by Galen Wolf
I shake my head. “You’re an NPC mule. You do what I say.”
Henry says, “If you level me, I can carry more and go faster.”
“Level you?” I hadn’t thought about that, but I’m still learning the game. “How do I do that?”
“Well, by me transporting things and feeding me up so I don’t starve. The more work I do the more food I need.”
I pause. He maybe has a point. “Okay, I’ll think about it.”
“Well think about it quick,” Blodeuwedd says. “Real quick.”
I jab my finger at her. “Are you threatening me?”
She blinks her bright eyes. “No. Just saying.”
I sigh and get back to my work.
I’ve come across lower value minerals but I ignore them and go for silver. I now have 30 silver ores, 35 tourmalines and 40 irons. I use some of the iron with my moulds to upgrade my armour and weapon to iron from nickel.
Iron Plate (40) 5% FR, 5% CR, 5% AR
Iron Greaves (40) 5% FR, 5% CR, 5% AR
Iron Helmet (40) 5% FR, 5% CR,5% AR
Iron Gauntlets (40) 5% FR, 5% CR, 5% AR
Round Wooden Shield 10
Iron Longsword (40) C50
All plus 10% Squire bonus
I then dig for tourmaline to add acid resistance 5% to everything and give cold and fire resistance by mining extra cobalt and sulphur. I’m upgraded to the best of my skills and I won’t improve until I get more skill points from levelling. For that I’ll have to do more questing.
I load Henry up with the ores but he gets burdened.
I take off 10 of the iron ores as they are the least valuable. I store them in the mine, hidden behind some old wood and hope they’ll be safe there. But taking the ore off the mule’s back does the trick and unburdens him. I can’t see his carrying capacity anywhere on the different tabs, but I must be just missing it. Anyway, I guess as he levels, it will improve.
As I leave the Silver Drift Mine, I look east, scanning the horizon. The band of dark energy is still there indicating the area of influence of the Evil One, but it’s no closer. That’s good. We make our way down the mountain and across the miles to Camelot. Blodeuwedd tries to ride on Henry’s neck but the mule turns round and tries to bite her. He doesn’t even get close and the owl flaps around taunting him. Still, this is no good. It’s slowing me down. I yell at them and they stop for a while then they start their bickering again, so I’m really glad when I see the tall red walls of Camelot.
I go to the vendors in the middle of the square. I sell all my ores and get the money in Marks. A Mark is 10 Shillings and a Shilling is 3 Groats. So I get 69 marks 1 shillings and fourpence with my Haggling bonus.
Time to spend some money. I feel so rich I go on a spending spree.
I buy a Longbow for 5 Marks and 200 arrows for 1 Mark. Of course I can’t use these yet. I see Henry eyeing a fodder vendor. “See that guy?” He says. “That’s the guy who sells the oats.”
I check out the prices. Hay is cheaper and I say so.
“Yeah, but oats is better. It makes me go faster.”
“Is that true?” I ask Blodeuwedd, because I don’t trust Henry to tell me the truth. The owl lifts her wing and preens her feathers as if bored by my question. “No, but it has more nutritional value, so it’ll last longer.”
“That too.” The mule is grinning, showing his tombstone teeth.
So I buy him a whole bunch of oats for 10 Marks. That should keep him going. I still have a lot of money left. I foresee my demands for carrying ore to increase. “Maybe I should buy some more mules,” I ask Blodeuwedd. After all, she’s my advisor.
“Horses are better,” the owl says.
“No, they’re not,” Henry says.
“Yes, they are.”
I sigh. “I can’t use horses yet.”
“Yeah, buy a mule. Buy that pretty one.” Henry points his muzzle. I can’t tell which of the mules is pretty so I ask him.
“The grey one with the white blaze on her nose. She’s cute.”
Blodeuwedd croaks her disgust.
I buy two mules, one of them is the cute grey one and another male mule. The girl is called Bessie and the new boy mule is John.
“All right, mate?” John asks.
“Hello, pleased to meet you,” Bessie says. I don’t know why talking mules freaks me so much, I accept talking owls without batting an eyelid.
“Charmed, I’m sure,” Henry says, sidling up to Bessie.
“Watch them,” Blodeuwedd says.
I take my menagerie with me. I see an armour vendor who’s selling nice gear. I want to make my own armour of course, but I don’t have a shield mould so I buy one. Then I see an item.
I ask the vendor about the Nightmare Guard. The grey bearded man scratches his chin and says, “Nightmare Guard. Enemies striking the shield have a 10% chance minus their level to be consumed by fear and run off.”
“So, I’m level 4, what would my save against the shield be?”
He looks at me like I’m a bit dim. “You’d have a 7% chance to get scared.”
“So pretty rubbish shield then?” I’m trying to talk the price down. It looks beautiful with the pearl on the silver. The design is of a medusa’s face. Pretty cool.
He shrugs. “Take it or leave it.”
“How much?”
“Twenty marks.”
“Twenty Marks? Are you kidding me?”
He turns to walk away but I really like the shield so I clap him on the shoulder and stop him. “Okay, I’ll take it.”
Blodeuwedd croaks. “Pretty good businessman aren’t you? I don’t think. Do me a favour, don’t ever take up poker.”
I get the shield for 18 marks and I sell him my old one for one mark.
Henry is getting friendly with Bessie who keeps giggling and snorting in a mule way. I guess they are flirting. John the Mule seems to be not very clever. I watch as he walks into a wall then stands staring at the stone blocks in surprise. That makes me like him more. The mules can share the oats.
I ask Blodeuwedd if she needs any particular kind of food.
“Carrion.”
“Like road-kill?”
“Anything dead really. The stinkier the better.”
I’m not going round picking up road-kill. She can find her own.
We walk back towards the gate. Before we leave the square I see an architect’s office. “Wait here, guys,” I say to the mules and step up the wooden stairs to the office. Blodeuwedd hops up onto my shoulder. A tall dark haired man with a long straight nose who’s wearing blue and white silk robes looks up.
“Can I help you?” The man says. He seems a bit snobby, like he doesn’t think I can afford his services.
I sit without being asked. “I want to build a tower.”
“A tower?” He looks me up and down. “You want to build it?”
I scratch my head. “No, I mean I want to have one built. How do I go about that?”
He gives a thin smile. “You hire an architect to draw up plans, then a mason to build it.”
“You’re an architect?”
“Indeed.”
“How much would plans cost?”
“How big a tower do you want?”
I hadn’t thought about this. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe a hundred feet high?”
“I see.” He begins to write something on paper with a goose quill pen which he dips in blue ink. “Materials?” he says.
“Stone?”
He coughs. “Which kind of stone?”
“There’s a difference?”
“Of course. Different kinds of stone have different properties. For example limestone is relatively cheap but not durable.”
“Why’s that important?”
“When your tower gets besieged by enemies. The more durable it is, the harder it is for them to breach
it.”
“Okay, that makes sense. Well give me some ideas of prices and durability.”
He puts down his pen. “Limestone is the cheapest at 1000 marks per ton and gives you a durability of 100. It’s also the lightest so it’s only a ton a foot.”
“What’s the most expensive?”
He smiles as if dreaming of grand projects. “Obsidian, which is technically a glass, has a durability of 1000, and it’s heavy so it takes 10 tons for a foot.”
“So for a hundred foot tower I’d need a 10,000 tons.”
“Exactly!”
“How much a ton?”
“A thousand marks.”
“So a hundred foot tower of obsidian is going to cost me a million marks?”
“Yes, but sir. It’s the best.”
“What about limestone?”
“A hundred foot tower will cost you a ten thousand marks.”
I scratch my head. It’ll have to be limestone. At least to begin with. “Okay, thanks.” I turn on my heel.
The architect sucks his teeth as if considering whether I’m a time waster. “Here,” he says finally, and stretches to reach me a business card. It says ‘Oliver Stone, Architect, 7 South Square, Camelot.’ “When you have the money, come back and see me.”
I take his card with a smile. “I’ll be back.”
Blodeuwedd squawks as we come down the steps. “You’re going to have to do a lot of mining. And remember labour costs. You’ll need a mason and his crew.”
“Yeah, but it’s doable.”
“You need help,” the owl says.
I indicate the mules. John is watching a fly buzz around his nose. Henry is telling Bessie jokes and she seems to like it.
“They can’t mine though.”
My plan had been to push up my mining skills to gold and then just mine that to make the sales trips to Camelot more efficient. “So what do I do?” I ask the owl.
“Hire some miners.”
“I can hire miners?”
“Of course.”
“Where from?”
“Down there.” I follow where the owl points her beak. There’s a Job Agency. I go in. It’s run by a fat dwarf with a long green dyed beard. He gets up and shakes my hand. “My name’s Asterix.”
“Asterix?”
He nods. “What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing.”
“But I forget my manners,” he says. “Welcome, kind sir. Welcome to my humble business. How can I help you?”
“You hire miners out?”
His shrewd eyes narrow. “How many do you need?”
“How much do they cost?”
“Level 1 miners?”
“To start, I guess. Higher level ones later.”
“Well of course, the higher the level the faster they mine.”
“Do they level by working?”
“They do but their wages go up as they do. You must understand, Mr...?”
“Gorrow.”
“I see you’re a squire. A wonderful profession.” He gives me another grin. “Most squires don’t mine. They fight.”
Another critic. I shrug. “I like the idea of mining.”
“You can change your class you know. You could become an ore merchant.”
I shake my head. “No, I want to serve my King and God.”
“Admirable.” He says it like he doesn’t really mean it. He clears his throat. “ So how many Level 1 miners will you take?
I look to Blodeuwedd. “Two?” she says.
“Sure, two.”
“That’ll be 100 Marks a month each, plus 10% agency fee, plus finders fee of 12.5%, plus arrangement fee of 7.5%.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Every month?”
He laughs. “Of course, not. One off payment. We’re not robbers you know! After the first month it’s just the straight 100 each, plus 10% agency fee.”
I get my 10% haggling discount too so it’s 200 a month. “When do you want the wages?”
“At the end of the month but we need the first month fees up front. So 60 Marks down payment.”
I look at my inventory to see I have 31.67 left. I can’t afford it. “I’ll take one.”
He shrugs. “You can always come back when business is better. If you don’t pay, they’ll leave.”
I suddenly remember the mules. “Do the miners eat?”
The dwarf shakes his head. “No, they only drink beer.”
“Beer?”
“Yes, you feed them with beer. Would you like to meet Thorvald?”
I look over as a miner steps out of the wall. He looks pretty skinny. I’d expected muscles. I wonder how much mining he can really do. He bows. “Howdy, boss.”
“Hello Thorvald.”
Blodeuwedd looks him up and down. I pay the dwarf agent his 30 marks then we all leave. The mules and Thorvald introduce themselves. They seem to get on pretty well. Blodeuwedd squawks. “Peasants. Not a brain cell between the lot of them.”
We’re about to leave the city when Blodeuwedd says, “Don’t forget the beer.”
I sigh and find Old Tom’s Brewery just by Camelot’s East gate. I buy two barrels of beer for a mark. A good job it’s cheap.
“That’ll last him about a week.”
That’s okay. We’ll have more ore by then. I load the mules with the oats and the beer barrels and the gang of us leave the city and begin the long walk back to the Silver Drift Mine.
Just in sight of the Silver Drift Mine, Henry levels.
This gives him 10% extra carrying capacity and 10% extra speed. I’m pleased about that until I see a raiding party of Dwemmers and Boggles on the path ahead. I sigh. At least I’ll get to test my new gear.
10
The Fight by The Tower
The Dwemmers start shooting at me and Henry takes an arrow to the knee. The mule screams out in pain. I have the others in a mule train and that looks like suicide so I loosen the reins, “Go! Run!”
John doesn’t know what’s going on so I slap him on the rump and he looks bemused. “Run!”
“Okay, boss,” he says and ambles off.
Bessie doesn’t want to leave the wounded Henry so I go up to the mule, lift my Dwarven Shield to protect us both. An arrow thumps into it as I take out a healing potion and unstopper it. I jam it into his mule jaw and he slurps about three sips, wasting the last two because they’re on cool-down.
“Thanks, boss. Appreciate it.”
“Just run.”
The mules flee. Blodeuwedd is up in the air. The hired miner Thorvald is looking at the advancing Boggles with what looks like growing battle lust. I don’t want this. “Do you know how to fight?” I ask him.
He shakes his head. “But I’d sure like to learn.”
“You’ll die. Run!”
“Run? Don’t you want a hand?”
“You’re a miner, not a soldier, go.”
“He’s right, kid,” Blodeuwedd adds from overhead. “Flee!”
Thorvald shrugs. “If you’re sure.” He looks almost sad as he casts a glance over his shoulder and jogs off.
That just leaves me and Blodeuwedd and Blodeuwedd isn’t intending on fighting. I turn to face my enemies. An arrow hits me on the left shoulder.
Looks like the Dwemmer have scaled up in their offensive capabilities. Luckily, my armour is a lot better now, or I’d be mincemeat. I put up my shield and charge the first boggles yelling my battle cry. I slash at the first one.
Now they’ve scaled up I’m just hitting them and just damaging them. There
are about fifteen in the raiding party, the Dwemmer archers, some boggles, some boggarts, who are easier and three hobgoblins. I set my combat messages to BRIEF again — it seems they reset to VERBOSE somehow.
I get tactical. I’m going to try and tank this out and take out the weakest of them first. I slash at the boggarts and I’m killing in two or three hacks.
I take another arrow from a Dwemmer and a sword jab from a hobgoblin but I sip health potion so I’m up to 160/200. They could easily kill me here. Soon I’ve slaughtered all the boggarts. I move onto the boggart sergeants.
Potion’s on cool down, so I’m more defensive, though I can’t resist a jab at the boggle sergeant. I score a crit and he’s down. But then there’s another hacking at me. This could take some time, but that’s tanking for you — slow and steady. Eventually, with more sips of health, more slow steady play, I take down all the boggles, leaving the three hobgoblins and four Dwemmers.
I really need to get my damage up.
I’m breathing heavily and sweating, then a bit of luck.
It was bound to happen sometime or other. The hobgoblin runs off, and it was one I’d hardly damaged. The hobgoblins are in the way of the Dwemmer arrows too, like goblinoid shields. Friendly fire doesn’t hurt them but it stops the arrows getting through to me.
I take down another hobgoblin. A long slow slog with three more sips of potion. Still they’re wearing me down — I’m down to 100/200 health. I crit and then crit again. Then he’s almost dead the Nightmare Guard triggers again and he’s off. I nearly had him too.
That leaves the Dwemmer archers. They’re just pew-pewing at me and when they hit, they’re chipping me down. I run at them, but they run away, kiting me. No way I’m going to fall for that. But if I can’t catch them, what the heck am I going to do? I consider taking out my longbow but with 0 skill in archery, I have no chance here, I’ll just be outshot until I die.
