ourselves up behind the scenes. It's worth a try. No harm in testing it out."

  "There could be a lot of harm in testing it out, actually," said Sage. "But it's your decision and…well, it sounds a lot cheaper and more viable than what I was thinking originally. So let's go with it."

  Riley's lips curled. "It'll be fun. It's not like I haven't almost died plenty of times before."

  Chapter 28: Bait

  Riley leaned against the tall metal wall of an outpost far out in the wild areas. The sun was still high in the sky, with a little dust kicking up in the distance. Overall, it was a decent day. It wasn't raining or storming. No unusual weather anomalies or events.