The young dwarf spoke up, “Lord Steelhammer called everyone to the throne room when you arrived, but he didn’t seem upset.”
I thanked the dwarf and we continued on in silence for the next several minutes until we reached the vast cavern that acted as the throne room for the King Under the Mountain. A large door blocked the entrance, made of stout wood, and I had no doubt it would take a sizeable army to get through that door. Two guards, one on each side of the door, stood at attention as we approached.
Sometimes I wished Resurgence had more than just the five colors to delineate the level of the mob and the danger it poses to the player. Green was an adversary of little difficulty, three or more levels below the player. White was one level below or at the same level, while Blue represented a mob one or two levels above the player, and Yellow three or four levels. Anything more than that and the mob was Red. But that didn’t tell you if the mob was 5 levels or 15 levels above, and made it pretty difficult to gauge the risk versus reward of trying an attack.
For example, each of the guards at the door was red to me, but my money was on 15 levels and not five, and so I knew they could likely take out my whole group without breaking a sweat. The dwarven guard placed his hand against the door, and a bright light shone. After that, the guard easily pushed the door open and announced our arrival.
“The East Range Mountain Dwarf Clan!”
There was no mention of “and guests,” so I took that to mean we were accepted as part of the clan. The guards ignored us almost entirely until Wayne began to pass the threshold. Both guards looked at Wayne and gave a single nod in recognition. Warriors did stuff like that.
King Under the Mountain, Lord Steelhammer, was not sitting on his throne. In fact, I couldn’t even see a chair that would qualify as a throne. Instead, Lord Steelhammer was walking toward my group with a big smile on his face. I felt a tension in my shoulders ease that I didn’t even realize was there. Dealing with unknown, powerful NPCs could go wrong quickly, and it seems my paranoia manifested without me realizing it.
“Boys, make no mistake. I ain’t be joking when I tell ya to hide your Mithral around this one!” the King said as he approached and clasped wrists with me.
“That joke will never get old, Lord Steelhammer,” I said.
“What joke? You negotiated a Dwarf out of Mithral! That ain’t something that be happening every day, lad. You be famous already!”
I laughed and regarded the other dwarves. All had smiles on their faces and looked anxious to meet us newcomers.
“What took ya so long to get here? Figgered you and your boys would be ‘round before now. Not out causin’ trouble I hope. And how be the tree?”
“What tree?” I replied.
“Good lad. Keep that one as close as you would the secret entrance ya came through.”
“On our word.”
“Good enough for me! Now, what brings ya boys down to the Mountain?”
I explained to the King our needs for better armor, and how we knew we would find no better steel for Wayne and Jason than here among the Dwarves. Further, I told him that this was a preliminary look, as we hadn’t the funds yet to purchase the high quality products the Dwarves produced. The King nodded his head in understanding.
“You’re welcome here amongst us, me boy. Feel free to look around at yer leisure. I’ll have one of me kin go around with ya, so you don’t get lost.”
“Afraid I’ll run off with more Mithral?” I asked jokingly.
“Bah! You ain’t be the thievin’ type. You used them sweet words to fleece me good!” the King responded in kind, adding his own laughter.
Another dwarf approached the King and said, “Me Lord.”
“Aye, I had not forgotten, Perry” the King said as he looked at me. “This here be one of our Master Smiths, Perry Firehands. He has asked if he can look at the shoulders of the Blessed One.”
Jason groaned behind me, and I smiled a bit. Lord Steelhammer took Jason’s reaction to be a negative response and asked if he had offended the cleric.
“It’s not that, Lord Steelhammer. I just wish people would stop calling me Blessed One. Some take it a little too seriously.”
The King gave me a sidelong glance with a raised eyebrow.
“Sharla,” I responded.
All of the dwarves in hearing distance started laughing mightily. The King was the first to respond. “You’re lucky that one didn’t demand to come with ya! She didn’t tell you her story did she?”
Jason shook his head and said, “She almost did force her way to come with us. Tibble had to remind her three times of her contract before she would relent!”
“Aye, sounds about right. She be a distant relation to Grumblewat. She considers any piece of his armor to be a dwarven treasure and would likely put herself in any danger to protect ‘em.”
“Can we just stop with the ‘Blessed One’ stuff for now? Please.”
The King nodded his head and every dwarf in the room did the same. Jason gave a sigh of appreciation.
“How can I help the Master Smith?”
“He would like to look at them shoulders, if ya don’t be minding. Just examining a work of Grumblewat’s can tell a lot to a Smith of his level.”
“Of course, Lord Steelhammer.”
Master Smith Perry approached Jason and began looking at the shoulders closely. He took out a pair of spectacles with varying colors of lenses and started flipping through the color spectrum while examining the armor. Jason stood still for the examination, and after ten minutes, Perry spoke to our cleric. Jason looked over at the smith quizzically.
“Everything ok, Allister?” I asked.
“Yeah. But I got a personal quest from Perry here. Basically, it says that if I get more armor like this, let him examine it. Reward is experience. See any problems with it?”
I thought for a moment. After considering the situation, I looked at the King. “I see no issues with it, as long as Allister can let any other Master Smith or below examine them at his leisure.”
“Ha! Told you Perry! This one will see through any loophole! Not to worry Alex, there are no restrictions on what the Bless—dammit, I mean Allister does with his items.”
Jason nodded, accepted the quest, and let out a “whoop!” when he got a nice amount of experience from Perry “If I receive any more pieces of Grumblewat’s armor, I will be sure to find you, Master Smith. As long as Sharla doesn’t find me first!” Laughter could be heard throughout the mountain.
*
We spent almost two hours walking through the marketplace of the Mountain. Almost everything one could find at a regular market was there, including leather armor for me and Dan. As we suspected, however, the armor was more expensive and of a lower quality than what we could find in the Keep. The same could not be said for the plate armor.
There was so much plate, and so many merchants selling it, we were overwhelmed at first. Even I didn’t know where to start.
And Wayne… Well, Wayne was like a kid in a candy shop—if that kid had no adult supervision and the shop had a sign saying “Free Candy All Day, Every Day!” He looked at everything wide-eyed, and on multiple occasions I almost had to slap his hand away and tell him “no touching!” Dan and Jason soaked up the experience and enjoyed themselves. It did take me a few minutes to convince Dan that, despite the fact that we weren’t buying anything for him, he still couldn’t go off to the tavern and get blitzed. It was an overall excellent experience, though, and another new thing for us in Resurgence. I had to remind myself that my friends were in this for the game, and these moments meant the most for them. For me, this was a means to an end, a tool toward finding the code, even if I still didn’t understand entirely.
What I understood quite well by now, though, was that our upgrades were not going to be cheap. Even the armor without stat bonuses or magical properties was expensive. With our discount for having a friendly disposition to the dwarves, each suit of full armor of a Fine quality would run 5
platinum. High Quality was 10 platinum each. It wouldn’t cost us quite that much since both Wayne and Jason had items they wouldn’t be replacing, but it was still going to cost a fortune. It wasn’t that long ago that we worked our asses just to raise a single platinum piece each for our horses.
The only purchase we made ended up being for me. I had been using a crap dagger in my off-hand to help me level my Dual Wield and up my DPS. We decided to replace it with a Shiny Dagger that had a better attack modifier and only cost us five gold. Given my earlier faux pas with the bear, I was reminded that I needed to be focused on my attack strategy now more than ever. If they only knew.
I talked to as many NPCs as I could. I was hoping to find an NPC quest giver that in turn could lead to us raising some money. Unfortunately, they were all regular NPCs and had nothing but their wares or hellos to offer. Things just weren’t going our way.
“Maybe we could go at the second level of the mine,” Brindle said as we kept walking through the market.
I looked over at him with a questioning look on my face. Brindle stopped and stared up at me, stating, “Well you said you wanted ideas.”
I nodded, thankful that even Brindle was trying to come up with ways for us to make some cash. I knew the second level of the mine was going to be out of our league, though, and said as much. I also thanked Brindle for his recommendation.
“Ya don’t think with our new armor and skills we could take it?” he asked.
“Sorry, but I’m guessing that dungeon is going to be way out of our league. I could have checked when we were there last, but based on my experience, we would get slaughtered.”
“If there be Fermium on that top level, I can’t imagine what be below it. Would have to be something better. Maybe even Mithral.”
“Or maybe nothing at all,” I countered. “And it wouldn’t be worth getting ourselves killed. I don’t want to see Naugha sacrificing himself again.”
That quieted Brindle. The dwarves still remembered the selfless sacrifice that Wayne had made so that none of them would die when we took the mine. For the dwarves, Wayne gave his life so that no more from the Clan would die. For that, they named Wayne and the rest of us “kin” to the Clan.
Brindle nodded, and kept on. I didn’t want to dissuade the young dwarf, though.
“It was an excellent idea, brother. And we will tackle that second level. Just not yet. Keep improving on the battlefield, and you can be sure we will explore that region soon enough.”
Dan had been mostly quiet during our travels through the Mountain, so it was a bit of a surprise when he spoke up suddenly.
“Range and grind,” Dan said.
“What?”
“I’ve been thinking it over a lot. And I don’t see any option for us. We are going to have to range out and grind through. It sucks, but that’s part of the game. If we just stay in one place, there is no way we will make enough to improve our armor. We need to range out farther from the Keep and start grinding through mobs.
“And we haven’t really explored the city either. Could be some quest NPCs that we haven’t found that give experience and cash for mundane tasks, like collecting venom sacks. I think our best chances will be there, not here in this area.”
Jason and Wayne nodded in agreement. I had come to a similar conclusion. The trip to the Mountain hadn’t been a total loss, though. We had found a secret entrance to the home of the dwarves, I had established a system for the East Range Mountain Clan to make more profit, and we had a solid understanding of the type of money we would need to raise our armor class. But now it was time to go.
“Brindle, we thank you greatly for all of your assistance, but it’s time for us to get back to the Keep. You said there was a member of the Clan here that could lead us back toward the crossing to the city?”
“Aye, he should be around the main gate, waiting for us. Will be sad to see ya lads go, though.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll be seeing each other soon enough, I am sure.”
*
The trip to the main gate only took a matter of ten to fifteen minutes, with an additional twenty minutes to find our guide. Dwarves and even a few non-dwarves crowded the area in front of the gate. That was the first we had seen anyone other than dwarves, but these too were NPCs. I took the time to speak with them, hoping they were quest givers, but such was not the case. Each was a merchant selling wares that were not produced commonly by the dwarves, but none were selling armor.
Our guide, Cog, was stoic but ready to get us on our way. I assured the dwarf that once we were in a location we were familiar with, he could return home. Cog seemed happy with that news and led us out of the Mountain.
We could have traveled much quicker with our horses, but since Cog did not have a mount, we were forced to walk. I checked with Dan when we exited the Mountain, but he was unfamiliar with the terrain. We directed Cog to begin leading us toward the closest main road, and he readily agreed.
During our walk, Cog thanked us for all of the work we had done for the Clan. He noted that the prosperity of the Clan had never been higher, and he was constantly busy selling the wares coming out of our mine. I told him about the new arrangement made with Tibble, and much like Brindle, this gave him pause.
“This is for the whole Clan, or just those working the mine?” Cog asked suspiciously.
“The whole Clan, brother, whether in the Mountain or in the mine. All will reap the reward.”
“I don’t know how the King will take that, but I can tell you all of the East Range boys is going to be as happy as TheClaw in a tavern on half off night!”
Jason spit out the water he was drinking and looked at Cog, “What? What did you just say?”
Dan piped up immediately, “My legend is known far and wide, Allinator!”
Wayne and I were laughing uncontrollably, and Jason walked off in a huff. As we were settling down I saw Dan hand Cog a few coins and heard him whisper, “Perfect. Absolutely perfect.”
We continued on for another hour, with Dan steadily pestering Jason to recognize his greatness. Jason kept repeating that Dan was not a legend, and never would be. I don’t know when Dan had orchestrated the interaction with Cog, but I was fully ready to give TheClaw his recognition. It was beautifully executed.
We soon came upon the road and recognized where we were. We thanked Cog for his assistance and bid him safe travels back to the Mountain.
“If ever you come back through our way, be sure to look me up. I like this one,” Cog said while pointing at Dan.
“Heaven help us, he has a fan!” Jason exclaimed after Cog had departed and we had summoned our mounts.
“It was bound to happen, Allister. The mentally ill have always gravitated toward each other, and there had to be a few unstable NPCs in the game. Sad he is a part of our Clan.” Wayne said.
“Not cool, man! You are totally not getting the first edition of ‘TheClaw official Fan Club’ buttons I’m having made up. Allistilla will, though. I know he is my number one fan.”
“That title belongs to Broham, and only because you bribe him with food,” Jason replied.
“I’m totally up for bribery. Name your price, cleric.”
Jason seemed to think about that for a moment then shook his head. “If I didn’t know you were filthy rich, I wouldn’t have even considered that thought. But for a brief moment there, it was tempting,” Jason said while laughing.
The road we were traveling took us through the checkpoint we originally crossed to arrive at the Capitol. Soon enough, we were back in the area around the city and stopped to consider our next moves.
“If we want to range and grind, we can do so from out here or head back to the Keep and start from there. Any preference?” Wayne asked.
“Dan made a good point earlier when he said we still needed to see if we can find some NPC quest givers in the Capitol. That city is huge, and I doubt we really saw much of it,” Jason said.
“See, he is already recognizing my greatnes
s.”
“From now on I’m just going to stay quiet,” Jason replied.
“Nah, we’ll put a ball gag in Dan’s mouth before we let that happen. Or something similar. He might like that,” I said.
“Not necessary,” Dan said. We all nodded our thanks. “Besides,” he added, “rubber tastes horrible.”
We all looked toward him. Wayne finally broke the silence saying, “Seriously man, I don’t know if you are kidding half the time.”
“Me neither, brother. Me neither.”
*
Dan’s suggestion panned out and we found a number of NPCs that were providing low level quests. Well, low level for the Keeps region. In most cases, they required us to turn in a number of items to the NPC, and in kind we would receive experience and cash. For example, those Fine Quality skins we had already mailed to our friend in Port Town would have fulfilled one of these quests. We decided as a group to forego that particular quest, as we wanted backpacks for our group desperately. It wasn’t much of a decision either as it required 20 skins—five from each of us—to complete the quest, and it also took five skins to make one backpack. I had no doubt that as we progressed in the game, that extra carrying capacity was going to be necessary, and we could find other ways to grind.
Other quests required items from different animals, while some just required a kill count. One of the latter specifically required us to kill 100 undead mobs. Naturally, we gravitated toward that quest because of our past experience grinding undead with Wayne’s hammer and Jason’s Banish Undead spells. Activating the quest as our primary, however, did not show where those undead were located. In the end, we received six different quests and we would have to accomplish them through normal game play. Things were looking up, and I liked this idea of ranging out more and more. Not that we had much of a choice.
“Well, Dan, this was your idea, and a good one at that,” Jason said. “So it’s your choice. What direction do you want to go first?”
Dan didn’t comment on Jason’s recognition of his good idea. Instead, he took an arrow from his quiver, threw it in the air with a spin, and let it land on the ground. Once he saw what direction the arrow head was pointing, he picked it back up and put it in his quiver. Then he pointed and said, “that way.”
Restoration: The Rise of Resurgence: Book II Page 6
