Me and Kusog spawned into the dreamscape. We had decided that since this was more combat oriented, he would be the major in control. I would take on my old rank of captain and basically be his second in command responsible for the camp. We had both spawned avatars of our characters to go with the forces and we would essentially be taking control of these.

I found myself in a room that was not unlike the depot I had created in my first foray into the dreamscape. Around the room sat members of my forces. I walked over to the lieutenant and asked him for a status report.

"Oh well captain, we have finished with the training sessions and gotten the troops as far as we could. The mage and the mounties have been wandering around the surrounding area taking note of what around and the general layout. The smith been busy repairing our gear from the journey here and cranking out upgrades for the troops under the major. The healer been keeping us all healthy. Other then that, we just waiting for directions as to what going on."

"Sitting on our arses doing fook all, which I'm not complaining about. No sirree." A smack of flesh against flesh sounded behind me. "What was that for?!" said a voice aggrieved.

"Shut up Rosser" Said the lieutenant calmly. He had come a long way from the newly made lieutenant I had seen him as. It was hard to believe that he was not really a real person, just a figament made by the dreamscape. I slowly began to understand how the game of gods came to be. I shivered at this and resolved to try to avoid much of it. I had a feeling I wasn't going to be able to however.

"Very well. Hold the fort down here, and I am going to see the major to see what we doing next. Once we established a plan, hopefully we be able to get what needs to be done and then go home."! So saying I left the depot and went outside to find... snow? Oh this was going to add a wrinkle. It wasn't heavy yet, but it was coming down quite quickly. I moved over to the largest building in the encampment. It was likely to be the headquarters and where Kusog was based. Sure enough, I found in a room looking over a table that looked much like the table top version of the area we was in. However, there was a difference to this one. Apart from where the encampment was, and the area around from which I assumed was the area visable from the camp, most of it was kind of a featureless look. The parts that was not were gray, but you could make out the terrain and other details within it. Kusog glanced towards me and began to speak.

"This is our campaign map. From here we can make our plans and see where we are and what there as the troops explore it and then make their way back to us to report what there. Now you are here, I will open the objective panel to tell us what we have to achieve to pass.

Mission Objectives

Your country has decided to expand it borders this way. As a result you and your forces have been sent to this area in preparation for readying the area for the settlers that will be coming. In order to do so, The following objectives must be met.

The map must be scouted and every place of interest investigated. Any monsters that are a considerable threat to the area must be taken care of Enough forces must survive to the end of the campaign to safely guard the area Once the settlers start to come in, provision must made for them until they are established.

Please Note

There are bonus and hidden objectives in this campaign Completing them will give you possible avantages and will count towards your overall score.

Kusog and me sat there in silence for a minute. Then Kusog stirred. " I am proficient in doing the main objectives. However, I have to admit, on missions like this, the bonus and hidden objectives are not my forte. I can normally work some of them out, but others are twisty enough that I normally dont do well with those." I nodded and replied.

"I see what I can do there then. I propose you send my mage and mounted troops on a quick trip of the open trails we do have in this area. The snow will probably prevent them from going cross country with the level of snow around but If we can use the trails it might be we can access most of the area quickly enough. I noticed a mountain in the area so I am going to take Lieutenant Tiewt and his squad and survey from up there. Along with my dimraven, I should be able to give us an expose of the area surround it, opening up more of the map. Once that done, we meet back here?" Kusog nodded. I then returned to the depot and picked up the lieutenant and his squad. To the surprise of no one, Rosser needed another slap to make him stop complaining about having to go out.

I sent my dimraven ranging out around us on our journey. This was a fascimile of my dimraven however, created for the game and as such it had no personality. However it relayed images back to me of the surrounding area letting me know what was around so we could avoid anything that we might have trouble with. I also marked some places as places of interest for Kusog to investigate. Caves were monsters might be residing and so forth. It took us two days to reach the mountain and another day to climb it. As we reach the top I then looked out around where I was. Suddenly, I felt something stir within me and suddenly look out through my eyes.

'This is what I want to do. Explore and see new sights. Here what I can see.' Suddenly a voice sounded in my head and I recgonised it as my dimraven. My mind was also containing more details about the areas I could see. I heard a chime and something say, 'unit upgraded' It seems like my dimraven had affected his counterpart within the game. Having surveyed a good portion of the area I noticed something about the very mountain we were standing on. There was crack on the top of it, and something was crawling out of it.

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"Hey fellas, I don't like the look of that." A growl could be heard coming from the crack. "Yeah, I really don't fucking like that." The sargeant snorted and said

"Thank you very much for your input Rosser. As a reward I nominate you to investigate that crack once we deal with whatever crawling out." The creature crawling out looked like some kind of oversized creepy insect. The squad exchanged glances and spread out. All of a sudden a battle ensued. I stayed back trusting in them to sort it and call out if they couldn't. Sure enough in short order they managed to deal with it and although there were some injuries, nobody was killed.

We stood around the crack looking in. There was actually what looked to be some kind of staircase moving down. I started to move down when the lieutant spoke out. "Ah, sir I believe we should send a scout down first before you. Rosser, please investigate." Muttering words like why me and what did I do, Rosser got ready to go down. Around his body he had several knives and the main weapon on his belt was a machete type weapon. Clearly he liked knives. He then descended down the narrow staircase. We had a tense few minutes waiting til he came back.

"Well sirs, I'm not sure what going on down there. There is a beast, but it caged up. It looks like somebody been living down here. It all looks safe enough however. No traps set up. I reckon that creppy crawlie was the main defence for here." I decided to head down below myself. With some of the members of the squad going in advance of me, to make sure there wouldn't be any surprises. I tried to insist that it was unnecessary but the sargeant and lieutenant remained firm on this. As we reached the doorway, I paused and looked around into the room. In one corner was a bed and a desk that had obviously seen some use. Threre were papers strewn about the surface of the desk and I picked all of them and put them into my storage. I would read them later and and see if there was anything useful. In the other corner of the room was the creature that was caged. Looking like some kind of big wolf, It was being surprisingly well behaved. I then realised my neutral aura was at play here and it had calmed the beast. It looked hungry. Reaching into my storage I brought out some meat and threw it in the cage towards the creature and it started eating.

"Well, it sure seems something been living around here. However, there very little here so either the main base is elsewhere or whoever fled with most of what they owned when they heard us coming. What the plan Captain Tinkerson?" said the sargeant. I thought able this and then spoke.

"We got what we came up here for, took care of a threat. The creature in the cage could be a threat, but we bring it with us, see if we can tame it or find some use for it. Then we head back to camp." Eventually using food I got the animal to come with us. Despite being almost as big as a horse, it was surprisingly friendly. It could be my aura, or it could be that we had fed it and freed it. Whatever the reason, it was time to head back to camp.

Once we made it back I went to the campaign room where I found Kusog. He guestured to the map. "Between the mounted troops and your foray, We managed to survey a network of the area and I believe covered the area around us quite sufficiently. I have taken out threats that I seen in the surrounding area and have moved a couple of the units out to patrol the roads and take on whatever they can or call for backup on what they can't." I looked at the map. The top left hand quarter, which is where we were situated was pretty much explored and cleared. There was a couple of things that caught my eye but I decided to come back to them later. As for the rest of the map, It looked like a network of cracks around the area. Nonetheless, it gave a general idea of the area. I proposed that we question the mounted unit and send troops out to vantage points in the area to expose the areas to the view of our map. I also told him what we foudn on our journey.

"That smacks of a hidden or bonus objective. I probably would have killed the creature." He brought up the objective page again.

Mission Objectives

Your country has decided to expand it borders this way. As a result you and your forces have been sent to this area in preparation for readying the area for the settlers that will be coming. In order to do so, The following objectives must be met.

The map must be scouted and every place of interest investigated. 27% done

Any monsters that are a considerable threat to the area must be taken care of. 4/26

Enough forces must survive to the end of the campaign to safely guard the area. 98% of troops left

Once the settlers start to come in, provision must made for them until they are established.

Please Note

There are bonus and hidden objectives in this campaign Completing them will give you possible avantages and will count towards your overall score.

Hidden areas found 1/6

Hidden threat disovered

Interesting it had updated. I then asked if we found out an objective my other means would it show up? Kusog nodded. "In one of the games, I read about an iron mine, Controlling it became a bonus objective that showed up on the panel." I smiled. I then asked if there was orders and information that had been sent with us. It turned out there was, but Kusog hadn't bothered with it as most of the time, it was a pure slog for little revealed. I suspected that I would be able to improve on that, particularly given the papers I had found in the cave. So I took all the paperwork off Kusog hand and retreated back to the depot. There I started to go through all the information I had, and created a wall connecting said information. Once I finished this, I called Lieutenanat Tiewt, Sargeant Towers and the mage to me. I then questioned them as to what they had learned, from their own experiences with the area, or what had been learned from the troops. I then added this information to the wall. It took me a further 2 days. We had now been in the game for 8 days. As I rose on the 9th, I moved towards the command tent, confident I was about to add heavily to the objective board.