Heralds- The Proving Grounds, page 17
Jen was rubbing at her temples. It took some effort to get her fingers under the headset. “I hate you so much. You do this shit for fun?”
“Fun? I don’t know.” Sam tilted her head a bit as she kept on moving down the road. “Fun is subjective. This is what I do. I don’t know what else I would do, you know?”
“You could try being a good guy.”
“There are those labels again. And once more unprovoked.” Sam raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t being judgmental kind of an evil thing?”
Jen crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “Just keep an eye out for a barn or whatever.”
From Annabelle: Uh, hey? The hell? Did I miss a meeting? Why do you have guild tags from Tobin’s thing?
Jen sighed. “You look for a place, I need to fill Anna in on what’s happened.”
Sam nodded. “Right-o.”
Half an hour later Sam and Jen were sitting in a ruined barn beside a newly kindled fire.
From Annabelle: You’re crazy. Did I say that yet? Though I can’t fault the logic so maybe I’m crazy, too.
To Annabelle: If I was you, I’d sit it out for now. Bulorn is definitely on the warpath. Poe is… probably not going to show up again until all this is over. Sam and I might get locked out for our efforts. You and Kail are neutral in all this. If we fail, it’s up to you.
From Annabelle: Then don’t fail. I don’t handle pressure very well.
Pfft. Like Jen did?
Oh well.
Sam was watching her. “My god that lady is chatty.”
“She missed a lot. Just getting everyone up to speed. And, you know… someone to keep things going if we get killed for being stupid.”
Sam smiled. “You need to learn to take risks. This is a risk, sure. But think of the potential rewards.”
“I don’t want the title.” Jen shook her head. “I’m on board to learn what we can and maybe delay Bulorn a bit. Tomorrow is only day three. This is supposed to be an early access week event. I’m just here to play the part of a Herald as outlined by the devs.”
“Bah.” Sam waved dismissively. “If it goes down that way, fine. If I get a shot at Tobin, better. If Bulorn gets locked out, great. If he gets locked out and I get Tobin? Then everything has gone as planned.”
“There is a veritable mountain of ‘ifs’ involved there. One after another. Nested ifs even. Very poor planning.”
“So little faith for a paladin. You’ll see. This is normal.”
“I’m not sure how you can operate that way.”
“At peak efficiency, clearly. Premiere assassin.”
“You keep saying that. I haven’t seen anyone else even try to be an assassin.”
“It’s too early yet. Things are still just a big ball of mush. A bundle of snakes that could go wrong at any moment. Once things solidify some, some snakes get untangled and laid out straight, then you’ll see people working to adjust the order of the world here and there. It’s what we do.”
“You speak as if it is some form of public service.”
“It is.” Sam scoffed. “When one group gets too strong, you need to knock them down a peg. These people want a bit of land and don’t have the people to fight it out, they call in a professional. And a kingslayer? Now that’s a professional. People can’t rely on their neighbors to honor agreements or for some random scrub to turn up with a relic weapon. People like me? We’re reliable change in the world… at a reasonable price.”
So Sam was aware of relics, and she didn’t have a high opinion of them, which might have been part of her not recognizing one sitting right in front of her. “Well all that sounds like monetized chaos to me.”
“It sort of is. And it’s glorious.”
“Crazy.”
Sam smiled. “You’ll see.”
Two hours later Jen was watching the re-airing of the evening news on her small TV with a great level of disinterest. Everything was bad and it was all getting worse somehow. Eventually you’d think the world would hit rock bottom, but that might be bad for ratings.
Sam was in the chair once more, scouring forums for anything of use.
Jen was in danger of falling asleep as she lounged on her bed. Not the best idea. Sam was the type to find a sharpie.
So far nothing of interest had appeared from either source.
Sam groaned. “Everyone’s just bitching about stuff. Mostly about dying. A lot of people are angry about that. Mostly those who go in with no idea it’s a thing.”
“Yeah, I can see that being a problem. They should let you know on the login screen or something.”
“And it looks like the jig might be up for Freeport and their shenanigans. People are talking about it. Granted, right now other people are defending it as a place of commerce. Almost like letting most of them go without incident was planned or something.”
“I mean, their shenanigans are cruel and tragic.”
“Which makes them not shenanigans at all, really.”
“Evil shenanigans.”
Sam glanced back over her shoulder. “You’ve been awake entirely too long if you’re quoting that.”
“Shut up. It’s funny. And you started it by saying ‘shenanigans.’ “
“Any who…” Sam rolled her eyes. “This is a bust.” She pointed at the monitor. “Nobody knows anything. Hell, we know a lot more than most. I could spoil the hell out of some stuff, let me tell you. Tempting… but I don’t want my immortality revoked.” She shrugged. “A lot of misinformation, too. Some people swear up and down that Tobin is working with devs. And not like us, but like his team is literally developers. That wouldn’t be fair, right?”
“Sounds one sided, to be sure.” Jen tilted her head slightly. The news was boring anyway. “Then again that was painted as the bad side, so maybe they figured it needed the help. People are out to get him and all.”
“Yeah, except not at all.” Sam spun in the chair. “People are starting to support him. Word is spreading about them getting a reward. Hell, they have a few guilds. That’s a lot more organized than us.”
Jen frowned. “And yet Hank hasn’t exactly been forthcoming, or around much to talk to.”
“I like ‘Kingslayer’ better than ‘Ironsworn,’ which is apparently what people that help them get. Samara Redblade the Kingslayer or Samara Redblade the Ironsworn… yeah, no. Kingslayer.”
“You have to admit, everyone working together for a reward is going to appeal to a lot of people.”
“Weak people. They need to grow some pride.”
Jen rolled her eyes. “Is it time to check again?”
“I’ve been checking.” Sam flicked a finger at the monitor. “The launcher has a friends list. Gorin is out, but a lot of Kingsmen people are still about. Including, oddly enough, Mr. Tobin Ironblood himself.”
Jen sat up. “What, is he crafting or something?”
“Can’t tell you. Just says he’s at Morblina and has been for awhile.”
“Huh. Weird.”
“Very. Then again he isn’t exactly exposed there, either. So if he was going to hang around somewhere, that would be the place. I can’t see getting in to attack him with all the eyes there. Probably hanging out in the PVP safe area. Know what else is weird?”
Jen waited a few moments before bothering to reply. It’s not like Sam’s response was going to change. “What?”
“He isn’t the guild leader. Some buy names Celan is. A paladin.”
Huh. She’d seen him with the others. He was the tank holding the door for everyone else. Paul. She hadn’t gotten much of an impression of him. He’d been sort of busy compared to everyone else.
Jen glanced at the clock. 1:12 a.m. “Arg. After one. I guess these questions can wait until we show up in the morning for muster, or whatever.”
“Good times, to be sure.”
17
The alarm blared at 7:00 a.m.
As ever.
It hadn’t been the latest night Jen had ever been though, but the amount of sleep wasn’t enough. She turned off the alarm’s ridiculous air raid feature and laid her head back down.
She sighed. If she stayed, she was going to sleep for hours. The alarm wasn’t going to go off again. She would miss whatever was going to go down.
Jen sat up with a groan.
At least it smelled like coffee. There was some hope for the day.
By the time 8:00 a.m. rolled around she was dressed and watching the friends list in the game’s launcher. She continued to ponder hopping on for the sake of making some better gear… but if someone noticed her in the middle of nowhere and then back in time for the guild to gather, that might be hard to explain. It was already probably going to be hard to explain how they were pushing level twenty in level ten gear. Granted, gear was hard to come by but that was pushing it.
Although… she had gotten a helmet from the event the night before. It might at least give her the illusion of trying to keep up with gear and just having bad luck. Hopefully Sam had gotten something as well.
Eh… she had some time. Sam wasn’t much of a morning person and they weren’t supposed to be there for awhile yet.
She suited up. The process was becoming quite routine.
There was no trouble logging in. That was fairly ominous. Had that many people died already? She chose to believe it was just early.
She found herself back in the barn with no evidence of their camp to be found. Not that there would be. The “fire” Sam had started had been an ability tied to cooking and allowing characters a safe place to log out, it had nothing to do with burning things or providing warmth.
It didn’t take long to make it back to Morblina on foot. Apparently they had been zigzagging a bit in the dark while looking for places to camp out. Sam had also been looking for mobs to drop for some quick XP, but none had presented themselves.
Had she been able to teleport closer without a trip to the island she probably would have done it. It was that “Jeneve is presently forty miles away, and now twenty yards away,” thing that was the problem.
Sam probably knew what she was talking about, people watching them for a bit and all. Even if she was mistaken, best to err on the side of caution. It wasn’t like any of this was going to be a problem in the long term. The event would end one way or another, normal play would resume, and she would be free to join up with whatever side she wanted. The Kingsmen and Heralds wouldn’t survive the event. There was no reason for them to. Not outside of being some NPC group the devs used or something.
She plopped the new helmet onto her head as she neared the gates. She waved politely and got a nod from the gate guards in return.
She couldn’t tell if this was s different set of sentries, but the tag seemed to be credentials enough.
There was a lot more activity at this hour. People were wandering the streets thick enough that she found herself waiting for openings, keeping her back to walls.
Her morning started looking a lot better when she found a functioning blacksmith shop.
The skeletons from the night before hadn’t really had anything in the way of loot, but she pawned her old helmet and some of the rusty armor junk she had picked up the day before when she had gone leveling with Sam and Anna. There had been less pressure on her to carry things with Anna around as well, so she didn’t have all that much… but she managed to get some coin. The NPC merchant was a lot more generous than the ones in Freeport. She wondered if that was something the person in charge of the shop could set. It wouldn’t be surprising to find Freeport was shortchanging people. Hell, it would be more surprising if it wasn’t.
Maybe it was a guild affiliation thing.
Regardless, she managed to get a new set of chest and shoulder armor. It was still iron, but a higher item level. It looked a bit more complex, but it fit well enough with the rest of her gear.
There didn’t appear to be much in the way of a uniform for the Kingsmen, not that she could see by glancing around anyway. The guards wore matching armor, but that probably had more to do with assembly line manufacturing than aiming for a particular style. Everyone else seemed to be wearing whatever they had found along the way.
No one seemed to be making any particular attempt to organize the people milling about. She sat under an awning and opened her menu.
She had kept her stats increasing according to the PVP guide she had found before. Primarily strength, one wisdom, and with levels that ended in a five or a zero getting two wisdom instead.
The wisdom gave her more mana… not that she needed it. She couldn’t run out if she tried. More beneficially, it gave her resistances to magic attacks. It varied a bit, she was practically immune to holy damage but weak against shadow. Everything else was at a similar level in the middle.
She hadn’t spent many of her skill points. They were bound and determined for people to level paladins defensively. She put points into the Duo attack, her second attack automatically increasing in range and damage if the first one landed. It would help… but all the real fighter types already had Trio at this level. She would get access to it, too, of course. At level forty. Le sigh.
There were some paladin only things along the left side that looked good. She had gained the Lay on Hands ability at some point. It would heal someone up to her own hit point maximum once per in game day, which wasn’t nearly as long as a real day, but did mean it wasn’t something to throw around willy-nilly. She put a point in to reduce its reuse time a bit. It would now be available once every 0.75 in game days. Progress.
She also had some weapon mastery lines along the right side of the leveling tree that she would share with other fighters. Again, she was hamstrung as to how much she could invest… but there was no reason not to up longsword damage as much as she could. She didn’t have a choice in the matter anymore.
In the end, she was stronger than before. Better gear. Better abilities. Impressive what she could do when Sam wasn’t pushing her to the next group of mobs.
There were a few glances at her as people wandered by. Hushed whispers. Pointing.
She frowned. Where they that distrusting of new people? That seemed like a poor policy. Maybe Sam had made a bad impression she was going to have to live down for awhile. Ugh.
Oh. Right. She stood up and wandered back over to the merchants. There wasn’t much in the way of clothing beyond armor, but she did manage to find a gray cloak that offered a bit of cold resistance. Her resistance was fine. She bought it anyway.
It didn’t hide much from the front… but it kept most of the sword at her hip from sight from every other angle. Better than nothing.
Voices rose around her as she finished arranging the new cloak. No one was looking her way now. They were pointing toward the church at the town’s center. The doors were open as a large group gathered outside. The people in the streets moved to allow them to pass.
Jen counted around thirty. It was difficult to get an accurate head count with them moving about and the others in town also shifting about. Too many moving objects.
Tobin was definitely among them. He was walking beside the cleric from the night before, Claire. Kelara in here. The paladin that had held the door was out in front, talking to a few of the others. Paul. In fact, the whole of that group seemed to be leading the procession.
A rogue with no name at all moved at the back of the first group. He seemed to be talking with a woman in the second group. If she hadn’t recognized those in the front, where one group started and another ended would be difficult to tell. The rogue, by process of elimination, was Tim. Why his name was missing? No idea.
There were some cheers and many well wishes as they walked on by and people filed out of their way. It took them a lot less time to get out of the town than it had for Jen to get this far in.
Then again, she was nobody.
Best that way really.
So far there had been no call for her to go anywhere. Gorin Stoneshield wasn’t around that she could tell, and Sam was probably still half an hour out at best.
That made the raid group marching out the one Tobin was rumored to wander around with hunting events to level faster. Well, rumor confirmed.
A check of her friends list showed Kail was around somewhere. As was Bulorn. She didn’t recognize the name of the area he was in and her own player map was vastly inferior to the map table on the island. It was more gaps than terrain, only noting where she had set foot. He could be anywhere but she would bet solid money on him not being too far away. He had a plan.
She was… a little conflicted on that one. Bulorn had been amicable enough to her. He’d sided with the Heralds against the Seven Eyes back in the Freeport incident and yet now he seemed to side with the Seven Eyes. Perhaps he was just opportunistic. Had Hank known that when he selected him? All he’d really said on the matter was that all of the Heralds had beta experience.
Technically true. Jen had… a bit. Not much. Must have just been a check box next to their names or something. And if Hank didn’t know much about her it stood to reason he didn’t know much about Bulorn.
She could send him a message. Maybe try to reason with him.
No. Sam would be livid, for one, and if Bulorn was already in the area with all of his Seven Eyes buddies he wasn’t going to leave for her. Time and effort had been put in. Planning. Resources.
What was her asking nicely next to that?
She wanted to ask Hank for help but he had more or less given his blessing for them to start making attempts against Tobin. And this was meant to be a player driven event. He wasn’t likely to pop up and stop Bulorn in person. That would ruin everything.
She sighed.
The list said Poe had not been back on since he left the night before. She typed up some kind words letting him know it hadn’t been his fault and she was still happy to have him along when he decided to come back, before or after the event was done.
In truth, she preferred him to Bulorn… and maybe Sam. At least Poe didn’t want to screw up anyone’s day.
Odd how their two ‘neutral’ classes ended up being a lot more evil in their actions than their ‘evil’ recruits.
