As dawn shifts into mid morning, the light gleaming off the dew-coated stones of Birch Castle’s wall, Rin develops an impatient urge. With amusement, I watch her pace for a while, then kick rocks, play hopscotch with herself, when finally she shifts her attention to Rubble. For nearly ten minutes she tries to get under his skin. Badgering him as he tries to do research on his HUD is one of his pet peeves. One that Rin tries to take advantage of. His face quickly turns red in frustration, but that isn’t enough for Rin. After a few minutes of asking him questions she certainly knows the answer to, she begins putting her fingers into the virtual screen that only he can see. That riles him up, which only gets Rin going even harder.
With her hands together in front of her like a monk, she stands patiently before him, their gazes locked. When the big man goes to poke a button on his screen, Rin slaps her hand out with a shout, quickly deflecting his finger like a karate master. “Hiyaah!” she screams.
“Rin. Stop it.” Rubble says, his brow a single, thick line across his forehead.
She says nothing, only stands in peaceful solidarity until her next chance to strike comes. Like a viper, she lashes out and swipes his finger away. I nearly keel over watching her entertain herself at Rubble’s expense. She gives one last “Hiyaah!” before Rubble throws in the towel, dismissing his HUD with a flick of his wrist.
Crossing his arms across his belly, he says, “All right, I give up. It’s not like I’m trying to make sure we survive this siege. You happy now?”
Rin smiles innocently, rocking up on her toes and tilts her head to the side. “Quite.”
The thudding of marching boots draws my attention back to the open gate. Leading a charge of fifty under-equipped people, comes Felix. In his new red and white robes, he looks bright and stands out from the browns and greens of the group following him. Still sporting his level one sunglasses, a smirk stretches across his face. “Are we ready to do this?”
“Hell yeah, we are,” I say. “Seeing all these troops is getting me excited.”
Brushing his black hair with his gloved hand, he says, “Good. They aren’t the best, what with the run of the mill gear and standard hit point pools, but they should do the trick. Soldiers for taking some of our hits and the archers and magic users for dealing damage from afar.”
Glancing behind Felix, I can see that he’s not kidding about mundane gear. Most of the soldiers have swords, shields, and leather armor like I had ten levels ago. The archers and casters seem a little better off until I take a look at their stats and realize they have half as much HP. All I can do is shrug and hope for the best.
Felix wants to trade. Do you accept?
“Oh, right,” I say with a nod. “Your gold. Here’s what I got.”
With a poke and a swipe of my finger, I move all of my remaining money into the trading interface and transfer him a whole whopping 3,799 gold. It’s not even 25% of what the total cost is going to turn out to be, and that just makes me wonder just how much money Felix has.
When the transfer is complete, I smirk and say, “My tithes, good priest.”
He laughs, thanks me, then turns to the others and collects what they have to offer. When Rin asks him how his finances look, Felix assures us that we shouldn’t have any issues keeping our troops for as long as we need them.
“I’ve got 26,378 gold,” he says. “And to avoid driving up our costs any further, let’s head out.”
With a round of cheers, we begin our long trek for Starlight. With the mountains on our left, the ocean on our left, and the clanking sound of our troops behind us, we walk on and watch the scenery change in silence. Unlike our usual path towards the south-west, we decide to take the mountain pass and avoid Bandit’s Pinch entirely. We don’t want the River Raiders knowing we are coming until it’s too late. When we take our firsts steps down onto the grassy plains, the Twin Sister lakes below glimmer in the sunlight.
Out in the open, there are no creatures or wild animals dumb enough to attack such a large force, so our company moves over the rolling hills with relative ease. At about mid-afternoon, we stop for an hour’s break and talk about strategies.
“Starlight has a palisade wall made of wood,” Felix says, “but I wouldn’t be surprised if the River Raiders have upgraded it to stone. Remember, this NPC village has a long in-game history of getting sacked. It’s set up for defense, even if it is just a village. It’ll make it harder for us to take, but easier to keep as long as we don’t completely destroy the walls.”
“What other kind of defenses are you thinking are going to be there?” I ask.
Felix shrugs. “There’s a chance they’re going to have a catapult or two. Not likely, but don’t be surprised if you see it.”
“All right.” I scratch my head as new thoughts bubble to the surface of my mind and I wonder what’s going to happen after we take Starlight. “So, forgive me about this, I don’t have much knowledge in the structure of anything military, so how does a guild actually work? Who is going to… you know…”
“Who is going to lead?”
I nod “How do we establish a chain of command?”
Felix’s stare feels a little cold. But, Rin's voice cuts through it, light and chipper. “I think that we’re all smart enough to know that everybody wants to be in control. In that regard, every alliance starts off with a single leader and three co-leaders with equal power. Like a small council. They made it that way so it only take two out of three votes to boot a fellow leader or get something decided. But, the leader generally has the ultimate say.”
“So are we gonna vote on who is leader?”
“Sure,” Rin says with a smile. “We can do it now. Write your vote down in chat, and when I say now will all send out or chats in it will be decided.”
“I like that.” I say.
The others agree, and we all pull up our HUD’s and type in our boat. Once Rin audibly says, “now,” I push enter.
Aiden Rockwell: Felix.
Rubble Miller: Rubble Miller.
Felix Brandt: Felix
Rin Akari: Aiden.
Rin turns, a furious gleam in her eye as she points a finger at both Felix and Rubble. “You two voted for yourselves! You can’t do that!”
Rubble shrugs. “No one said we couldn’t.”
“I call for a recount!” Rin stamps her feet.
“Eh…” I shake my head. “No, it’s decided, Rin. Not a big deal if the three of us are also a big part of the alliance. Felix won. I concede. Besides, he’s clearly got the most knowledge. And gold.” I laugh.
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Felix nods to me, a gesture of thanks to my withdrawal from the race for leader.
“Yeah, fair’s fair,” Rubble says. “Besides, I think we’d be dumb not to choose Felix.”
Rin’s body seems tense, but she turns away before I can get a really good look at her expression. For some reason, I can’t help but feel like she’s a little disappointed, and I’m not sure how to take it. I mean, I’m shocked she voted for me, and I wonder if that means that things between us are recovering.
With our voting complete, we pack up our things and head out for the last portion of our journey. The afternoon seems to drag on, and as the sun gets closer and closer to the western horizon ahead of us, the line of trees that outlines the forested beast-nation of Grioh Crait grows larger. Cutter’s Cry is somewhere north of us, and we follow the trees further south. To be cautious of hostile mobs, we keep our company about 100 yards away from the forest, yet I still feel like there are eyes watching us from the shadows. Before the sun is completely gone, the village of Starlight comes into view in an outcropping of trampled grass and tree stumps.
It’s just as Felix said, an outer palisade wall made of wooden spikes surrounds the entire village. Just over it, I can see the steeple of a church and the pyramid-shaped roof of what I assume must be the town hall. All the other buildings are short enough I can’t see them, which makes me realize that the walls must be pretty tall. Twenty feet at the shortest. The distance between the outer wall and the forest is probably just far enough to force enemy archers out from the cover of the woods. The sight of Starlight makes me wonder just how we’re going to get in there.
As we form up and watch the city, two people walk out through the wooden and iron gate, torches in hand. They light sconces around the gate, then pause for a moment, looking our way before dashing back inside.
“I think they’ve seen us,” I say.
“I agree,” Rubble says. “We should just go in there right now and give them what for!”
Felix shakes his head. “No, will handle this like men. Honorable men.”
Rin gives him a playful punch. “And women.”
Felix smiles. He repeats, “And women. Let’s go state our intentions, even though it’s probably pretty obvious with this army.” He snickers to himself. “We’ll give them a chance to walk away, but I doubt they will take it.”
With the four of us upfront, and our NPC company behind us, we form a solid force and march up to the wooden walls. By the time we get there, the gates are shut and I can hear the slamming of the iron bar locking it closed. Archers and magic users are dashing around on the platforms behind the walls like madmen, taking up defensive positions and barking orders.
As we come to a stop, a voice calls down from above. “Hello there!” An archer with a green bycoket hat shouts, his tone friendly and not disturbed at all at the sight of troops at their doorstep.
“General Kenobi!” Rubble screams.
The archer tilts his head. “My name is Frank.”
Everyone turns to Rubble, staring blankly in confusion. Rubble just holds up his hands. “What? Hasn’t anyone ever seen those?”
Felix shakes his head, takes a step forward and ignores Rubble’s tomfoolery. Looking back up at the wall, he calls up to the archer. “Instead of attacking you outright, and by surprise I might add, we’ve come to negotiate. Leave Starlight undefended and no one will be harmed. You’ll keep all of your equipment and experience in exchange for one small settlement.”
A bellowing laughter erupts from above. Just a few paces away from the archer, coming closer, is one ramen-noodle haired necromancer I really hoped would be here. Alloy sneers from atop his perch, leaning against the wall whimsically. “It’s been quite some time, Felix. How are things since you jumped ship? I’ll be honest with you, the River Raiders have never been better. Instead of playing this game of independence and sacking our tiny little domicile here, wouldn’t your time be better spent helping it grow? You used to be a big player with us, one of the best healers we had. Think of the others you left behind. Kirk, Arlette, Leo, Santiago, and the others. They’re all still here. You could be back to building your passive streams of gold and restore that illustrious fortune you once had in a matter of days. Just come back to us, will you? And the offer applies to the rest of you, of course. Even you, Aiden. I’m willing to let bygones be bygones.”
“Why would we ever want to join you?” I blurt. “You kill and steal gear from other players corpses, bully new players and take them as hostages under your threats, not because you need to, but just because you can! Even if they have absolutely nothing of value to you, and—”
Felix puts his hand on my shoulder and gives me a look that silences me. He pats me on the shoulder, consoling me and soothing my temper, then turns back to Alloy. Felix says, “I think it’s clear we mean to take Starlight from you and your guild, Alloy. We wouldn’t have trekked all this way with a force like this if we wanted to join up. Starlight is ours, Alloy. You know it. Even from up here I can see the sweat beading on your forehead. You don’t have enough players here and we outnumber you. Walk away from Starlight or you will regret it.”
Alloy blows a raspberry. “You see where I’m standing? You can’t take Starlight with troops like those. And even if you do, you won’t like Starlight much, I’ll tell you that. You should look somewhere else or start your own town. We’ve already been attacked by fey from the woods twice in three days. Wouldn’t be surprised if it happens again today.”
“We will decide if we like it or not.” Felix says, bluntly. “This is the final chance I’ll give you, and this applies to all members inside those walls. You may surrender and leave Starlight unharmed if you wish to keep your levels and equipment. You have until the morning to leave. At dawn, we collide our forces against one another at full strength.”
Alloy chuckles and begins to pace the wall, clearly considering what Felix has said. Before the necromancer has a chance to respond, I lean over and whisper into Felix’s ear. “He could send out a party in the middle of the night to take us. We should get this over with now.”
Felix shakes his head, but keeps his gaze up at Alloy. “We have no idea how many men may be behind that gate, ready to cut our throats. I’m trying to get us through this peacefully, if possible.”
Alloy stops his pacing and smiles widely. “We will see you in the morning, then.”
Without another word, Felix nods and orders the company to turn around. No one seems to question it, not even Rubble, so I just watch our backs as we retreat out of bow range. When the distance between us and Starlight is satisfactory, Felix instructs us to set up a camp. The NPC’s are smart enough to know the basics of what a camp looks like. They fan out across the plains, gathering dried brush, sticks, and whatever wood is in the area and making piles. A few begin setting up makeshift canvas tents a stark white compared to the growing darkness of the oncoming night. Other soldiers clear out a small patches circle of ground, ripping and shoveling a pit out of the grass and setting up a campfire.
When the flames are going, a huge boar from who knows where is spitted and thrown on the fire. As the savory smell of cooking meat fills our nostrils, we sit and watching the fire in silent brooding for nearly twenty minutes. The soldiers begin handing out portions amongst themselves and us and I realize that Rubble is drooling, but Rin pushes her plate away. Felix literally just takes one bite to taste it, then discards the rest, preferring conversation over food.
He says, “We need to talk strategy here. And I must say, when we’re finished here tomorrow I will need to log out and return to work for awhile. I’m getting messages like you wouldn’t believe.”
Rin looks at him, coldly and shakes her head.
“Those walls are too high to see over easily,” Felix says. “It’s hard to tell how many are in there, but I think we’ll be able to break down the gate and push our way inside. All of our forces at one point of entry will give players who aren’t so certain a chance to flee out the gate on the other side.”
Rubble groans and swallows a mouthful as savory juices dribble down his lips. “These guys are bandits, not decent men. The should be wiped out as such. Board the other gate from the outside to trap them in and slaughter them all.”
“Just like they did to us in Bandit’s Pinch,” I add. “But wouldn’t it be a bad idea to push all of us into a tiny funnel like a gatehouse?”
“Not the best approach,” Felix admits, “but about the only option available to us. I wouldn’t be surprised if those walls have iron reinforcements to prevent us from knocking it down fast enough. The gate will be the weakest point, but you are right, we’ll be exposed for awhile.”
An idea strikes me, sending lightning into my legs and making me jump upright. “I got it! Do you have any friends who would be willing to turn their back on them and open the gates?”
The others shake their heads.
“Not while Alloy is in charge,” Rin says. “He’ll kill traitors just as quick as we’ll kill loyalists, and then he’ll boot them from the River Raiders.”
With a grumble that admits my ideas flaws, I begin wracking my brain about a different plan of attack. We don’t have an armored battering ram, so breaking down the gate with the NPC’s involves using a simple felled tree. They will just die under a torrent of arrows and magic bolts.
“What if I were to climb the walls and open the gate from the inside?” I ask with a shrug.
Rubble begins to mouth words, then cuts himself off. “That might work. And that’s a hesitant might. Sorry, Aidan, but you’re not exactly an assassin that can just sneak inside unnoticed.”
“Well then, what about a distraction?” I smile as something comes to mind.