Chapter 42: The Road to Ruin

Name

Chase

Class Hunter,Level4 Marks 1 Guild Seven Banes SD 984

Ghel,

What a Summer it has been! We made it to the fort and went to work making it suitable for human habitation. Fortunately, there were no goblins knocking about, but we did have to clean the place up a bit before we could train. And train we did!

All but two of us got to level 4. Can you believe it? I think that’s just about on par with how fast most of the OG did it back in the day, though I can’t be sure. Regardless, I am writing this to tell you we plan on attending the contract tournament in Birchtown. If you are around come and visit and see how far your players have come. They are a truly special group.

Not much else to report. We will be going via the old road to the west of the goblin forest.

-ChaSe, August 20th

“Watcha writing?” Asked Thomas. He was holding the reigns of the wagon as Chase finished up his letter. They had been bumping along the road out of the forest for several hours and along the way Chase decided that it was time for Thomas to learn how to steer the wagon. Moonshine had neighed happily as soon as they hitched her to the wagon and they were making good time. Chase reckoned they only had another mile according to the map before they exited the forest proper.

“Just a message for our advisor,” said Chase. He folded the letter and placed it in his pocket. “There’s a mail stand outside the forest on this road if I remember correctly.”

“Is he going to meet us at the tournament?”

“It’s possible,” said Chase. “Ghelion is rather busy these days, however, so I wouldn’t hold your breath.”

Chase turned around in his seat. The rest of the guild were chatting in the back to one another. He wished he had had a picture made of them before they began training, as he assumed they had all changed markedly since the day they had first entered Lazerpail. Brent looked carved from stone. His shoulders were broader and now when he walked it was with a swagger. Claire also looked stronger and the tendons stood out on her forearms whenever she gripped her sword. Even Alex, though the workouts had done little to reduce the size of his gut, had a more gaunt look to his face, and looked much more confident when he carried his sword. Chase was proud of them. There was a feeling of deep contentment within himself at the progress his three fighters had made which amazed him at its immensity. He wondered sometimes whether Solomon had ever felt the same way about him.

“We’re about to exit the forest, guild. Excited to finally leave these old trees behind?”

“You bet,” said Brent, nodding his head. He unconsciously flexed his muscles as he crossed his arms. “But we never found the Goblin King. Was looking forward to that.”

“He must be in hiding,” said Chase. “When we come back after the tournament we will hunt him down.”

“How can an NPC be in hiding?” Said Claire, looking around the forest as though the goblin king might be lurking around the nearest tree trunk. “All these goblins seem dumb as bricks and just walk around waiting to be killed.”

“The goblin king is a higher class of NPC, that’s why,” explained Chase. Memories of his first meeting with the oversized goblin NPC flashed through his mind. “He has more autonomy than the regular goblins we’ve been slaughtering for the past five months. Actually has a nasty Rallying ability which allows him to control his minions during a fight. Once we return we will have to clear out the forest again before we find him.”

“Can’t wait for that,” said Alex sarcastically. He sounded tired.

“Cheer up, Alex,” said Thomas, looking back into the wagon. “At least you got level four!”

Alex could only nod and stare at the passing trees. Chase had been amazed at the level of focus and energy Alex had mustered for the last couple months. Seeing Brent and Claire blow past him must have given him the strength necessary to match them, day in and day out. He had started to be the first person up every morning and the last to leave the training courtyard at night. Even Brent had started to respect his new found work ethic and had privately told Chase one day that he worried Alex would exceed his own level at some point.

“Speaking of,” said Claire. “Is that why Marlon decided to stay behind at the fort? Didn’t want to face the punishment of not breaking the fourth level?”

“It’s possible,” said Chase with a laugh. In truth, Marlon would have had little to do on their trip, and when he had approached Chase with his plan to remain at the fort and continue working on his levels Chase had found no reason to argue. “We will have to think of some penalty when he return. At least he sent us off with a bunch of potions. You will need them between bouts at the tournament.”

“Oh, Marlon,” said Thomas, shaking his head. “That old man better kick it into gear while we are away.”

“You’re not level four either!” Said Claire. She playful swatted the back of his head and he laughed.

“Yeah, well, hard to burglarize a neighborhood of trees, ain’t it?”

“You’ll have plenty chances in Birchtown,” said Chase. “When I was a young thief I managed to sneak into the mayors house and steal all his jewels. Think I got an entire level up from that alone.”

“That must have been worth a lot of money,” said Thomas excitedly. “How much did you get for it?”

Chase frowned, memories of the Old Guard coming back to him.

“Solomon made me give him the money because he thought I would lose it all.”

“That sucks,” said Brent.

“It makes sense,” chimed in Amelie. She was sitting in the back and had been quietly reading her book since they left. “Young children don’t need that much money, surely. Having a responsible adult manage those jewels was the proper course of action.”

Chase wasn’t looking but he could sense Claire rolling her eyes.

“So responsible, Amelie,” said Claire. “Maybe you should managed all the guilds funds.”

“You really think so?” Said Amelie brightly. “What’s that called…the treasurer! We might need one in the future.”

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“Please no,” muttered Brent behind Chase.

“Did you have one of those?” Amelie said to Chase.

“Not really,” shrugged Chase. “But eventually we hired someone to do it for us. The Old Guard is only a few members but we got accountants and payroll and everything. They have, I mean,” he added.

“Payroll?” Said Brent. He leaned over the front seat and looked at Chase. “Payroll for what?”

“Well, when you get to be as famous a the Old Guard, you don’t spend a lot of time running around looking for quests. Quests come to you. In order to do that, you need to pay players for information. Eventually those players also started acting as spy’s in a way and we decided that a dedicated person managing the money made a lot of sense.”

“The Old Guard has spies?” Said Brent. He sounded shocked.

“Of course,” said Chase. “In fact I was the de facto Spy Master, though everyone refused to call me that. I was in charge of collecting all their information and making sure payroll knew what to pay to whom and how much.”

“How many do you think?”

“How many spies?” Chase thought for a moment. “Last I checked, before, you know, we had about 500 in Avalon alone. I think Great Nexia has the most at over 2000. The other four areas prolly have less than 200 apiece.”

“I had no idea,” said Brent. “There wasn’t any mention of that in any of the books back on the training island.”

“Obviously,” said Chase. “It’s a rather secret operation. And yet another reason why you guys need to be careful about what you say around people once we are around players again, okay? One small slip of the tongue around the wrong person and you can bet that info will go directly to Solomon.”

There was a mumbling of assent on the wagon, and then everyone grew quiet, no doubt thinking about the repercussions such an accident could bring.

“What would they do if they caught you?” Said Thomas after a few minutes had passed.

“Probably murder me,” said Chase solemnly. “And you guys, too. So let’s do our best to keep it all quiet.”

“They can’t do this forever,” said Claire, ignoring Chase’s tone that he wanted to drop the conversation. “At some point they would have to stop caring.”

“I think the only way to solve this problem is to meet it head on,” said Brent. Chase sighed as he heard the lad sit up straight and imagined him placing his hand on his sword dramatically. “We need to kill the Old Guard.”

“Good luck with that,” said Chase. “I think that is quite impossible for the time being.”

“Why? They’re players just like the rest of us,” said Brent. “Maybe not now, but down the road all of us will be much stronger. Maybe we can pick them off and get revenge for you.”

“I think it would be—.” Chase began.

“What if we start training just to fight them?” Interrupted Brent. “We could even tailer our contracts to take them all out!”

“Brent, let’s just drop—.”

“Imagine, a guild designed just to kill the Old Guard! We could—.”

“BRENT.”

The boy stopped talking. Out the corner of his eye Chase saw Thomas turn sheet white.

“Look,” said Chase, trying to calm himself. “I appreciate the sentiment, but the truth is we could train for two decades and not match them. And, second, these aren’t just strangers who tried to kill me. They are—were—my family at one point. I have no idea who ordered the hit. Might have been one of them, maybe it was all. I don’t want to train to kill any of them, everyone got it?”

The wagon was quite, but for a small voice from the back.

“And if they come for you, Chase?”

Chase sighed.

“It won’t come to that, trust me. Look,” he pointed at a sign. “We are at the end of the forest.”

The trees had become fewer the closer they came to the exit, and suddenly the road opened up to a bright blue sky and the landscape stretch far away into the horizon. They were at the far edge of a field and Chase felt a sense of relief wash over him. All the trees had started to make him feel hemmed in after so many months.

“It’s beautiful,” said Claire, in a rare comment about the scenery.

“Next stop,” said Chase. “Outpost Topaz. Here, Tommy, give me the reigns. I’ll take it from here.”

“How far is it?” Said Alex, groggily. He must have been snoozing in the back and suddenly just woke up.

“Only a mile or two,” said Chase. He flicked the reigns and Moonshine started to walk faster. “I need to mail a letter to our dear advisor. Tonight we can camp at a little place I know near a stream. It’s safe and we can all get a good nights rest and make a nice meal. We should be in Birchtown by the end of the week.”

The sun was high in the sky when they arrived at Outpost Topaz. Chase was glad to see a guild member of the Gryphon Express smoking a pipe near his Skyrider. There seemed to be no one else around but for a covered wooden wagon with OUTPOST TOPAZ written upon it in bright orange letters.

“Welcome,” said the Guild member as they came near. “Welcome to Topaz, you all came from the goblin forest?”

“That we did,” said Chase, bringing Moonshine to a halt. The guildmember appeared to be around his age, but had platinum blonde hair and a scar where his left eye used to be. “Looks like I caught you just in time.”

“If you mean to send a letter then yes, I was about to leave.”

“Perfect,” said Chase. He pulled the letter from his shirt and handed it over to the guildmember who examined the paper.

“Training island, eh? I’ll be there later today. Got to make a stop in Moon Town first.”

The guildmember blew on his pipe and tucked it into a side pocket of his jacket. Then he turned around and opened the postal box with a key and removed a couple envelopes. He placed the envelopes, along with Chase’s letter, inside a satchel hanging off his Skyrider.

“How does someone get one of those things?” Asked Thomas, starting at the floating Skyrider.

The guildmember smiled at the young lad.

“Either join the postmasters or buy one,” he said. He patted the Skyrider fondly before mounting it. “Probably easier to just join the guild, however, these things ain’t cheap.”

“Do you ever…?”

“Let someone else ride it?” The post master laughed and his hair shone in the sun. “Too bad you didn’t show up sooner, I could have given you a ride. The next postmaster you see tell ‘em you got ‘a parcel for Mr. Mellamon’. It’s code between us and he might fly you around some.”

“Really? Thanks!” Thomas beamed at the post master.

The man kicked off from the ground and the Skyrider and began to float higher off the ground. When he was 20 feet above them he gave a wave.

“Good luck on your travels, been hearing strange reports down the road. Might be some event going on. Farewell!”

Chase rolled his eyes as the postmaster sped away high into the sky, leaving Thomas and the other cheering and marveling at the wonder of flight.

Show off, thought Chase.

“Do you really think one of them will let me fly around?” Asked Thomas, clutching Chase’s arm.

“Of course,” said Chase. “It’s how they get people to join the guild. Expect a sales pitch on the wonders of the Gryphon Express as soon as you touch down.”

“Maybe I could steal one,” said Thomas, his eyes lighting up.

Chase laughed.

“It’s been done before,” he said. “But be careful, they may deliver mail but they are still a guild. You don’t get a Skyrider without having a few contracts under your belt already. Those people are all hardened players.”

“Have you ever ridden one?” Asked Brent as Chase flicked the reigns again and Moonshine began to pull the wagon again.

“I owned six of them, actually,” said Chase. “But truth be told flying isn’t something I enjoy. Only rode them in emergencies.”

“Is our leader scared of heights?” Said Thomas innocently.

Chase glanced at the sky where the postmaster and his flying machine were only a speck in a sea of blue.

“Sort of.”

“So he has a weakness!” Cackled Thomas.

“I have many weaknesses,” scoffed Chase. “Especially now that I don’t have all my contract marks.”

“Now I know why you wouldn’t climb that tree the other day,” said Amelie.

“That’s right, Amelie!” Said Thomas gleefully. “He absolutely refused!”

Chase could only shake his head and sigh. The day before they had left the fort the entire guild had decided to take a walk through the forest. Marlon had insisted that they all pitch in finding certain flowers and herbs and, since it had been a Sunday, it turned into a pleasant excursion that wasn’t fighting goblins or training. At one point Marlon had pointed high up in a tree and said there was a vine he recognized from his book that he needed. Chase had immediately ordered Brent to fetch it after seeing how high it was.

“I’ve never seen you tell Brent to do something so fast before,” said Thomas, remembering the moment. “Heights don’t agree with you, eh?”

“Thomas, knock it off,” said Brent sternly. “Not everyone likes being high in the air.”

“It’s okay, Brent, but thanks.” Chase ruffled Thomas’ hair. “We will see how this one likes it for his first time. Who knows? Maybe he will love it.”

They rode for a while chatting about this and that. The road was flat and straight and soon Outpost Topaz was a small dot behind them. The fields stretched endlessly around them and the sun was hot but not unbearable. Chase uncorked a wine skin and enjoyed the warming effects of the alcohol. Without Marlon around it was easy to drink alone without the others pestering him to try some.

Chase lost track of time. The road disappeared behind them and the miles faded away as Moonshine walked. It wasn’t until several hours had passed that Chase realized his mistake.

“Guys,” said Chase urgently. “Guys!”

“Whatizit?” Said Alex, again waking up from a nap. Brent and Claire also started awake and Thomas looked at him sleepily.

“Where the hell are we?”

The fields were gone, and the blue sky had been replaced with a purple one. Small, twinkling stars peeked out at them from the heavens and on either side were rows upon rows of headstones.

“What the…” Brent jumped from the wagon and looked around. “I coulda sworn we were still in the fields. This looks like a giant cemetery! Where are we?”

“Might be the event the postmaster mentioned,” said Amelie from the back, a note of worry in her voice.

“I think you are right,” said Chase. “Brent, get back in the wagon. No body leaves until we are through this.”

A wolf howled in the distance. Chase flicked the reigns again and the sound of Moonshine’s hooves echoed off the cobblestones eerily into the night.