Heralds- The Proving Grounds, page 9
“Sounds like the kind of thing one could look up.” Jen pointed her chin at the monitor.
“Super early for that… but yeah, maybe.”
Jen busied herself with cleaning up the rather minimal mess while Sam tapped keys. She put the last of the pizza back in the fridge, though she was still determined not to touch it again except to banish it from her room.
She had just gotten comfortable again when Sam shook her head. “I can’t find anything useful. Seems like people are only concerned with the early access event right now.”
“Well, yeah. They’re mortal and the first wave of them probably dropped like flies because they didn’t see it coming. People tried to kill us, as you might recall.”
“Oh, I recall.” Sam grumbled. “Can’t believe that second guy got the drop on me…”
“Happens to the best of us.”
Sam glanced back over her shoulder. “The best of you, maybe. I hold myself to a higher standard.”
“You certainly can now.”
Sam shook her head. “No. I don’t plan to rely on immortality.”
“But you were so jazzed to get it.”
“Yeah… until I thought about it. It’s a crutch. If I can’t win without it, I don’t deserve to win with it. I can’t shut it off, so it will be great in case of a building falling on me or something… but I won’t use it as an edge in fights I can win. And I don’t see a reason to engage in fights I shouldn’t be able to win.”
“Theoretically you wouldn’t need to.” Jen shrugged. “If you win before your health gets that low, no one will be the wiser.”
“Exactly.” Sam nodded at the screen. “You put it succinctly.”
“Ugh, stop. I’m on break. I don’t want to learn things or be reminded of things I’ve forgotten.”
“She says from her dorm room on campus.”
“Quiet, you.”
Sam hopped up from the chair. “We might have better luck asking around in places players gather in game.”
“Are there any of those right now? I mean, if I was an evil jerk, I’d already be there knifing people.”
“I don’t care for the insinuation that evil jerks ‘knife’ people when I, myself, carry daggers.”
“I didn’t mean it that way. But now that you mention it…”
Sam narrowed her eyes. “Human nature being what it is, there is still safety in numbers. If enough people agree to not kill each other you see civilization spring up, wherein every member ensures the safety of every other member in exchange for the same consideration. There will be places.”
Jen shrugged. “Makes sense to me. Think the table will show us where people congregate?”
“Ought to.” She nodded. “Once more in to the breach, dear friend?”
“After I find my running shoes.”
9
The island was much the same as when she left, though the sun had gone down. Lamps were lit up by the buildings but it was dark on the beach. Jen trudged her way toward the light.
She would swear she was moving more slowly than she had before… she opened her inventory to find she was under the maximum capacity but over the weight limit.
Made sense. Sam had been dumping plate items on her. They were bound to be worth more, though they were also bound to be heavier.
Sam’s logic being that more light and medium armor bits made up the difference. Math wasn’t really Jen’s strong suit, so she agreed for lack of wanting to find a calculator to counter the argument.
She paged through the list of items… the sword she had found had put her just over the limit. But… it was still the only weapon she had come across. She dumped out a plate chest piece inferior to the one she started with. The number showing her encumbrance changed to yellow instead of red. She could move at full speed again.
The chest piece was easy enough to kick along as she walked. She wasn’t as greedy as Sam, but there was no reason to just leave it, either…
They would have to leave some of it behind. Hell, more than just some. Unless her encumbrance was in the green, her ability to move and fight would be adversely affected. This might take a few trips… if they found a buyer at all.
At least the excess would be safe here. Only a handful of people could get here or even knew the island existed. Most of them seemed like okay sorts, but if anything untoward did happen to their stuff, well… it would be a small group of suspects.
Hell, Sam might be the worst one.
She was already waiting in the paved space at the center of the buildings when Jen arrived. “What’s the holdup?”
“Someone gave me all the heavy shit.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t really prioritize strength, so… enjoy being the pack mule. Not likely to change.”
Jen sighed.
Annabelle chuckled as she wandered out the main building. “You two argue a lot. Are you sisters?”
Sam’s head nearly came loose of her shoulders for how quickly it snapped side to side. “No. No. Noooo.”
Jen raised an eyebrow. “You don’t have to get that offended about it.”
“What? We’re not.”
“Which is easy enough to say without giving yourself whiplash.”
Anna just smiled. “See? Just like that.”
Sam narrowed her eyes at the blond woman. “Oh, I get it. This is how you’re evil. You’re pretty and you act all nice, but this is it. Your trying to turn us against each other.”
Jen rolled her eyes. “No need. You have that covered.”
Sam’s eyes went wide. “See? She’s getting to you.” She turned her gaze back to Anna, pointed two fingers at her own eyes then turned her hand to point them at Anna. “I’m watching you…”
Jen shook her head. “Any who…”
Anna nodded. “Hi.” She waved and made a point of ignoring Sam. “How are things going on your end?”
“Pretty good. Got some levels, got some stuff.”
“I made it to six, myself. Though, honestly, it was rather easy going. How much of that do I have the pair of you to thank for?”
Sam crossed her arms. “A lot of it. Two or three levels, at least.”
Jen ignored her. “You find any gear yet?” They had the same mission, and their progress was tied together. And yet Sam didn’t seem to like Anna much, so she was unlikely to be charitable with her fellow Herald.
But Anna was a plate wearing blackguard… and Jen had all the plate armor.
The blond woman shook her head. “Not really. Few cloth drops. Just my luck.”
Jen targeted the other woman and hit the “inspect” option. She wasn’t kidding. Cloth gloves and boots were all that had been added to her starting breastplate. “Well, that won’t do.” Jen opened her inventory and dug through it.
Sam frowned. “Hey, wait a minute.”
It didn’t take her long to catch on. Her kleptomania sense must have been tingling.
Jen opened a trade window with Anna and dumped in a set of the plate items she and Sam had found earlier. The best bits that she wasn’t already wearing.
Anna’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
“We’re on the same side, right? In it together.”
Anna nodded a few times. “True. Wish I had something to offer in return.”
Jen waved dismissively. “Don’t be silly.”
Sam was glowering at a nearby wall. She had turned away entirely.
Anna accepted and completed the trade. A few moments later she had her own set of plate gauntlets, boots, and leggings equipped. Cuisse? Chauses? Some armory leg related term.
She smiled a bit as she looked down at herself. “I see we’ve only been robbing the trendiest graveyards.”
Jen nodded. “Oh yeah. Had bouncers and everything. It’s the latest in rust-couture.”
“Clearly.” She bowed her head. “Thank you. And to you, Sam.”
Sam shrugged without turning back. “Yeah, no problem.”
Two birds with one stone. Sam’s nose had been tweaked and Jen’s own weight limit had become more manageable.
“Anything happen while we were out?” Jen started toward the map room. Sam fell in behind her.
Anna turned back toward the door. “Not that I can tell, but I’m not great at reading the table yet.” She shrugged. “I haven’t seen any of the others since we all wandered off. Just got back here myself a few minutes ago. The area I was leveling in was getting kinda… rough. Players making sure other players were having a bad day. Hopped back here, checked the map, then heard you two.”
“Mmm.” Jen nodded. “We’re looking for a trade hub. Sort of pushing the weight limit with all the junk we found.”
Anna tilted her head. “You know, I hadn’t considered how tricky it would be just to sell things. Huh. The things we take for granted, eh?”
“Totally.” Jen laid her hand on the table and moved the map around.
Sam stood across from her. “We need a place a lot of people are gathering, but not going crazy murder-brawl on each other.”
“That would make it harder to sell things, yes.”
Anna held out her hand over the table. “I think I saw a place like that earlier…”
Jen let go of the map. “Cool. Where?”
Anna swerved the map around for a few moments. “Blegh.” She zoomed it all the way out before moving it and zooming in again. “Thought so.” She zoomed in close on a large gathering of blue dots. “Like that? The table was centered around here when I came in.”
Jen tilted her head. “There’s the occasional red speck in that mess.”
Sam shrugged. “Looks like the safety in numbers thing is working, then. The blue is holding out, with the occasional red name trying to get in only to be swarmed. Seems pretty civilized… by comparison.”
“Eh… don’t have a better lead.”
Sam nodded and turned to Anna. “You coming?”
The blond woman nodded after a moment. “I don’t have plans, and I could sell some cloth junk before it starts to pile up.”
“Sweet.”
A group invite popped up in front of Jen. She accepted it.
Apparently Anna had accepted first. A group of three was still only half the size a group of players was meant to be, but it was closer than their previous group of two.
“Alright.” Sam pointed at the map. “We can see each other on the map, if it’s in close enough, so I’ll go first and you two just tap the green dot when I show up, kay? Much more precise than just using the map.” She glanced up at Anna. Jen already knew all that.
Anna nodded. “Super.”
They were grouped up a few moments later, standing high up on uneven rocky terrain in a set of wind blasted hills. Snow clung to the ground in places, but the wind kept much of the rocks and dirt clear. More snow fell from the sky in lazy cascading flakes that took their time between gusts sending them swirling about.
Jen didn’t feel cold, obviously… but it was hard to convince her brain of that. She heard the wind whipping by even if she couldn’t feel it. Her eyes and ears were convinced to the point her skin felt cold and she could almost swear she smelled the dirt.
Sam seemed completely at ease.
Anna’s arms were crossed, each hand rubbing at the other arm. At least Jen wasn’t the only one.
The collection of blue dots turned out to be a city. The buildings weren’t much better off than the ruins overrun with skeletons Jen was entirely too familiar with, except that it had some new bits where wood had filled in gaps in the walls or had been used to shore up some of the buildings.
People were filing in and back out through a single large gate. Guards stood on either side, with more above the gate armed with bows. There were at least two groups worth just watching the opening, and they would undoubtedly be grouped up so any of them that got attacked would instantly confer the ability to retaliate to their fellows. Not that it mattered, really. If a guard went red doing his job, so what? The others wouldn’t attack him. He could just go take a coffee break until the flag wore off.
Sam ducked down behind a rock to watch the gate. Jen and Anna followed suit.
They were quiet for a few minutes.
Sam just kept on staring.
The wind whipping by was relentless, and the blue cast to the world up here wasn’t helping. It took all of Jen’s concentration to keep her teeth from chattering. She wasn’t really cold, damn it. It was summer outside. Stupid brain.
“Okay,” Jen popped her head up to have a look at the gate, “I’ll ask the stupid question. Why are we still out here?”
“We’re scouting.”
“This is more like a stakeout… except what we want is inside, and we’re wasting time.”
“Scouting takes time.” Sam shrugged. “It can all look fine and dandy now, but it could be a front. The more we observe, the more likely they are to mess up.”
Jen tilted her head. “But… they’d have to know we were here to bother trying to hide things from us. Which they don’t, so they aren’t.”
“I’m sorry, which one of us is one of the world’s premiere assassins?”
Anna shrugged. “We are kind of exposed out here. What happens if a group of PKs happens by, hoping to get into the city, but finds us instead?”
Sam scoffed. “Bad day for them.”
“We’d have to flee, or our special status would be revealed. That doesn’t further out goal.”
Sam sighed. “You guys suck as espionage.”
Jen scoffed. “I am surprisingly okay with that.”
Sam held up her hands in mock surrender. “Fine. We’ll go in. But keep your heads on a swivel. We don’t know what’s going down in there.”
“Fair enough.” Jen shrugged.
It wasn’t difficult for them to weave into the stream of people heading into the town, given that there was only one path to follow. People had even taken to sharing the goat path of a road and moving on the right side.
Ah, civilization.
As they neared the gate, Jen could hear a man’s voice raised above the din. “Welcome to Freeport. Please keep your weapons sheathed and your hands to yourself.” He stood on a wagon that was turned up on its side. Two guards stood at the base of the wagon.
They seemed pretty serious about keeping the peace, here. It was heartening to see.
Jen and her companions walked on past the first barker. There was another atop the walls as they passed through.
“We deal in all commodities. If you need it, we probably have it. If you’re selling it, we’re buying it.”
A final barker was inside the gates, standing on a flat topped stone structure that looked like it had once held a statue. He looked more official, wearing armor and clothing that matched the guards. “No fighting will be tolerated. The guards have orders to shoot on sight, and they don’t care who started it. They will end it.”
Jen could distantly hear the first of the barkers saying his line again. They must do it for each group that passed by. What a boring job.
Oh. They were NPCs. Duh. She had just taken the human face to mean human. Too much time around skeletons.
Oddly enough, while the barkers were NPCs, the guards were not. They were all members of the same guild, too: The Seven Eyes.
Weird name.
“How many eyes does it take to watch us, I wonder?” Jen murmured to herself.
Sam tilted her head. “I’m more concerned with what the eighth one is up to.”
The stone wall seemed to encompass the entire town, with new wooden walls built between ruined structures to funnel people toward the center of town.
The layout made Jen a bit nervous… but she could already hear hawkers trying to sell wares as they followed the crowd. Worst case, the three of them could always just not be there anymore.
The walls inside could also just be about cutting off parts of town they didn’t want people hiding out in. They had gone out of their way to make guards visible, but they were only effective when they could see what was happening.
Jen blinked a few times as they rounded the last corner and entered the town center.
The collection of blue dots looked a lot different down here.
There were people everywhere. They weren’t piled up, but she couldn’t see a place without at least two or three. They were sitting in boarded up entryways, on top of the low central buildings, milling about talking to each other, and many were actually waiting in line to speak to vendors.
It was weird.
She had played the beta for a bit, true, but she had never seen this many players in one place before. The community, such as it was at the time, seemed split between “normal” players milling about aimlessly, commonly alone as they leveled, while the “elite” were off storming raids in full twenty four man groups.
Cities were a thing, but not like this.
All of a sudden, when Hank and the other devs were trying to achieve made sense. They were laying the groundwork for a community of players by giving them a common foe and reason to go up against him.
This is what they wanted. This was what the Heralds were supposed to be working towards. Community. Safe towns where players could work together. Alliances between those towns where each benefited equally. Patrols wandering the open space between for the sake of safety and commerce.
Their purpose was to take the insanity they had been handed, the chaos, and help the players to forge unity and order.
Jen nodded a few times.
It was certainly seemed to be worth doing. She would happily do her part.
Sam waved a hand in front of Jen’s face. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Good. Don’t need you spacing out. We’re not safe here.”
Jen tilted her head, but it was Anna that spoke up. “Probably safer than anywhere else people can go.” The veiled half truth meaning they were perfectly safe on the island, of course, but no one else could go there so this would have to do for the masses.
Sam shook her head. “No. It’s a front. Let’s sell our stuff and get gone.”
