by Dante Doom
Kylian slowly nodded at that. And Van technically hadn’t lied about anything, except maybe for the suspension. Truthfully, he didn’t know what had happened to Sivlander, but maybe there would be some way to retrieve him down the road. “I see. So, you want to keep your town functional, but don’t want to blow your cover.”
“Exactly!” Van said. “Please don’t tell anyone!”
“And who’s she?” Kylian asked, pointing to Sang. Sang had been quietly standing off to the side, trying to avoid drawing attention to herself. Van could see that she was clearly nervous about seeing a bunch of other players. She had reason to be nervous, however, because the last few groups of non-NPCs that they’d met had been murderous thugs trying to kill her.
“Oh, this is Sang. She’s a friend of mine who’s hired me to guide her through the game. She’s got some crazy-good ranger skills and wanted to be a part of a larger team, so I figured she’d be a perfect addition to this squad.”
“Well,” Kylian said, “pleased to meet you, Miss Sang.” He turned his attention back to Van. “I don’t appreciate you trying to pull our legs with that tall tale, but given the circumstances, I understand.”
“I don’t. I think it’s dumb that Draco’s gotta hassle you!” said the wizard wearing red robes. “They banned my brother a few months ago just because he was incessantly messaging girls! It’s not his fault he thought they were pretty and wanted to tell them that.”
“He was banned because he wouldn’t stop messaging under-aged girls,” Bidane said. “Look... whatever, so, you’re back. That’s exciting and all, but this town has fallen apart. If you were hoping to save it, you’re way too late. Everyone’s just about left. There’s just me and Kylian left of your original crew.”
“Yeah, uh, who are these people?” Van asked, pointing to the three others who had been patiently sitting and drinking.
“This here is Sahara,” Kylian said, pointing to the wizard. She promptly stood and bowed.
“I am the master of all magics!” she proudly said.
“Master of nothing,” Bidane said. “Wizards suck, but she’s able to read scrolls, so that’s handy.”
“This here is my nephew, Capello,” Kylian continued, pointing to a short man wielding two axes. He didn’t say anything and was just staring blankly ahead. “He tends to zone out when dialogue is happening. Not much of a talker, but a crazy good fighter.”
“And I’m Dolly!” said a rather tall woman with bright green hair. “I’m the most cut-throat criminal in all the land!”
“You seem a little cheerful for a cut-throat,” Van remarked.
Dolly crossed her arms and frowned. “Well, you’ll see! I’m a clever rogue who kills anyone who comes across my path!”
Van didn’t feel particularly intimidated by the girl, but decided not to press the issue. They seemed like a good enough crew. He glanced at Sang. She hadn’t said much, but then again, he didn’t know if there was anything that she could say. There was a distant look on her face, though, as if something were bothering her. He made a note to check with her later about it.
“So, let me ask, Kylian, why are you guys sticking around here? If the city has been in a state of disrepair, why bother?”
“Well, we were planning on doing an acquisition invasion once the option became available, take Silver Peak for ourselves,” Kylian said. “But with you showing up, it’s way better for all of us. I’m too casual of a player to run this show, and no one else here wants to lead.”
“Well, I wanted to lead,” Bidane said, “but no one wanted me to be the leader.”
“That’s because it would go to your head immediately,” Sahara said.
“I know, but I promised that I would be a benevolent dictator!” Bidane shot back. This elicited a laugh from the group. Van laughed along with them. He enjoyed Bidane and Kylian’s personalities, and it seemed that the small group they had already recruited would make for a good team.
“So, what’s the plan, fearless leader?” Kylian asked.
“It’s simple, we’re gonna patch this town up!” Van said. “Then, we’ll start raising our own army.”
Kylian and Bidane shot looks at one another hesitantly. Van cocked his head.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“Well…” Bidane said, “with all due respect, man, this place is a dump.”
“The entire town is in pieces,” Kylian agreed. “If you’re suggesting we start rebuilding this town to attract an army, you’re suggesting months and months’ worth of work. We’ll miss the entire war season.”
“Come on,” Van said, “how long can it take?”
“Man, the last town that I was with took nearly two years before they were solid enough to field a real army,” Sahara said.
“It’s true, man,” Bidane said as she crossed her arms. “It’ll take forever.”
“We don’t really have time to rebuild,” Sang whispered in Van’s ear.
“It’s not so bad,” Van said. “Let’s put together a task force, call out for some workers and—”
“How about this?” Kylian said, “How about we put together a mercenary company instead? It would be a faster way to raise an army without having to waste time building this town. Then when we’re big enough, we could go seize another town and claim it in the name of Silver Peaks.”
Van wrinkled his face. That wasn’t the worst idea in the world, though. He looked at Sang. “Thoughts?” he asked.
“I say we pick whatever choice is the fastest,” she said.
“A mercenary company is the fastest!” Dolly interjected. “And it’ll let us get in on all of this season’s war action!”
The group heartily agreed to that much.
The more Van thought of it, the better an idea it sounded. Rather than spend all of his energy trying to build a town, he could just put together a killer mercenary team. Why hadn’t he thought of this before?
“Alright, team, I think we’ve got a new plan,” Van said with a wide grin. “Let’s ditch this town and focus on starting a mercenary company. Then we’ll just build an army so we can participate in the war season without having to wait!”
”Hear, hear!” Kylian said. “That's the kind of plan I can get behind!” the rest of the team heartily agreed, as well.
“So, what I’m thinking,” Van said as the plan began to unfold more in his mind, “is that we start off fighting with some weaker nations in order to gain numbers. After we grow enough, we’ll strike at Ceren!”
“That sounds a little crazy,” Sahara objected. “A lot of kingdoms are getting shredded by Ceren’s forces.”
“No guts, no glory!” Van said. “I’m not the kind of guy who settles for second best. Just because Ceren’s being run by a pro doesn’t mean we can’t take them down.
“That seems a little crazy,” Dolly said.
“Aw, come on!” Van said. “Think about it. The mere fact that we’re underdogs means that we have a chance! No one wants Ceren to win this big conflict. And a lot of kingdoms have been trashed by King Lemuel, and people are getting sick of it! By getting these smaller kingdoms’ support, we can potentially take a unified force against them.”
“Well, it’s something high-reaching, that’s for sure,” Kylian said. “I like it. I feel, for one, that it is patently crazy, but who cares? I didn’t survive two shootings to be cautious in some video game. Let’s do it!”
“Good point... I’m in!” Dolly said.
“I’m chill enough to do whatever, really,” Sahara said.
Bidane nodded. “It beats sitting around here and waiting for some timer to go off.”
Capello didn’t say anything. He just sat there and blankly stared forward.
“Uh, are you in?” Van asked.
Capello blinked a few times and moved his head. “Oh, I’m sorry, I was afk. What’s up?”
“We’re going to go kill a bunch of bad guys,” Kylian said.
“Oh, hell yes! I’m in for whatever it
is! I don’t even care who it is!” Capello said as he leapt up from his stool and drew his axes.
“Relax, cowboy,” Kylian said. “There’s no one to kill yet.”
“Aw, you got my hopes up.”
Van grimaced at the exchange. It was clear that Capello would be a murder-hobo. The traditional joke from old tabletop adventure games was that, since player characters were usually wandering adventures without homes or jobs, they were hobos. A murder-hobo was the kind of player who wasn’t really interested in doing things like roleplaying or having conversations, but was rather interested in just fighting people. They were prone to severe violence and would kill anyone for any reason. Van made a mental note to keep tabs on Capello in the future.
“Alright, it’s settled then!” Van said, holding up his fist high. “We are united! We shall make the epic journey on foot to seek the blessing of the King of Bikorn!”
“Why do we need his blessing?” Sang asked.
“It officially forms us as a mercenary company and gives us a reputation. It’s super important if we’re going to reach Bloodrock,” Van whispered.
“Cheers to that!” Kylian said as he raised his glass high. “Welcome back, Van. It’s time for us to actually do something fun around here!”
4
“This is not my idea of fun!” Capello said as he thrust his shovel into the ground, pushing up the loose dirt.
“Quit complaining,” Sang said. “Everyone has to do something when we’re setting up camp.” She could not believe the sheer amount of backtalk that she received from the new members of the party. They were willing to listen to Van’s instructions, but whenever it came to her giving orders, they’d back-sass or complain to Van.
Van had chosen to delegate camp management to Sang, and she was trying to run things as effectively as she could, but there was a considerable amount of resistance from the others. For some reason, they just didn’t seem to trust her.
“Alright, crew!” Van shouted as he walked into the center of the camp. They had been out in the Windswept Crags for a few hours before it had gotten too dark for them to continue their journey. The campgrounds weren’t ideal, as they were in the middle of a canyon, but Van was confident that the team had the combined skills to turn it into a great area for resting. He strolled towards one of the tables and placed a map on it. “Here’s the deal. We’re going to have to travel for a good distance before we’re able to reach the Kingdom of Bikorn. There are a lot of problem areas that we can either go around or fight through. Judging from our numbers and power levels, I would say that we have a fair shot at fighting our way through just about any area, but I want to make sure everyone is on the same page.”
“I’m dying for a fight!” Capello said as he threw his shovel to the ground. “I’ve had enough shoveling. Three days in a row, I’ve been shoveling!”
“Yeah, and I’ve been cooking for the last three days!” Sahara said as she leaned over a horribly burned pig roasting on a spit. “I’m sick of it!”
Van raised his hand. “Hey, gang, no complaining. We’re all given tasks and chores. If you want to do something different, sorry, but don’t fuss about it; you’ve got to be respectful of Sang’s leadership. She’s the camp leader, so that means that whatever she says goes.”
“Whatever she says?” Capella asked. “All she does is tell us to do whatever we did last night!”
There were more than a few fussy shouts from the crew. Even Kylian piped in, “I’m honestly tired of having to hunt. I thought we’d be changing up jobs every night.”
Van looked at the small group and back at Sang. He shrugged. “Sorry, but my orders stand. She’s in charge. Get back to work before it gets any later. We need to have our rest bonuses if we’re going to be marching through dangerous territory tomorrow.”
There was a wave of grumbling as the party went back to their respective chores. Van walked away from the map and over to Sang.
“Hey, a word?” he asked.
“I know, I know,” she said. “I just can’t seem to get these people to listen to me! All they do is fuss.”
“They’re just not used to you. But no, we need to talk about something more important. You’ve seemed really antsy lately,” he said. “I’m worried something’s up.”
Sang grimaced. “Look, I don’t want to come off as frustrated with you or complaining in any way, but… things aren’t going so well with the brass right now. My latest report informed them that we have to go on some sort of grand quest to become mercenaries, and my bosses are pissed. First off, they don’t really understand how this game works at all. You try explaining leveling up to a bunch of old men who’ve made their careers working in the government. So, they’re putting a lot of pressure on me right now. I think they assumed things would move very quickly, but now that we’ve been playing for almost a week without anything to show for it, they’re starting to get impatient.”
Van shrugged. “Well, what do you want me to do about it? I’m trying the best I can here. But if we’re going to be getting some information out of King Lemuel, we’ve got to put together the perfect strike team.”
“I know, I know,” she said, sighing. “I’m just… really worried they’re going to try and cut the program.”
“Cut the program? They spent a fortune getting this all ready to go!” Van said.
“That’s the problem,” Sang said. “Apparently, someone leaked this information to a senator, and now he’s raising hell about it. He wants to know why the CIA is investing taxpayer money into some sort of video game investigation.”
“A leak? How?”
“I don’t know, Van. Someone sold us out here. I don’t know who. I mean, how many people know about this operation? There’s a lot of hands involved. What if one of those hands is currently monitoring us through the pods?”
Van shook his head. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around this. Why would someone leak this information?”
“We have two options. The first is that the mole is just some malcontent who wants to score political points with a senator by giving him something juicy… the second is that it could be someone working with Draco.”
Van drew in a sharp breath. “That would suck. Big time.”
“Yeah. So, we’re kind of on a ticking clock here. Not a lot of time for camping,” Sang said with a long, heavy sigh. She didn’t want to have to tell Van how dire things were, but at the pace the team was moving, the program would be cut before they could even reach their first destination.
“Alright, well, we’re just going to have to hustle,” Van said. “They’re not going to be happy about it, but we’ll just march till Sleep Time.”
“Are you sure? We don’t want them to leave,” Sang said.
“Here’s a trick I learned a long time ago: when it comes to motivating players, if you try to force them to do something they don’t want to do, they’ll get all fussy and mean. However, if you can find the sufficient carrot to hang out in front of them, they’ll follow just fine. Observe.” Van stopped talking and walked up to the map. He read it for a few minutes and made some exaggerated hmmm noises.
“What’s up, boss?” Capello asked as he stopped digging and looked over at Van.
“Oh, nothing, nothing. I just… nah, I dunno,” Van said, putting the map down.
“What is it?” Sahara asked, grabbing Van by the arm and tugging on him a little.
“Well, it’s just… I’m not sure it’s a good idea, but we could probably reach Coldridge tonight if we hustled. If that’s the case, we could probably do the Coldridge Treasure quest. It’s not a long one, and it’s kind of far, but...”
“I don’t mind going!” Capello said.
“Seriously, if there’s treasure in Coldridge, what are we even doing here?” Bidane asked as she emerged from the woods carrying lumber.
“Let’s pack up and go!” Dolly said as she hastily began gathering all of their supplies and shoving them into their bags.
“A
re you guys sure? It’s really late and—”
“Did you hear about the treasure?” Sahara asked Kylian as he walked up to Van.
“No, what treasure?”
“Van says there’s some kind of treasure in Coldridge. If we hustle, we can get to it tonight!” Sahara announced as she practically tripped over the cooking supplies in a mad bid to pack them up.
“Well, I thought we needed those rest bonuses?” Kylian asked.
“Who knows what bonuses are in those treasure chests?” Bidane replied as she grabbed her bedroll and rapidly packed it up.
“Alright, fine, we’ll go,” Van said, “but only because you guys want to.”
“Race you!” Capella said as he sprinted down the path.
“No way, he’s going to take all of the good stuff!” Bidane shouted as she ran after him. The party began to move much faster than before. Their pace would be hurried the entire way to Coldridge, Van guessed.
Sang was genuinely impressed with Van’s method of motivating the team, too. He didn’t yell at them, he didn’t pressure them, and he certainly didn’t try to use lame phrases to get them going. Instead, he just pinpointed the thing most players wanted and then let them come to the conclusion that they wanted it. That was enough to earn her respect.
“You coming?” Van asked as he splashed some water in the fire, extinguishing it quickly.
“Of course,” Sang said. “But between you and me, is there really a treasure there?”
“In Coldridge? That place is packed to the brim with treasure,” Van said. “I’m sure they’ll find something.”
Sang huffed to keep up with the group’s pace. Ever since she had told Van about the pressure to move faster, he had been an expert at keeping everyone going. When someone wanted to log off, he convinced them to just let their character stay in auto-walk so they could keep up. If a party member got distracted with a side-quest, he’d convince them that they’d swing back around after the big adventure to get all of the smaller quests. The more he talked about the urgency of the mission and how great it was going to be, the more excited people would get. She couldn’t believe how exceptional a leader he was.
