City of Uldon

Outer City- Bent Dagger Tavern

Arron, Maddox, and 8 others of the Weighted Chance guild talked and planned. Eight of their current members were already out and about filling one assassination contract or another within the Free Cities Alliance. It was slow going, but they were recovering. In the short term, Aaron wanted to leave a small team that would continue to work, while he led the majority of the guild east or north outside the Free City Alliance territory. Moving north would expose them to possible threats from the northern kingdoms, but the pickings were richer. To the east were mainly city-states like within the Free City Alliance and a few smaller kingdoms, but less trade to pilfer and liberate. Suddenly the door to the room opened and two men strode in followed by a cloaked figure that obscured everything about the person. A fourth person closed the door and leaned against the wall beside it observing the room.

"Ahh, so this is the child guild Weighted Chance. We have been looking for you, my employer here wishes to speak to you about certain things. If you will give us a few minutes of your time, we will be on our way." the man said as he studied Aaron. The cloaked figure stood next to him while the two others spread out through the room.

Aaron studied the man and his companions, the cloaked figure was an enigma but the others not so much. The woman was an obvious Rogue of some type, while the man wearing mail was a cleric type, the man standing by the door with the staff was a mage. The talker was a monk of some sort, dangerous in close quarters and depending on the type of monk he could tank as well do massive burst damage. Based on their equipment, they were all over level 150 and the cloaked figure was using a Cloak of Obstructing Shadows. A special cloak that was extremely difficult to produce and cost over 100,000 Gold. Rich with powerful allies, dangerous. "What can I help you with? It's obvious that you all could easily kill us all and your cloaked friend is rich. So what could we do for you that you cannot take or buy?"

The monk smiled, "You are right, we can acquire what our employer wants if he could not buy it. You have something that we could neither take nor buy without your authorization. At least not in this world, our world is another story. However, my employer is on a bit of a schedule on would prefer to do this quickly. So my employer wishes to know everything about the forces that attacked you at Middlebrough."

Aaron considered the man's request, "What would we get out of it?"

The monk smirked, "Besides surviving this encounter, some money and maybe information on caravans going east if you answer quickly and we get any and all recording of the attack. You would also have to sign a binding agreement not to divulge the information to anyone else. That binding would be required by everyone presently in your guild or that took part in the attack." Suddenly the cloaked figure leaned toward the monk and started whispering to him causing him the monk to nod. "My employer is willing to offer you 10,000 Gold and 5,000 for the recordings."

Aaron looked at Maddox who nodded slightly, it was a good payment for just a little information. The money would go a long way to equipping new members and buying supplies until they had a steady income. "Your employer has a deal. Now, what would you like to know?"

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Fortress of Midnight

Main Cavern

Jacob walked among the trainees with Brox and one of his new Lieutenants. "BRACE!!!" the nearby Sergeant called out and the two squads 10 men wide and two deep braced for the impact of 4 huge men and Orcs as they slammed into the line. It bowed and the attackers did everything short of using skills or abilities to break it, but the defenders held. "Stand down. Your learning, good. Trust your brothers and sisters around you. You are never alone again. You will never fight alone again. You are Legion, you are an army, and an army is only as strong as its weakest soldier. Do not disparage that man or woman though, because that person might save your very life one day." Jacob smiled, it wasn't the first time he had heard that type of speech before, and it wouldn't be the last.

"The training is going well, how are we doing at equipping everyone though?" Jacob asked Brox

Brox grunted as he studied various exercising going on, "800 sets of weapons and armor have been issued here and a similar number to the camp at New Dawn. Food and medical supplies are holding steady. I heard a rumor that we will be getting a large number of recruits from Ineford, is this true my king?"

Jacob nodded, "Yes, we will be getting nearly 3,000 new troops. Soldiers that I want to be trained as Legion and will form the core of the Third Legion." Jacob responded causing Brox to snort.

"Three Legions, but I am the only Commander my King. You need to appoint two more if you are going to create three Legions." Brox responded.

Jacob immediately stopped and looked at the Orc, "Recommendations for the positions?"

Brox considered his options before speaking up, "You might not like it but Tathlyn Hune is one of my recommendations and Lieutenant-Commander Ironbark. I would hate to lose him as a Cohort commander, but he is ready for the next step and one of the few I would trust in a command position. If anything ever happens to your Captain Thorgron Shadowsteel, I would recommend that Orc to that position. As far as replacements go for his Cohort, they have been dispatched from the First Legions Third and Fifth Cohorts. As you commanded, I left the First and Second Cohorts at full strength at the Bloodsoaked Fort."

Jacob studied the Orc before nodding and continuing to walk, "I understand and will consider your recommendations. Thank you, Commander."

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Tomb of Eternal Night

Palace of Night- Council Chambers

Jacob looked at the other Officers of Seekers of the Dawn, "So we have two points that I thought we should address today since we last had met. First, I think we need to bring in new blood. With the growing conflicts and expanding borders of the Empire, we need more people. Simple as that. Second, we need a Guild House and base of operations that is for us. Thoughts?" Jacob asked as he looked at the eight other members.

Tarren nodded his head, "I agree with the growing conflict against the SIsters and with the Empire having a presense on the surface now, we really don't have a choice. We have to expand, the questions is how many?"

"We did 50 last time, and it worked out pretty well. If we do the same thing again, its a managable number that we can get trained up and power level to 20 before we let them off the training wheels." Yilme said with most of the council noddeing. Darren immiedietly called for a vote and it passed.

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"As far as aquiring a guild headquarters goes, until the outer city has been developed it won't be possible. From what I understand, Guild HQs are only allowed in the outer city of all capitol cities which would include the Tomb here. What is the state of our treasury anyway?" Darren stated while looking at Cortez, a level 32 Priest, and Guild Treasurer.

Cortez snorted, "Remember, we are just getting started, but between guild taxes and donations we are sitting at just over 20 thousand Gold right now. Guild HQ's in cities like this usually go for 100,000 Gold easily. Now if Middlebrough or Ineford was willing to host us, we can aquire a Guild outpost at either location but those will still cost between 10 to 20 thousand. It will finally give us access to an Armory and Vault of our own, but we still won't have our own Smithy or Practice Yard. With the recent encounter of Weighted Chance, there has been an upswing to requests to practice PvP, but we don't have an arena. When are we going to get a Collesium?"

Jacob snorted, "The Mid City is about 1/8 torn down and cleared. Guild Buildings and Arenas are outer city construction as people pointed out. On the positive, we have a bunch of time until this area is open to the general player base of Fate. So, would it be worth it to purchase property at either location?"

Cortez shrugged his shoulders, "It has its benfits and disadvantages. Yes, I think we should purchase some property, prefereibly at Ineford since I am sure once the Empire of Night finishes its expansion within the Arathia Basin, it will become the hub of transportation and trade for that region."

Jacob rolled his eyes, "What the Empire might or might not due, is not up for discussion in these meetings. This meeting is supposed to be about guild problems, that is all. So, we will look into purchasing property at Ineford?" Jacob asked as he looked at the rest of the guild council who started nodding, "Ok then, next time we have a meeting, I will have a price tag. Any other guild problems we need to bring up?" A bunch of shaking heads, "Ok then, Yilme I want you on point to talk to all the guild members, I want each and every member to come up with two names of people they would trust to admit into the Seekers. Darren, I am going to trust you and your old friends to vet those names." Yilme and Darren nodded as the meeting broke up.

Before Darren could leave, Jacob pulled him aside. "I know we have been out in the field a lot recently, but how is it going at decoding the Cult of the True book I gave you?" Jacob asked as he watched the other council members filtered out of the room.

"Ezekial was no slouch at obscure codes, thats for sure. He did a damn good job and it helped me figure it out. Sorry, I didn't bring it to you before, but we all got so busy with problems on the surface and other things. A couple of names from the Tomb were still unaccounted for so I went hunting and within 24 hours of Ezekial getting sick, every single one was dead. No, it wasn't poison, it was either through knife wounds or broken necks. As far as I am aware, we should have no more cult members within the Tomb. I will keep an eye out now that I know what I am looking for though. The remaining names in this book are for Cultists all over the Arakon continent. Every nation, a bunch of independent cities, and reaches into places of power all over. Be carefull what you do with this Jacob, people have killed in the real for far less here." Darren cautioned as he moved away after handing over the book.

Quest Updated: Hunting the Cult (Stage 3)

Description: Darren finished decoding the Codex Ezekial started, it revealed few members of the Cult remained within the Tomb, but all were dead through violance and it appears the Cult has been driven from the Tomb of Eternal Night. However, the Codex revealed that members of the Cult of the True are spread throughout the continent of Arakon, in every nation and almost every city. How will you reveal the threat to the world?

Optional: It was revealed that the Broken Crown Fortress was once a Cult stronghold. Find out if this is still true if so destroy the cult's presence there.

Rewards: Unknown

"You made copies of this correct?" Jacob called Darren who simply nodded before leaving the room. Suddenly Jacob's communication coin went off, what now...

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City of Ineford

City Administration Building- Reagents Office

Dudriks secretary didn't even try to stop Jacob this time, just waved him in so whatever had happened must have really sent him hopping and this allowed him to talk to the Dwarf about acquiring guild property as well. The dominating Dwarf was sitting at his desk sipping a cup of tea of all things, and reading some paperwork when Jacob strode into his office. "Dudrik, you said it was urgent so I came as soon as possible. If you have time, I needed to discuss something in relation to my guild."

Jacob stated as the Dwarf looked up. The Regent nodded his head before pointing toward the corner of the room behind him. Standing against the wall were two Wood-Elf Sentinals and a robed Wood Elf sitting down between them. He was intently studying Jacob before looking at Dudrik, "Is this someone I can talk to about what we discussed?"

Dudrik looked at the Elf before looking back at Jacob who was starting to get pissed. Discretion and silence were two things he counted on and if the Dwarf had broken either, it would end badly for him and his beloved city. Whatever was on Jacob's face made Dudrik pale a little, "Gentlemen, can you give me a moment alone with my friend. I need to explain some things to him. In private." The Wood-Elf stood and continued to study Jacob and Dudrik before leaving the office with his guards. Jacob firmly closed the door behind them before turning and facing the sweating Dwarf. "I didn't tell him anything. He already knew when he showed up."

Jacob cursed, "When we destroyed that bandit camp, we discovered 4 Wood-Elves, we turned them over to their people in the Evergreen Woods. They must have sent the party, so the question was why is he here?" Jacob asked the Dwarf who shrugged.

"If you didn't want them talking, you should not have let them go. Sorry to say it, but it's true." Dudrik stated before sitting back in his seat.

Jacob shook his head, "They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They had been abused and tortured, I wasn't going to compound their experience by taking them. They needed people whom they trusted to fully recover and we might have saved them, but we are not family."

Dudrik chuckled, "Well you shouldn't be such a soft-hearted Vampire. You are supposed to be a monster that puts whole cities to death and eats the hearts of children in front of their parents. Not rescuing damsels in distress." The Dwarf chuckled. "I don't know what they want, but if they notified the Council of Light to your existence, we could see an army here within a year at least. If the Free Cities Alliance works with them, far less then that. So I would suggest you go talk to them and figure out exactly what they want because if they wanted war, why send someone?" Jacob nodded at the Dwarfs deduction of the facts before turning and opening the doors again.