Keeper

by Tom Larcombe

  Campbell shrugged, the gesture looking entirely alien on the body he was wearing.

  “What do you want me to say specialist? We didn't have enough in the squad to guard the camp, and even if we had, we would've been watching the side towards the Meadowlands. Who the hell knew these green pukes would head back into the forest.”

  Campbell held up a hand to forestall Harmon's response.

  “I'm getting a report right now,” Campbell said. “Evidently there are now well-traveled trails leading deeper into the forest from the tier four village, trails that weren't there a couple of days back. They're proceeding and checking them out.”

  Campbell sat there quietly, waiting for more information. Harmon continued to rage, berating Campbell for his incompetence enough that Campbell began to wonder if there was something wrong with the specialist. By the time Campbell received the report from his scout, Harmon was literally frothing at the mouth.

  Well shit, Campbell thought. Here I thought that the emergency contact they gave me in case things went wrong in this test was going to be useless. I guess not, because Harmon isn't himself any more. There's something seriously wrong with that man.

  “Specialist?” Campbell said. “We have confirmation on a tier five goblin village, something that wasn't there just a day or two back.”

  At the same time Campbell was sending a message to the contact he'd received to use in case of problems, describing Harmon's altered behavior and the creature he'd been inhabiting until just recently. He'd hoped for quick action from his contact, but that wasn't what he received. Instead. Harmon's fingers started flying as he used his in-game command console.

  A few moments later, the shimmer of an outline began to appear. A massive wolf, like the one Harmon had inhabited earlier, shimmering into being. For a moment it looked like Harmon was trying to transfer his consciousness into the creature, then Campbell's viewpoint shimmered and changed. Suddenly he was staring at the body he'd just been inhabiting a moment ago. It took him just a moment to realize that he was now in Harmon's avatar, but that moment was one too many. The last thing Campbell saw was the jaws of the slavering Giant Wolf as it bit down on his head. As his sight was cut off by the wolf's mouth Campbell could hear Harmon screaming. The specialist was screaming in panic and confusion, crying out that this couldn't be happening, that this wasn't the way things were supposed to go, then everything went black for Campbell.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie loaded himself up with a bunch of the wood scraps he had hanging around out back of the inn. He had a plan for helping any refugees who wanted to settle nearby.

  And hopefully the intent to settle and staking land claims will count them as inhabitants, he thought, feeling slightly guilty about using the current situation to his advantage.

  Tiana had already headed down to the temple earlier, while he and Bjorn were unloading the wagons, so he headed down there to join her. When he arrived, he was slightly confused. There were two young girls that were following her around everywhere. When he finally saw her face he could tell that she was exasperated.

  “Tiana,” he said, trying to catch her attention.

  She looked up at him and gave him a smile. When she started to approach him the two girls tried to follow, but she waved them off. They stopped, as Tiana had intended, but they looked upset about it.

  “Who are your shadows?” he asked.

  “Don't even,” she said. “They informed me that they were my new acolytes as soon as I got here. Won't tell me who their parents are or anything.”

  “Um, they might not have any? Maybe their parents were killed in the raids, or as I suspect is more likely, maybe they were generated just to tend to the temple? Remember, the game still does things like that sometimes, even if it isn't as common as in other games.”

  “Sure, maybe, but they won't even listen to me.”

  “When you tell them to do what?”

  “I asked them to go north along the road and mark out where a mile ended if they could do that. It was like they didn't even hear me.”

  Eddie's suspicions grew stronger.

  “Did you ask them to do anything on the temple grounds or in the temple itself?” he said.

  She shook her head.

  “No, after I'd asked them to do a couple of things and it seemed like they didn't even hear me, I gave up. The only time they listened to me was just now when I told them to stop following me.”

  “Do me a favor? Try telling them to move around the temple and its grounds, comforting the refugees and maintaining everything.”

  “Huh?”

  “If I'm right, and they were generated for the task, they might not be able to leave the temple and its grounds, or just might not want to. I've got no idea how independently minded freshly generated NPCs might be. We know the longer term ones are very much independent minded, but do they have a learning cycle first?”

  Tiana stared at him.

  “I thought you didn't do coding stuff.”

  “I don't, I'm just comparing this to other games I've played. These two seem a lot like the followers I gained in other games right now. Of course, those never changed, I doubt that'll happen here though.”

  Tiana turned and walked over to the two young girls. After a moment of her speaking to them, they got up and started walking around the temple, pausing to speak with those they encountered, tidying up, and in general doing as Eddie had suggested Tiana tell them to do.

  She walked back over.

  “I hate you,” she said. “Where were you when I got down here earlier, I couldn't get rid of them.”

  “Sorry, I was restocking the inn and arranging for things with Bjorn. You knew that though.”

  “Yeah, yeah. As for him?” she said, shaking her head. “He's more of a character than anyone I knew out of the game.”

  “Yeah, a big, harmless, flirtatious bear is all he is,” Eddie said. “Although I saw the club he keeps in his wagon. The thing looks like a tree stump he wrestled out of the ground. So maybe strike harmless off the list, at least to anyone or anything he doesn't like.”

  Tiana shook her head.

  “Somehow picturing him and Liv?” Tiana said. “The visual I get of it makes me wonder, but if I think about their personalities it makes a lot more sense.”

  Eddie chuckled.

  “I think they're well suited for one another, and now if Liv keeps trying to flirt with us we have something to defend ourselves with, especially since I'll be hiring Bjorn on as a hauler.”

  “Good, keep her busy and out of our hair,” Tiana said, smiling.

  “Now, I need to work for a bit. Can I borrow one of your acolytes to spread the word?”

  “Of course you can, the word about what?”

  Eddie settled in and start making claim stakes. He wanted to go with the very first NPC that received them and make sure that they worked for NPCs, but if they did, then he'd settle in and make as many as he could so people could claim their land. He'd also made a bunch of copies of the blueprint for the house he was making for the Collier to use on the newly claimed land areas.

  He'd groaned when he'd thought of that since he still hadn't finished the Collier's house. But once he was done here today, he planned on picking up any wood his farmers had cut for him and then putting in a few hours on that house. He'd finish it before he started these houses, especially since Jern had told him that all the stone work for it was already finished.

  He'd sent one of the acolytes out to the refugees still on the temple grounds, telling them that if they wanted to claim some land they could come see him and he'd help them out with it, so before he was even done carving the first set of stakes, there was a rather weathered looking man with a woman and two children waiting for his attention.

  “The young lady told me that you could help us claim some land?” the man said, once Eddie had finished.

  Eddie nodded and stood.

  “Sure, come with me,” he said. “If this works, you'll have your la
nd claimed so no one else can claim it. I'll help you build a house on it as well, although that will take some effort on your part as well.”

  The farmer looked confused, so Eddie simply led him north on the road.

  “Do you mind being right near the temple?” he asked.

  The man shook his head.

  “Nah, that's a right peaceful place to be. Be nice to be nearby and spend some time there. Even calmed my kids down.”

  Eddie could see the man's point. As soon as they'd left the temple grounds the two children, a boy and a girl, had started roughhousing with one another and growing loud.

  “Alright then, take these stakes,” Eddie said, handing the claim stakes to the man. “Then put one down for this corner of your claim. How much land do you want?”

  “Maybe two acres for the farm, another acre for the house and livestock? Probably just chickens if I can get some.”

  “Why don't we make it four acres total then and give you some room to expand?” Eddie said.

  The man nodded agreement and pushed the first stake into the ground. Eddie walked off, pacing off roughly four hundred and sixteen feet from the road.

  “Try setting the other one in here,” he said.

  The man drove it in and Eddie glanced at the top. It read four hundred and twenty.

  “Good enough,” Eddie said, “now we head north.”

  Eddie paced off the distance again, once more coming close to his estimate. They returned to the road and he had the man set the last stake. The man looked at something Eddie couldn't see, then turned to him.

  “Thank you sir, it's telling me I now own this land.”

  “You're welcome. I know you're probably eager to get started on your own land, but how'd you like to earn some hard coin first?”

  “Certainly, what do you need me to do?”

  “Well, I need to make more claim stakes like we just set, but people will need help to use them. Did you pay close enough attention to be able to tell them how?”

  The man nodded.

  “Then I'll pay you five silver coins if you'll help others use the claim stakes I'll be making. Be sure to leave ten paces between claims so we can put roads in later if we want, deal?”

  The man's smile grew even larger.

  “Deal, sir,” he said.

  Eddie settled back in on a rock right outside the temple, making sets of claim stakes. As people came by, directed by the acolyte he'd borrowed, he sent them off with a set of stakes and the man he'd worked with first. Before he knew it he was out of the wood he'd brought with him.

  “Alright Tiana, I'm heading back towards the inn. If anyone else asks, I'll be down again tomorrow morning with more claim stakes. I'll keep coming down every morning until we've managed to get some to everyone who wants them.”

  “I'll let them know. Thanks again for figuring out what was up with the acolytes.”

  He shrugged.

  “You're welcome, I'm glad I was right. Assuming I was that is, we still don't know for sure one way or the other, but as long as it works for you, that's what's important.”

  She smiled and gave him a wave as he headed back for the inn.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie did as he'd said he would. He headed back to the inn for just long enough to grab some lunch, then took the ox and cart up to the farm. Osmond and Brandr had quite a lot of rough hewn planks stacked up for him, more than he'd expected.

  Heck, I might even manage to finish the house with all this, Eddie thought.

  His next few hours were spent moving all the lumber over to the Collier's house site, then working on the house. He didn't finish, but there was only about a quarter of the roof left to go when he decided to call it quits. He headed back to the inn and was sitting there nursing an ale when the door opened and he looked up.

  “Don't even ask,” Karl said as he stumbled into the inn, bloody and bruised with his gear showing signs of damage.

  Eddie looked at Allie, who was behind the beaten down Karl. She was wearing a smirk.

  “I warned him, told him I could take care of it, but he had to get involved,” she said.

  Karl groaned as he lowered himself into a chair.

  “Involved in what?” Eddie asked.

  “Well, this morning he put in an order with Opron, a rush job that he wanted delivered down here before dinner today. Then we headed back out to where we saw those cow analogues?” Allie said.

  “The ones that made awesome steak?” Eddie asked.

  She nodded.

  “Anyhow, he got it in his head that he needed to try a burger in game. I told him I could drop one with my bow, but he decided we could do it quicker if he stealthed up to them and stabbed one first,” Allie said.

  Karl's face was red now and it had nothing to do with the small trickles of blood visible on various parts of his body.

  “So he did,” Allie said, “then got caught in a stampede for his efforts.”

  Eddie looked over at Karl, who was still groaning. He couldn't help it, he tried to stop the smile that wanted to spread across his face, but was unsuccessful. Allie caught it and started snickering, before long Eddie had joined her.

  “I'm sorry Karl,” he said between laughs, “but really? You got caught in a stampede?”

  “It's not funny!” Karl said.

  “You'll be fine in another hour,” Allie said. “And yes, it is. It is funny. I don't even have to say I told you so because any time I tell the story it'll be right in there.”

  Karl's face sank into his hands and Eddie couldn't resist.

  “So Karl, where's the pseudo-beef?” Eddie said.

  “Hah! That at least I managed,” Karl said.

  He reached into his inventory and pulled out a side of beef. Slamming it on the table between them Karl looked up at Eddie.

  “This'll all be worth it when I have a beer, burger, fries, and a pickle sitting in front of me for dinner,” Karl said.

  Eddie stared at the side of beef. They hadn't gotten a beef drop the last time and hadn't taken the time to fully butcher it so they'd just had a little. This time there was a hundred or more pounds of beef sitting in front of Eddie, the clean form that was given in drops, not the messier butchered version.

  “You do realize that as soon as anyone in the inn sees or smells that they'll be clamoring for their own, right?” Eddie said.

  “Got you covered,” Allie said. “Although I won't slam the butchered ones down on the table, they're kind of drippy. Show me where you want them in the kitchen?”

  Eddie followed her back to the kitchen, carrying the side of beef Karl had provided, and showed Allie where to put the others. Liv was back there, cooking, but also looking at a device clamped to the worktable with intense curiosity.

  “Eddie, what is this thing? Opron dropped it off and said you wanted it?”

  “Well, Karl wanted me to have it anyhow,” Eddie said, “But as to what it is, have you ever made sausage?”

  She shook her head.

  “This is a meat grinder. Here, watch,” he said.

  Eddie took a cleaver and removed about a pound off the clean side of beef. Then the crammed it into the top of the grinder, put the metal cover on top and held pressure to it as he cranked the handle. A whole bunch of thin strands of beef came out of the grinder.

  “This is ground beef, I'll show you what I plan to do with it in a bit. Do you remember the fries I showed you how to make?”

  “The sliced potatoes fried in oil? Yes.”

  “Make up a batch please, while I work with this.”

  Eddie jury rigged a way to put pressure on the beef and form a thick patty. The stove was already heated up, so he slapped it down on top of it. While the patty cooked, he cut some flatbread to just larger than he thought the burger would come out. He explained what he was doing as Liv watched.

  “So, it's like a hot beef sandwich?” she said.

  He nodded.

  “Close. Let's see, a bit of onion, some pepper, and salt get use
d while cooking. It really is a hot sandwich, but most people don't really consider it a sandwich. Do we have any of that ketchup left that I made?”

  When he'd served the fries before a lot of people had requested ketchup to go with them, so he'd worked out a recipe for it, and a few other condiments also. He had a rough steak sauce, mustard, and a recipe for mayonnaise once he had enough eggs coming in.

  He flipped the burger and started almost drooling himself. Allie was still in the kitchen, watching with curiosity.

  “Um, could you maybe make a second one of those for me?” she said.

  Eddie chuckled.

  “As much as I teased him, I'll be having one for my dinner too. I need to get some of those cow things. I wonder if either Osmond or Brandr has good livestock skills? I could keep a herd over at the farm.”

  By now Liv was sniffing curiously.

  “You know, when I watched the meat get ground I decided I wouldn't be trying this one, but I may have changed my mind, could I maybe...” she said.

  Eddie nodded.

  “Sure, but Karl gets the first one. It was his idea,” Eddie said, searing the burger.

  Before long it was done and Eddie dressed it up as best as he could. A pickle spear on the side of the plate, a mound of fries alongside the burger, and the burger itself with lettuce and tomato on flatbread.

  Karl was already looking better when Eddie went out to the common room, carrying Karl's plate. He set it in front of Karl, then went to pour him a beer. When he got back with the beer, Karl was just sitting there, sniffing, a beatific smile on his face.

  He'd tried the fries before so he went straight for the burger once he had his beer. He picked it up, took a bite, then slumped back in his chair. He chewed slowly, then swallowed.

  “Oh yes, it's everything I'd hoped for. Well worth getting trampled for,” he said.

  Then he sat up and tore into his plate, showing respect for the burger by slowing every time he went to take a bite. After watching for a moment longer Eddie turned and went back to the kitchen. He started chopping chunks off the side of beef.