Over the course of his first night in the town of Silverward, some of Jack’s notions regarding who he was had steadily returned to him. Above all, two things had come to the forefront of his foggy memories.

The first thing he knew was that he really enjoyed being alive. As far as he was concerned, not dying was a pretty good motivator when it came to carrying out any task in life.

But in his previous life and his previous world, the art of not dying wasn’t exactly a complex one. Many people just did the bare minimum: they slept and ate and drank, and many of them didn’t even do those things with all that much discipline.

In the world of Virendel, things were different. The blessed trifecta of sleeping somewhere safe, acquiring edible sustenance and drinking clean water would be tough, and those were just the start.

If he couldn’t get this group to work together, accomplishing the Master Quest of building a kingdom was going to prove impossible before he was even out of the starting block.

And that brought Jack to the second thing he knew about himself: his philosophy about leading.

Years of studying the murky history of people killing each other to get what they wanted had provided him with plenty of knowledge, and from all of that study he knew of only three universal rules that mattered when it came to dealing with people.

1. Instructions were most likely to be followed when they appealed to a person’s greatest interests.

2. Rhetoric soundbites worked like a charm.

3. Displaying confidence and conviction often made people think that you knew what you were talking about.

Jack thought that those principles applied to everybody – until he met his fellow kingdom settlers.

‘If we don’t do what Ayak said,’ Jack began, still standing in the light of the Builder's Flame with his new team, ‘then he’s going to come back here, see that we’ve made no progress and be very unhappy with us.’

‘So we’re just lackeys to this being’s will?’ Eldrin said, stamping the base of his polearm angrily upon the ground. ‘Absurd. This is an immoral course of action to follow.’

‘I’m fine with being immoral as long as it means I don’t get smote down by an angry realm keeper,’ Torick said. ‘Smote? Smited?’

‘Smote,’ Fiora confirmed with a gentle smile, ‘and I agree with Jack. This Ayak being has clearly demonstrated that he is capable of transporting us to another world, and of appearing and disappearing at will. If he can do that, then we have no reason to believe that he will not act on his threat to end us if we do not follow his wishes.’

‘So we’re just pawns in a big old game,’ Aeshara frowned, slumping to the ground and taking a seat as she cradled her lute in her lap. ‘Actually, I’m going to go with tools. It’ll be easier to rhyme when I turn this into an epic ballad.’

‘Zania is tool of no-one,’ the troll woman said.

‘We’re not tools, so to speak,’ Fiora said. ‘The bad news is that Ayak will undoubtedly check in on us. The good news is that I doubt he’s going to check in anytime soon.’

‘How can we be so sure?’ Eldrin asked.

‘Don’t you remember what he said? He went on a vacation for a few thousand years. If a vacation is only a few thousand years to him, then his perception of time is clearly very different to ours. The next time he comes to see us, years could have passed. Maybe even centuries.’

‘That’s a very good point,’ Aeshara smiled. ‘You’ve got an eye for detail. I thought you said that you weren’t some well-learned scholar.’

‘I would not say well-learned, necessarily. I just enjoy learning. Everything interests me.’

‘Clearly,’ the half-elf bard smiled. ‘Maybe we’re not the wrong people for the job after all.’

‘Exactly,’ Jack nodded, ‘what matters is working together to make the best of a bad situation.’

So what’s our first job?’ Eldrin asked.

‘Doing what we can, with what we have, where we are,’ Jack said. ‘Sound good?’

Jack might have been well-versed in rhetoric, but the one reason he would never end up being a politician – aside from being transported to another world – was that even though he knew it worked, he hated using it.

So when he dropped one of the most clichéd lines in the book, he didn’t expect it to get such a decent response, especially considering that he didn’t expect it to work with these people in the first place.

His new companions all spoke the Common Tongue in some form – save for Zania who thought that everybody around her was speaking broken Trollish – so using wordplay to communicate vague ideas still seemed like it was worth a shot.

They all nodded with expressions that said that seems overly simplistic but it sounded good.

‘There only three things being with two legs need to live,’ Zania started. ‘Roof over head, food over fire and water in belly.’

‘A comfortable bed wouldn’t go amiss either,’ Aeshara added. ‘And a roaring hearth.’

‘Zania say food over fire, half-elf. Zania think this clear.’

‘Let’s check our packs first,’ Jack said before another argument over semantics had the chance to break out.

The group rifled through their packs and all found the same thing: a bedroll, the sheath with the hunting dagger, varying amounts of bread depending on how many people had already gone through, and steel flasks containing varying amounts of water.

Pooling their resources seemed like a good idea on the surface, but Jack decided against it. These items were best served staying with their individual owners, and they gave each member of this temperamental group a sense of possessing something.

Not to mention that it seemed nobody trusted each other yet – pooling the resources in one place would no doubt set another cluster of arguments off.

‘These provisions won’t last more than a day,’ Jack said. ‘We need to find shelter, then a fresh source of water and food that can replace the provisions in our packs once we’ve burned though them. Those are our primary goals right now. Finding shelter shouldn’t be difficult. There are six buildings right here in the plaza that we can use.’

‘So one each,’ Torick the gnome smiled with intrigue. ‘A house of my own. Who would have thought?’

‘I think it’s a good idea if we all stick together,’ Jack replied, ‘just while we figure out more about this place.’

‘You wish for us all to sleep in the same building?’ Fiora said. ‘But we barely know each other. How can we be sure that one of us will not start killing the rest while we sleep?’

‘Zania would not do this,’ the troll-woman spoke. ‘Zania prefer to see being’s eyes and feel fear in its soul when Zania smash being’s head in.’

‘Everybody can sleep wherever they want,’ Jack said. ‘I just thought that since this is a strange world we know nothing about, and since a few among us are battle-trained, it would be safer for us all to be in close proximity if we come under attack. If there’s anything out there in the forests or the hills that might want us dead, it’ll find it easier to pick us off if we’re separated.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

‘Plus I figure that even if Ayak messed up in picking us, every one of us can offer something different. If one of us falls, then we all fall, and even if we’re all different, I’m guessing the one thing we all have in common is that we want to survive. Even if somebody among us is unhinged, we all need each other. Can we agree on that?’

The group all glanced between each other. To Jack’s relief – and surprise – everybody gave some variation of a nod.

‘Okay,’ he nodded with them. ‘First order of business is we check these buildings. We need somewhere secure, spacious and with plenty of warmth to call home for the time being. And preferably somewhere that isn’t filled with rats.’

‘So we check one building each?’ Torick asked.

‘We’ll split up into three groups of two. Eldrin, Zania and Torick, you’re all skilled with some form of combat, so it’s better if we move in pairs so that each of you can fight and defend somebody who might not be able to hold off an attacker.’

‘Surely we should not expect an attack from outsiders in this small space,’ Eldrin said. ‘We would hear the fiends approaching.’

‘I don’t think that’s what Jack means,’ Fiora said. ‘I easily managed to get into one of the old houses nearby and hide. It would be no surprise if somebody else did, too – or worse, an animal that does not wish to be friends.’

‘But I don’t have my staff,’ Torick said. ‘So I cannot hope to command magic.’

‘Damn,’ Jack muttered, ‘With everything going on I forgot about that.’

‘I do know how to dual-wield daggers,’ Torick said, ‘if one of you could give me yours from your satchels, then I can do that.’

‘Zania have club. Zania no need butter knife.’

‘Gimme,’ Torick said, nodding to the knife and waving at her.

Zania tossed the knife to Torick – or rather at him.

Torick yelped and dodged out of the way as the dagger slammed blade-first into the ground where his feet had been a second before.

‘Are you crazy, troll-woman?!’

‘You are gnome,’ she shrugged casually, ‘Zania think gnome is agile.’

‘Not that bloody agile,’ he muttered, crossing to the knife and yanking it free from the ground. ‘If I was that agile I wouldn’t need any of you, would I? I could dodge my way to my enemies and pluck out their eyes with one fell jab of my fingers, or dance for them and perform a great distraction to slip away unharmed.’

‘If you want to earn a little extra coin once this is over, you’re always welcome to join me in my kingdom as a dancer,’ Aeshara smiled, waving her lute back and forth.

‘I wouldn’t stoop that low.’

Jack joined forces with Eldrin, Torick with Aeshara and Zania with Fiora. There were six neighboring buildings in total arranged around the plaza that needed investigating: the stables, the tavern, a residential house, the old mayor’s house, the blacksmiths and the storage house.

Eldrin broke the door with his polearm and pushed it wide. The door creaked open and they checked the immediate corners before venturing inside.

‘You come from somewhere dangerous?’ Jack asked.

‘Danger depends on time and place. Sometimes a place can be dangerous, sometimes it can be peaceful.’

‘And how dangerous is your kingdom sometimes?’

‘The House of Ilomin that I serve does not often come under siege. They are a very powerful dynasty, so only the foolish dare… Or those with nothing to lose.’

The storage house was a large, open space measuring around twenty yards wide and twenty deep, spanning across two floors beneath a large, sloped roof. The moonlight offered a little reprieve against the first few yards of darkness, but not much beyond. Anything could have been lurking within.

Jack briefly returned outside and found a two-foot long stick and an old piece of cloth to wrap around the stick’s end. A swift dip into the Builder’s Flame ignited the cloth, and his makeshift torch was ready.

He kept the light held high and ventured inside the building with Eldrin. They moved deeper into the storage house, finding heaps of old crates and barrels, some locked tight and in reasonable condition, others rotted and collapsed.

Jack rifled through the crates and boxes with his free hand while Eldrin did the same. Considering how old this place was, he didn’t expect to find anything in the way of consumables.

Anything left behind food-wise would have rotted long ago, if the rats haven’t already gotten to it. But maybe there’s something else of use around here…

Jack placed the makeshift torch into an old, rusty holster upon the wall and wedged his dagger into the lid of a crate. He applied his weight to the handle and managed to gain enough leverage to pop it open.

Inside was a neatly arranged length of rope that must have measured at least 100 yards long. He picked it up, and a small, barely noticeable dot of purple light flashed upon its surface.

Jack tapped the dot.

Item: Rope

Length: 312 feet

If I need identifying information on anything in the future, this will come in handy. Maybe I don’t need to know what a rope is, but knowing the length of the thing helps.

‘Not bad,’ Jack said, dismissing the window and lifting up the heavy length of rope. ‘What do you think, Eld?’

‘Eldrin,’ he corrected Jack. ‘And a man can never have enough rope.’

‘Eld was just an attempt at a nickname.’

‘I do not entertain nicknames. I am forgoing the usual title customs among the guards of the House of Ilomon by simply allowing you to call me by my given name rather than Guard Eldrin.’

‘Right,’ Jack nodded. ‘Sorry. Let’s get the rest of these open.’

Eldrin was a bizarre character, but the same could likely be said for the rest of the group, and he had barely even spoken to them properly yet.

He decided to stick to the task at hand. A guy like this took pride in his work, and if he couldn’t partake in guard duties then this was a decent replacement.

They continued prying the lids from crates and barrels, coming across a variety of different supplies that each seemed more different to the last: canvas cloth, a bundle containing dozens of candles, work tools, basic mining gear, parchment and tough satchels.

‘These things have no business being together in the same place,’ Eldrin said. ‘Such a mismatched collection of things. Why are they all here?’

‘If I had to guess,’ Jack mused, ‘I’d say the mayor was likely the last man left in this town. He probably hoarded much of what was left here. That doesn’t mean there won’t be more supplies left about the place, but it’ll probably make the job of gathering everything here much easier.’

‘I’m just going to make my way inside of this one…’ Eldrin grunted, wedging the tip of his polearm into the lid of a barrel. ‘There’s something curious about it.’

‘What have you got out over there?’

‘Some sort of liquid,’ Eldrin said, forcing the tip of his polearm into the barrel and leveraging his weight against it until the lid popped. ‘I can hear it sloshing around… Strange. I wonder what it is.’

Eldrin set the lid aside, pressed his fingers to the surface of the liquid and smelled it. Eldrin leaped back so fast that he almost fell over.

‘What’s the matter?’ Jack asked.

‘Lantern oil,’ Eldrin said. ‘We must be very careful with this. We are fortunate that the tip of my weapon did not spark. I cannot believe that I was so foolish.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Jack said, crossing to the barrel and dabbing some of the viscous liquid against his fingers before smelling it. ‘Yep, kerosene…’

Item: Barrel of Lantern Oil

Quantity: 42 gallons

‘Kero-what?’ Eldrick frowned.

‘Just the name for it back on my world,’ Jack replied, wiping it off on his pants. ‘We’re going to need this if we don’t want to keep running back and forth from the Founder’s Flame that Ayak left. We’ll inventory and organize all of this stuff in the morning when we can see a little better without running the risk of blowing ourselves up.’

‘Agreed,’ Eldrin nodded. ‘To the mayor’s house!’

They left the storage house behind and headed to the largest house next door. The others left their own buildings shortly after.

‘How’s the search going?’ Aeshara called over.

‘Plenty of supplies in the storage house, but no food or water. Any in the tavern?’

‘A few bags of wheat and salt. More importantly, we did find a barrel of water, but we’ve no clue how long it has been residing there. We must strain it and boil it.’

‘That’s a start,’ Jack nodded. ‘The water in our canteens will keep us going till morning.’

Everybody proceeded to check their second buildings. Jack followed Eldrin to the door of the mayor’s house and found it locked just like the others.

‘Guess we’ve got to make our own way inside,’ Jack surmised.

‘We cannot force entry into this place,’ Eldrin spoke. ‘The storage house was a functional building. This is a home. The man may still live here. This is his property.’

‘No food in the other buildings, lights are off, and…’ Jack examined the wood lining of the doorframe and found it to be rotted and weak. ‘There’s no way anybody’s still in here.’

‘But-’

Jack raised his heel and smashed it against the door as hard as he could. Even with his meager 5 strength score, the door was so decrepit that it spun around hard on its hinges and smacked the inner wall, slowly rebounding towards them.

‘We need shelter before we can get any sleep tonight,’ Jack said resolutely. ‘Come on.’