November 2, 2022
Day 13
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Rahul had run out of options.
Splashing water on the face - didn’t work
Loud shouts right into the ear - didn't work either
Kicking the shin - still didn’t work
Kicking the nuts - promising but didn't work
Breaking fingers - didn’t work
Ivan was stuck in his trance no matter what Rahul tried. And there was no more time to experiment.
Rahul signalled to Matt and together they re-positioned Ivan, carefully laying him down on the floor on his stomach. Matt still was in a lot of pain and was limping around on one leg, but he didn't complain.
Following Rahul's instructions, he pulled Ivan’s left hand out from under him, and gripped his wrist. Then, he twisted Ivan’s arm a bit so that his elbow was facing upward. He finally held Ivan’s wrist with his left hand, and tightly braced the forearm with his right. He knew what was coming next, and closed his eyes.
Rahul, on his part, muttered an apology to Ivan, not for the first time today. Due to Ivan’s strong constitution, he had been the best candidate to test how much pain was sufficient to wake up from the trance. Unfortunately, no matter what Rahul tried, he could not find a way to cause enough pain to disperse the trance while minimising the damage.
There was no way around it, and Rahul steeled his resolve. He raised his feet right over Ivan's extended hand, positioned it right above the elbow, and stamped down with all the force he could muster.
Ivan’s elbow bent the wrong way with a cracking sound, and he woke up howling and screaming. The screams of pain continued for a few minutes as Ivan alternated between curling into a ball and thrashing about.
Finally, when the pain subsided enough for Ivan to take note of his surrounding, he looked at Mat and Rahul.
“Where am I? What the fuck did you do. I’m hurting all over." Ivan asked in confusion.
Then, as he remembered how he woke up with Rahul looming above him and Matt holding him down, his confusion turned into fury, as he yelled the next words.
"You two broke my damn elbow, didn't you. And my fingers. Why does my shin hurt?"
Then, as his attention drifted to another part of his body that was in pain, the look on Ivan’s face turned from fury to disbelief. He looked from Matt to Rahul and back, before asking in an smooth and even tone, which was somehow even more terrifying .
“Who kicked my balls?”
Matt's hand moved to point at Rahul so fast, Rahul wandered whether that action in itself raised Matt's dexterity by a few points. But he didn't get to ponder on that for long, as Ivan's eyes locked onto his. He stammered for a bit before speaking
“I can explain”.
Then, realising that Ivan was getting on his feet and not waiting for any explanations, Rahul made a run for it and hid behind the still entranced Daniel as he spoke.
“Let me explain. See, everyone here is stuck in a trance. Look at Daniel, this same thing had happened to you. I carried all of you here from the roof. I had to break your elbow to wake you up. “
Ivan stopped for a moment, looking at Daniel and the others who were simply staring ahead. He also did not remember how he had ended up here. Still, he wasn’t entirely convinced.
Rahul, realising the same, made a split second decision.
“Let’s keep this to ourselves”, he said to Matt and Ivan, as he gave Daniel's butt a loud spank from behind. If this doesn't convince Ivan, then he didn't know what would.
Thankfully, the lack of any reaction from Daniel finally seemed enough proof to Ivan. After getting an assurance from Rahul that he had held back on his groin kick, and that there would be no permanent damage, Ivan started asking the right questions and Rahul brought him up to speed.
…
“Okay, so that’s how we all ended up in this room.” Ivan concluded. “So what do we do next? Do we really need to break everyone’s elbows? That thing still fucking hurts and I'd suggest we try out some more things first.”
“I wouldn't have broken your elbow if I didn't have to. Check your notifications, I haven't told you the entire story”, Rahul said, and then waited for Ivan.
Ivan checked his notifications and said just one word, “Mark”
“Yeah.. Mark’s dead. And until we elect a representative, we can’t even look at the settlement overview. We need to regain access to that to see if anyone else survived. The longer we wait, the more unlikely it becomes that anyone else will make it“
Ivan had no response to that.
5 more broken elbows and a lot of swearing later, the team was whole once again.
Once Rahul brought everyone up to speed, everyone immediately agreed that Daniel should become the new representative. Considering the situation, Daniel decided not to waste time on an obligatory show of false humility and agreed right away.
Daniel Walter has petitioned to be representative of the Laysan Bastion. If elected, he will have the right to govern this bastion and choose a council to assist him. The representative along with his council will have absolute powers, including but not limited to - making decisions on behalf of the settlement, passing laws, and exiling anyone at will. At the same time, as your representative grows, your bastion will grow with him, acquiring traits and special bonuses. This is an important decision, choose wisely. Accept Daniel Walter as the representative of Laysan Bastion Contest his petition to become the representative of Laysan Bastion Leave the Laysan Bastion
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Rahul made the choice and the next notification followed a few seconds later.
Your chosen representative Daniel Walter has been elected unopposed.
Do you wish to check the settlement bonuses?
No, Rahul thought, as he looked at the frown on Daniel’s face. Dread filling his heart, he immediately he opened the settlement overview. It was as he feared.
Settlement Overview
Settlement Name
Laysan
Settlement population
8/1000
Bastion
Laysan Bastion
Unique bastion bonus
Allows any humans within the domain of the colocated settlement to drink salt water without any adverse effects
Settlement bonuses
Expanded settlement domain III, Dungeon Spawn II, Amphibious IV
Settlement domain highlights
Unnamed inland hypersaline lake, unnamed cavern, unnamed coral reef formation
Other bastions within settlement domain
1 avian bastion, 1 shallow water bastions, 23 deep sea bastions
“Only the 8 of us remain.”
Rahul sighed.
Daniel shook his head.
“No. I mean yes, but we expected that. There's something else...“
Daniel paused, took a deep breath, and then continued.
“It seems we have all been played for fools. Mark has been playing God on this island. I had my suspicions that he had some agenda of his own, but I never imagined something like this.“
“I don’t get it. What exactly did Mark do?”
Matt interrupted.
“Lots of things. Mark had known about the frog attack hours in advance, but he didn’t warn us. He could have ended that battle within hours, but he chose not to. To get more rewards presumably, but I'm not sure. We also have way more settlement points that we would have earned so far at the rate of 1000 per day, and he has been stockpiling them all. Must have been the rewards. The cavern on the other hand has not been expanded even once. Honestly, it’ll be easier if I just showed you. “
As he said that, Rahul got a new notification.
Your representative Daniel Walter has added you to the settlement council. You can now look at settlement details.
Daniel explained “I have created a settlement council which will give you guys access to all the settlement details. Mark obviously kept that detail to himself. When we constituted our settlement council, he just told us that he got an option to 'formalize' the council, which he did. There was nothing more to it, he said. "
Daniel said the last words with so much venom in his voice, that everyone grew a bit concerned. He noticed, and collected himself.
"I won't digress any further, please think of settlement details, and go through the information presented to you“
As Rahul thought about Settlement Details, it materialised in front of him.
Settlement Details
Settlement Name
Laysan
Settlement population
8/1000
Bastion
Laysan Bastion
Unique bastion bonus
Allows any humans within the domain of the colocated settlement to drink salt water without any adverse effects
Settlement bonuses
Expanded settlement domain III, Dungeon Spawn II, Amphibious IV
Settlement domain highlights
Unnamed inland hypersaline lake, unnamed cavern, unnamed coral reef formation
Other bastions within settlement domain
1 avian bastion, 1 shallow water bastions, 23 deep sea bastions
Leadership Bonus
N/A
Council Bonuses
N/A
Settlement points
23,000
Buildings
Castle (Lvl 1), Dock (Lvl 1)
Terraforming projects
N/A
Active Settlement Quests
Consolidate Your Domain (1/26)
After giving everyone time to go through the settlement details “As I said, we have 23,000 unused settlement points, and also a quest to consolidate our domain. That quest certainly would have been one of the reasons why Mark was so insistent on attacking the avian bastion. Look at the castle details next. “
Rahul thought about castle details and was greeted with a screen
Laysan Castle Overview
Level
1
Troop Strength
8/1000
Damage
Outer walls - 0%, Castle towers - 0%, Castle building - 1.9%
Traits
Weak self repair, Daily restock kitchen, Daily restock equipment
Offensive capabilities
Infantry Sentry 0/100 Ranged Sentry 0/100 Siege 0/5
Defensive capabilities
Defensive shield Disabled Moat Disabled Wall spikes Disabled
Daniel continued “The menus you all see are likely to be read-only. But I can see the options to choose sentries, a number of defensive shield options, and much more. If Mark had enabled even the most basic shield, it’d have shielded us against the worst of the mental attack which paralysed us all. Almost the entire settlement dead… for some stupid settlement points..“
Daniel trailed off, almost mumbling the last part.
Rahul noticed the changing atmosphere of the room and decided it best not to give anyone, including himself, the time to delve too much on the knowledge that this could all have been prevented.
“We don’t have the luxury to figure out Mark’s motives right now. And we don’t have the time to mourn our friends and colleagues. The cellar door will only hold for so long, and if we wait any longer, we will be joining them in death. We need to do something about this.“
Then, after a pause, Rahul said “Should we call the steward, Martin. Can we?“
Daniel immediately replied that they couldn’t call Martin while there was active combat on the island, and then everyone was quiet again.
The silence lasted for some time until finally a faint smile crept on Daniel’s lips and he spoke up. “We will have enough time to curse Mark, but for now, we do have all these settlement points he had saved. Why don’t we see what we can do with those? ”
Everyone was on board immediately, almost as if they all had the same idea but didn’t want to be the one to break the solemn moment.
Daniel continued, “To start with, I was looking at the settlement store and I think I found something to help with our injuries. “
That got everyone’s full attention.
Their bones were broken, their spirit battered, and the 8 former software engineers were now the sole human inhabitants of a desolate island in the middle of nowhere.
But as Daniel procured healing potions from the settlement store, all 8 of them began their long road to recovery.
Rahul, Matt, Ivan, Alex, Maya, Charlie and Helena were ready to face the birds.
Daniel was ready to face the birds too, but he was also a bit confused why his left butt cheek was so sore. Probably some nasty fall while he was entranced, he thought to himself.