I’m alone with my NPCs. I’m in my chamber with Asterix, Oliver Stone, Armand the Tall, Geraint the Blacksmith, Simon the Vendor, Thorvald the Miner, and Jason the Brewer.
It’s them I should really be worried about. If the Fangs of Koth, or other of Satanus’s minions get to Silver Drift, they’ll be gone and dead forever. No resurrecting for NPCs, all their skills and all their levels will be gone.
‘So you beat them, sir?
‘Kind of. Everyone else died.’
‘That’s a shame. But they will resurrect,’ Oliver says.
‘But they know we’re here and they will want revenge,’ Armand says.
‘Any sign that they know about the Secret Valley?’
He shakes his head.
That’s one thing at least. I turn to Jason. ‘How’s production?’
‘Good. Lots of potatoes. Lots of beer. The mules are breeding, population’s growing.’
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That’s good. I ask what we’re at.
‘A hundred and two.’
I sit forward. ‘A hundred and two?’
He nods.
‘So we’ve got our village milestone?’ I’m so excited I could burst.
‘Yes, sir.’ It just appeared in the central chamber of the mine.’ He’s grinning too.
‘So I can bind there?’
Asterix laughs. ‘I should think so. Why don’t you go and do it?’
I stand. They follow me through to where a granite obelisk stands about three feet tall in the central chamber. Torchlight illuminates the letters carved in its side.
SILVER DRIFT
As I come close, a message pops up on my HUD.
I know they’ll come for us, and later I’ll be standing on the hillside watching anxiously for my friends to return so they too can bind here at Silver Drift, but for now a sense of confidence grows in me, of hope almost.
I look at the NPCs who are watching me with smiles on their faces. I clear my throat. ‘I’ll tell you what we’re going to do. We’re going to send a message to King Arthur down south across all that enemy territory. And we’re going to tell him that Silver Drift stands with him. That we’re waiting for his return and we will be a beacon of his truth here in the north, until he can come back again.’
And with that, NPCs as they are, they all break into a cheer.