It took two days to get to Averdeen, and I was interested to find it was another walled city, though a third the size of Telarin. It seemed to be a bit of a mix between the half-elven and humans. The guards in the town seemed to be a similar mix, with the average level being in the 10-12 range. We stabled our horses at an inn that Dalmar usually met Maria at, since her house was purely defensive and she didn't actually live in it. Dalmar showed it to me, and it was a two story stone building identical to the ones on either side of it. Dalmar took me around the block and showed me how it used to be an alley separating the two sections. The town had six of the alleys, or five now anyway, that all used to provide interconnects between sections. The alleys supported the spawn point for other players, and the alleys all had guards standing in them looking bored.

"Maria got the house built by scamming the system" Dalmar said as we walked "paid a group in Formil City to build it, which they did without discussing it with anyone. You know how these things just sort of appear, so one day, bam, a house. Town mayor made a rule saying no outside builders anymore, but they didn't seem to be able to remove hers"

"That's why everyone else is paying guards to stand around?"

He nodded, then shrugged and said "Kind of pointless really, since a mage would kill them pretty easily outside like they are. Since they aren't town guards, the city won't step in unless an eternal starts damaging property or locals. Maria's house is part of the town now, so any eternal breaking in would be breaking the peace and have to deal with the guards. Now you can still sneak in and kill her guards, but it's at least harder to do"

"No one ever tried to get friendly with the townspeople?" I asked doubtfully. It seemed that the best way to fix these issues was to become someone the locals would defend.

Dalmar laughed and said "It never occurred to anyone they could. This is a program, not a world to everyone here. Like I said before, it never entered my head that the locals could even become friends with you" he glanced at me out of the side of his eyes and sighed before adding "Jake, we're a bunch of criminals. This isn't a convention of mensa winners in here with us, these are people who mostly turned to crime because they couldn't do anything else. The white collar criminals like Maria are the ones most likely to think outside the box any, and we're all so used to playing the games that we're stuck in the game mindset" he shook his head in disgust before saying "some of these guys like Jess and his butt buddy were violent people on the outside, and this world only made that easier. Why would they need to think about things if they like how it is now?"

Good point. The problem eternals were problems because they liked things the way they were now.

Maria and Susan were the only women with spawn points in Averdeen, something Dalmar said was a real draw for the cursed.

"They get strange" he said "abusing the locals seems to not be as much fun for them since they don't really fight back much. They like the violence of it, so go after other eternals. Nasty shit, and I would love to find a way to hurt them back"

Maria, Susan, and Mirabeth joined us the next day, and none of them felt the need to visit Averdeen, so we rode out as soon as they arrived.

"We did a small dungeon on the way" Maria said with a grin "bunch of goblins. Good training exercise, though I wish we could add Mirabeth to our group because it really screws up the balance of experience"

"She can't?" I asked, looking over at Mirabeth, then concentrating on sending her a group request. She jerked in shock, then froze as her eyes flicked around before resting on me. "Priest, what have you done?"

I shrugged and said "Asked you to join my group, what did it do?"

Her eyes sort of moved around, and she reached out to grab something before pulling her hand back. I realized what she was doing, so said "Read what it says, then think your answer" She gave me a suspicious look, before squinting for a second before I got a message

Group request refused

Huh. I rolled my eyes and turned back to riding as I muttered "Well fine, see if I offer again"

"What the hell did you just do?" Maria yelled angrily, looking between me and Mirabeth. I shook my head in disgust and said "Goddess, is it just me, or did you and Mirabeth wake up angry this morning? I sent a group request and got shot down, what the hell do you think I did?"

"Son of a bitch!!" Maria screamed to the sky, then turned to stare at Mirabeth, getting another startled reaction from the Mage. Mirabeth's eyes got vague as she read the message again, then Maria jerked and scowled at the mage to say "What do you mean no?"

I laughed as I rode forward to get away from the upcoming argument.

Dalmar was chuckling when I joined him, and he said "She never tried I bet. She's going to be so pissed at you for figuring that out"

"Whatever" I said in disgust, throwing a glance back at where the three women seemed to be arguing "don't know why they would be mad at me"

I avoided them the rest of the day, but Maria finally walked over as we made camp and said with a sigh "Fine, sorry"

"Whoa!" I said in shock "what was that word? Did you apologize or curse at me?"

Dalmar laughed as he prepared our dinner, and Susan chuckled as she and Mirabeth watched us from the other side of the fire. "Dork" Maria said with a grin "It was both, if I was to subtle for you"

"Ok, just making sure" I replied "because if that was a straight up apology for something, I'd never get anyone to believe me"

Maria turned her nose up and held her palm out to me as she walked back to the fire, saying "Don't be greedy. Just like a man, always complaining no matter how generous I am"

"I don't think generous means what you think it does" I muttered back, getting a giggle in return.

Riverbend (named, imaginatively enough, after the river bend it was built near) was a little larger than Averdeen, but this was my first introduction to the empire and I was interested to note the black and gray uniform cloaks the guards wore. They also all had simple steel caps, something that no one else appeared to supply their guards. The four at the entry gate kind of scowled at us, and the guard Captain muttered "Eternals" as if it were a curse, then said to us "You keep your evil amongst yourselves or we'll be sending you back to where you came from"

I stopped my horse, ending up a little behind the rest of my group as they kept moving a moment before realizing I wasn't with them. I gave the Captain a respectful nod and said "Captain. We are here to end the predations of the eternals cursed with evil intentions. Holy Telina has said that eternals who prey upon the people of Tarinath are anathema and need to be stopped. We will strive to not interfere in the affairs of the people of Riverbend more than necessary"

The guards all exchanged looks before the Captain said "It sounds as if you plan to attack other eternals. You will only enrage them and leave the guard to deal with them when they are reborn the next day"

"Perhaps not" I said slowly "we seek to prevent them from leaving the point of their rebirth. If done correctly, they will not be able to continue performing their predations upon your citizens"

The Captain studied me for a moment, then said "You will need to speak with the imperial governor. I cannot have war within the walls of the city, but your intentions, if true, would be of benefit to the empire"

A governor. I wondered how much power he wielded within his area. My group were all watching us talk, and Maria rolled her eyes when I joined them, and she said "Always got to be different. Come in, kick ass, take names, and go home. Seemed like a simple plan, but no, got to be complicating things"

The governor was in what appeared to be a small keep in the middle of the city. There was another wall ringing it, with the roads converging from four directions and tying to the road that ringed the wall. The guards were somehow already expecting us, so we left our horses with a stable boy inside the keep walls and followed a guard into the keep. The building itself was a square block of three stories, with the wall being only two, giving it sight lines around the city for defense. The interior when we entered through the large doors, was mostly stone and minimally decorated, though there were a couple of statues and paintings periodically. A hall with a chair sitting on a small raised area held an older, grey haired man who appeared to have been a soldier at one point, though still in shape and strong looking. He finished a conversation with a couple of merchant types, then turned to us to say "Little good comes from the presence of eternals in a city, and mine has suffered from your depredations. Now Captain Oslo tells me of a group who talk of ending these depredations"

I stepped forward, giving a respectful nod before saying "True enough. Many eternals are people who enjoy evil acts, and as they are reborn after being killed, feel little hesitation in performing their acts. My goddess abhors this, as do I and my friends. We have decided that as eternals, it is our responsibility to stop other eternals from preying on the people of Tarinath"

The governor's hard, seamed face didn't show any emotion as he studied me, then the others in my group, finally landing on Mirabeth. His eyes opened wider in surprise before being hooded again as he turned back to me.

"You are the dragonsbane of the tale told by the minstrels. The priest" he looked the group over again, then said "The Laughing Ranger and the Hammer of Tarra. You miss only the Unredeemed. I have heard rumors of the priest of Telina who created potions to cure disease that are now given to people at Telina's holy temples" he stared me down as I looked back calmly, trying not to laugh at the description of Maria she was going to be stuck with. I'd have to thank Telina for that later.

"What do you intend with the cursed ones?" the governor finally asked

"To stop them, we must control the point of rebirth" I said "I do not do this lightly, as the idea of it is a threat to all eternals, but we have a greater responsibility to the people of Tarinath"

"I can not act against them unless they threaten the city or the people" the governor said thoughtfully, then frowned and added "so I do not see how this would be possible"

His explanation got Dalmar to grin and say "but you don't need to act against them to control their point of rebirth"

"The eternals are each given one of the little used byways throughout the city" the governor said "a curse placed upon many cities throughout the empire. How would you control such a place?"

"You don't need to control them all" I said said with a shrug "just the ones that spawn the cursed. Not all eternals are evil, and many who act as such do not realize that you, the true people of Tarinath are truly real. I can not explain why this is, but because of the world we come from, many eternals believe this to be a dream"

"Strange" the governor said, studying my group again before focusing on Mirabeth "Mage, you are not an eternal. How is it you travel with them?"

"The priest" she answered seriously, her face as emotionless as usual "he...places choices before you that change how you live. I do not know why, but it was his question that freed me to do other than I had always done, and put into my mind that I might accompany my beloved as she pursued her quest"

"The priest" the governor said thoughtfully, still exchanging stares with Mirabeth. They could both be captains on the Olympic staring team though, so the governor finally looked at me and said "Ask me a question then priest and let us see what comes of it"

Ok, no pressure then. I considered what we had been saying, then asked "Do you have the authority to restrict movement through certain areas of the city?"

The governor sort of shrugged before saying "At need, but this does not mean I can arrest citizens of the empire at will"

"Understood" I said thoughtfully "and what we are trying to accomplish is not to create disorder or suffering for others, but to show an eternal that his actions have consequences. We were successful previously by placing a pit below the rebirth point of an eternal. Trapping him in an endless existence of rebirth and death"

"The Unredeemed" the governor said, comprehension coming across his face "you released him and offered him redemption!"

I nodded, but didn't add anything, not wanting to start a conversation I wasn't sure would lead where I wanted to go.

"I cannot dig holes throughout my city" the governor said with a chuckle "I would quickly run out of subjects as they fell into your pit"

"That's why you bridge it" Maria said suddenly, her eyes lighting up "put the pit below the spawn point, and the bridge above it. Put something in the bottom to ensure they don't survive, then leave it. It's not like you have to do this at every alley as Jake said, just the couple troublemakers"

"Jake?" the governor said in confusion, getting a sigh from me before I said "she means me. I was given the name Loser as a punishment before being sent to Tarinath"

The confusion didn't clear up, but the governor finally shrugged and said "Strange, but eternals are unusual"

"The real issue here is whether you can do these things, knowing that you will be preventing future suffering. The eternals are just that, a problem you will face for all of eternity" I said "Would your subjects truly object to the inconvenience of such a pit if they were given the choice of the pit or the continuing depredations of the eternal?"

The governor did a slow blink. It was an odd thing as up until then he had expressed little emotion. He sat up slowly and looked thoughtful as he stared over our heads and considered things. No one said anything for a full minute as he thought, then he finally said in a distant voice, eyes still on the far wall "An interesting question. Preventing an eternity of suffering, while only changing the roads within my city. The city is...set. Eternals have altered cities before, but this must be resisted to..." he stopped and frowned in confusion, then said "resisted because that is what is" his eyes finally dropped to Mirabeth as he said "A question and a choice" Mirabeth simply nodded as the governor looked at me and said "I believe I see a path forward. There is nothing that prevents me from altering the city, though it is not...done. Eternals are outside a governor's control unless they do something against our laws. But..." he paused, and gave me a sly grin, startling me "as governor I do enforce the laws for this region. The eternals have not stated what their laws are, but they have also not stated they have none. You, a priest of Telina, have come to say that eternals do have laws set by the goddess Telina they must follow, and as governor, I am required to enforce the will of the Goddess"

I chuckled as the sly grin grew and he added "So priest, what would the goddess require of us?"

I had created a lawyer. Future generations would curse my name for sure.

There were further discussions to hammer out the details, and I told the governor that since it was an eternal issue, that the eternals would pay the cost required to stop the depredations. I was pretty sure he grinned at that, almost as if he had planned for me to pay for it. A lawyer for sure.

Of the twenty some eternals in the city, three were on Maria's and Susan's list. The only one in the city according to a guard Captain the governor assigned to us, was the guy named Jess. He had a house, though it was a normal one, not something he built. After discussions with the Captain, we decided there was nothing that prevented us from knocking on the door, then killing him when he opened it. Dalmar and I stood to the side, out of the way as Susan stepped up to knock, and Maria stood with arrow drawn, grin on her face. I think there must be a certain kind of complacency that sets in when you think you're immortal, because this Jess answered the door as if he was back in the other world. He superficially resembled Bob, but that was mostly because he was a big human. Dark haired and wearing a chain mail coat, while wearing a single handed sword, he looked competent enough. All I could read was his name as he blinked in surprise at Susan standing at his door, then as he yelped when an arrow hit him in the head. They don't really stay stuck in you for long, disappearing after a time, or sooner if healed, so he didn't have an arrow in his head as he and Susan began exchanging blows. The shield she used kept Jess from getting much through, and her sword fire seemed to do pretty good damage, because he yelled "What the hell kind of spell is that?" then after another arrow to the head he screamed "I'm going to kill both you bitches. You think you had it bad before, wait until this is over and I hunt you down"

I cast a quick heal Susan's way, though she was only down about 40 points, getting another squawk from Jess as he said "What the fuck?"

Mirabeth sent a few flame bolts in for the fun of it, then used the sleep gem as two guards tried to join in from behind Jess. The guards dropped immediately, but I was seriously surprised when Jess went down too. Susan's grin as she took a good wind up and tried to chop off his head was frankly disturbing. It didn't work, and it woke him back up, but it was enough damage that her next swing caused him to disappear.

"Dick" Maria said, spitting on the floor of his house. Maria led us into the house, ignoring the sleeping guards. Jess appeared to have actually done some furnishing, and while his taste in art ran toward nudes, it was still interesting to think about having a home to furnish. Susan had moved with a purpose toward the back of the home, then stepped back into the hallway again with a grim face and said "Maria" before she jerked her head to indicate the room she was just in. Maria nodded to her, then turned to the rest of us and said "Beat it. No men around for a while"

Both Dalmar and I got it, and herded the Captain and one of his guards out, as Maria and Mirabeth headed to the back of the house.

Sienna, an elf like Maria, and Ariel, a human girl were locked in a cage in the back room, both of them eternals still at level 1.

Dalmar and I took the Captain and his men to Jess's spawn point, which was in the alley beside the house, so we wandered over and asked around until we had pinpointed the exact location. A surprising number of locals were willing to point it out to us. The captain handled everything from there. As with Crossing, once the paving stones were up, the digging went incredibly fast. They had a pretty good hole going when we left for the night, and I expected to find them finished with it by morning, and starting on the bridge over it.

"I hope this doesn't come back and bite us in the ass" Dalmar said as we settled around a table at the inn

I shrugged, then said "It will at some point I'm sure, but when you start talking about an eternity everything will happen eventually"

"Alright, move away from the philosophical edge there dragon snack" Maria said as she waved at a waitress, then turned back to the group to add "this is a good thing. If its used against me later, then we'll deal with it then. The real issue we need to address is how we plan on killing Bob for turning me into the laughing ranger"

I couldn't help it, I busted up laughing, getting her to push me out of my chair. Even Mirabeth was grinning slightly as I sat down again, wiping laugh tears away as Maria scowled at me and said "Laugh it up. Just you wait, I plan to tell the next story, and you can bet you're going to figure prominently in it"

"Hey" I said with a laugh "Loser here, remember. What's worse than that?"

"Loser the poorly endowed" Maria said, the scowl fading a little "Loser the badly smelling . Loser the dragon squeaky toy" the last one got a laugh from Dalmar, bringing Maria's grin back

"That's kind of true isn't it?" Dalmar said with a laugh "dragons keep chewing on him, and he does make a lot of noise when they do"

"That shit hurts" I said with a grin "but I tell you what, if it happens again, I'll be happy to be known as the dragon chew toy. Who knows, maybe I could start a business as dragon bait"

"It is strange to hear you speak so casually about your own death" Mirabeth said, putting her hand on Susan's in an absent minded way "I know it means little to you, but it is still a...harsh thing"

"Laugh or cry" Maria said with a shrug "Yeah, it's a pretty awful experience, but this existence was meant as a punishment for us. There are probably others, but Jake's the first one I've met who seemed to see this as an actual life"

"Being here, drinking ale with friends is a punishment in your lands?" Mirabeth asked, confusion showing on her face as she looked at Susan.

"Nah" Maria said with a dismissive wave of the hand "this is great. Its just that this world isn't a real place in our land. It's a dream, sort of, that they think of as a lesser existence"

"This is a better place" Susan said with a smile "but eternals arrive thinking nothing is truly real, and the things they do are just dream things that mean nothing" she paused, then added "it's a punishment because they don't believe they exist anymore"

"Which is why Jake did so well" Maria said with a grin "it takes a crazy person to do well in a dream" I toasted her with my mug, thinking she might have a real point if you considered it.

Sienna and Ariel joined us the next morning, and stood closely by Susan and Maria as we walked back to see how the digging had progressed. Sienna was an elven mage, with dark black hair, light blue eyes, and a superficial resemblance to Maria. Ariel was a human warrior, blonde and blue (not sure what the deal with blue eyes was) but with both at level 1, their race hardly mattered. Mirabeth must have supplied a mages robe for Sienna, since she was wearing one now. Susan had explained to me that mage robes were for the most part enchanted, and basically constituted the mage's version of armor, though it didn't actually supply armor points...or something.

Ariel was pretty withdrawn and wouldn't meet anyone's eyes, but Sienna seemed to glow with a deep seated rage that made her glare at anyone who met her eyes. She got a hard grin when we showed her what we were doing, and she understood what Jess was going to face.

The governor wanted the Captain to verify the pit worked before approving the other two, and I was gratified to see that the Riverbend diggers were just as motivated as the ones in Crossing. They had a hundred foot deep hole, but in this one they were setting six foot long steel spears in the bottom to help Jess along the way to the afterlife. I was pretty sure a hundred foot fall onto a spear would do for him. I had asked why this didn't fill with water, since there were wells scattered around the city, and was told they weren't digging a well, so why would there be water? It made perfect sense...not.

They hadn't started a bridge yet, and the diggers only cost me 1 silver, so while it wasn't free, it was still dirt cheap for the value. The bridge over the pit would be built if Jess fell in this afternoon, and they planned to basically block both ends of the alley, then build a arched walk that was eight feet high at his spawn point. It would enclose his point completely, preventing anyone from helping him without disassembling some part of the bridge, which would give the guard a reason to interfere. That would cost me 1 gold. Again, worth every copper.

We all waited around for the event, and soon had a fair size crowd gathered on both sides of the hole. When Jess appeared, it was a replay of Bob's event, with Maria breaking into uncontrolled laughter at the look on Jess's face as he fell screaming to the bottom of the pit. The spears did indeed do for him, and since we disappear at death, the pit stayed uncluttered.

I had intended to leave immediately, but had to spend time assuring the governor that as Telina's paladin, Susan could pass sentence on any of the Cursed. I knew I was setting myself as sort of a judge and jury of eternals, but I couldn't think of anything else to do that wouldn't result in war as the eternals began racing to build armies. I really wanted to go back to my town, buy a house, and be lazy for a few years. I was even considering Maria's idea of opening a store or an Inn. Hell, maybe even try to study the physics of this world and see how all of it worked. Anything other than worrying that some asshole would gather a bunch of other assholes together and attack my town.

After I got that squared away, Maria said "Sienna and Ariel need to level up, and they need to get away from here" Maria grinned, but looked serious when she said  "Both of them are messed up, but Susan and I went through the same thing and getting strong enough to defend yourself was the only thing that made us feel safe. You guys are tough enough that nothing will take you both out unless a dragon comes along, and if you stop at a dungeon or two, by the time you get to Mudtown they should be at least level 5"

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"You know what Dalmar's 22 will do to stuff, so they'll level up fast, but face high level monsters" I said after considering her words "and are we taking them to Mudtown to place a spawn point, or for some other reason?"

"Spawn point" she said, then grinned at the sigh I let out "Hey, quit whining, you know Mary will keep you happy"

"True" I said, perking up a little at the thought. Hell, maybe the whole cup thing could be put off now that we actually got one of the locals involved in stopping the eternals. She let me consider it, so I finally shrugged and said "If that's what they want, then sure, but I can't speak for Dalmar"

"I'm fine with it" he said with a shrug "nothing better to do at the moment anyway"

"Ok boys, control the excitement level" Maria laughed "you have time to do everything else you want, so its not like you're on the clock"

We got Sienna and Ariel outfitted, getting horses and buying a decent staff and a couple of stat rings for Sienna, and getting some chain mail and a sword and shield for Ariel. I donated healing potions and did a blessing before we left so they could see what it did. Everyone met outside the inn as the four of us prepared to leave.

"Alright" Maria said, looking at the two grim faced women on the horses beside me "Keep your heads out of your asses and you'll be fine. Jake and Dalmar are good people, so trust them and listen to what they say. We have you covered at this end until you have a new spawn point, so even if you get killed we'll make sure you stay free" she gave them an intent glare and said "so don't worry"

Neither Dalmar or I had anything to add, so we gave out a couple of waves and headed out of the city. We camped the first night, and found out neither girl had a cooking skill. I told them we could rectify that in Mudtown, and I would get Seth to teach them the repair skill and sell them a hammer. Both of them were quiet, but did ask us questions periodically, or spoke between themselves. An hour into our ride the second day, Dalmar led us to a cave in the side of a hill, saying "A goblin dungeon. Went through it early on, but it's good for starting out"

We explained about the horses being fine, then stopped in front of the entrance for me to do a blessing and set my armor spell in place while Dalmar said "Ok, I'm going to assume you're not familiar with this, so don't think I'm talking down to you. Jake thought RPGs were weapons and had never played a virtual game, so I've kind of learned not to assume. I'll lead, with Ariel about ten feet behind me. I'm going to set off traps without Maria here, so stay back until they clear and Jake has healed me. When we meet goblins Ariel should stand beside me and fight. Jake will keep you alive, but if for some reason you're getting low on health, use a potion. Jake makes two a day, so we won't run out" he looked over at Sienna and said "Magic missiles are safe to use, but if you throw any flame around, be absolutely sure you don't hit one of us. You accidentally kill one of us and Maria will never let you forget it"

I grinned at that, but didn't add anything. Both girls nodded, and Ariel kind of set her shield as we headed into the cave. I had Zac in hand, hoping to give him his first work out, but stayed behind Ariel and next to Sienna as Dalmar calmly walked in. The cave itself led to stairs in the back leading down, but we had four level 5 goblins holding clubs and knives to contend with. I grinned as Dalmar kind of just blocked their swings until Ariel hesitantly stepped forward to start making nervous thrusts and swings. Luckily it didn't matter most of the time, and she actually did damage each time.

"Go ahead and hit them with missiles if you want" I muttered as Sienna and I stood and watched Dalmar block, and Ariel attack. Sienna clutched her staff nervously, but raised a hand and muttered a word, causing her hand to glow slightly as a magic missile shot away to hit one of the goblins in the head. It did like 6 points of damage. Hmm, could take a while. The attack caused the goblin to focus on her, so I stepped forward to do like Dalmar and block the thing, but told Sienna "keep doing it if you want"

Ariel had 100 health and seemed to have put a lot into strength and dexterity, so I kept an eye on her and healed her whenever she took 20 points of damage. The heal spells seemed to give her confidence since she started taking the fight to the goblins, and killed one, then another in a couple of swings. I stayed in front of my goblin, basically acting like a barrier he beat on as Sienna kept peppering him with missiles. She did manage to kill him after a while, which was probably a good thing since the constant barrage of missiles was seriously ticking him off. Ariel killed the last one, and both girls got level up messages.

I was hoping that Maria, Susan and Mirabeth had gave suggestions on level paths since I didn't know diddly about mages beyond the general info Mirabeth had passed along. Since neither girl asked any questions I went ahead and assumed they had when both of them finally nodded they were ready.

The goblins seemed to be generally about half my level, which meant good experience for the girls and terrible experience for Dalmar and I. The first level turned into me and Dalmar kind of standing in the way and letting the goblins beat on us while the girls went about killing them. Sienna's mana took awhile to rebuild, so once out, she was pretty much done for that fight. Made me glad Bugly hadn't made me a mage.

By the end of the first level the girls were at level 3, and Sienna was shooting three missiles each time. Something that sped the process up a little. We gave the girls the choice of items that were dropped, most of which was simple armor or rings, nothing I could use anyway. They did start to accumulate money, as the level 5-8 guys tended to drop silver and a few gold compared to the coppers I was getting at level 1.

Dalmar kept passing along knowledge like "Use the doors if you can, to limit how many can get around you" or "You're a tank Ariel, so you need to start thinking like one. You hold the line, draw aggro, and keep them off your mage" and "Jake's spoiling you, so keep in mind what this would be like if he wasn't here"

"What do you do?" Sienna asked after the last one. Dalmar shrugged and said "Sit, eat, and wait for your health to go back up. It's all about patience and how many of the little health potions you can afford if you don't have one of Jake's"

"You just sit in one of these rooms and wait?" Ariel asked, giving the room we just killed two goblins in a good look. Dalmar chuckled before saying "Yep. If you're with Maria, expect her to drive you nuts, cause she gets bored in the first ten minutes"

I grinned as I pictured that, but followed when Dalmar started down the stairs to the next level. I was upping my armor skill just standing and letting goblins beat on me, though it was pretty slow. The second level raised the stakes a little with a random goblin mage here and there, but they always ended up dueling with Sienna. I just kept everyone healthy and periodically, if one of Betty's cousins got an especially painful hit in, I would give them a good slap with Zac. I kind of liked the hammer since it did a high base level hit and the fire was pretty neat.

Sienna got her fireball spell at three, but an opportunity to use it didn't come until we opened a door to find a cavern rather than a room. A couple of goblins were close to us, but a few were on the other side, ignoring us since we hadn't pulled aggro on them.

"Light them up Sienna" Dalmar said as he and Ariel blocked the closer goblins. I hadn't really seen this before, so was fascinated to watch the ball of flame appear, then fly across the room a little slower than an arrow would. It hit the center of the three, and caused an explosion that covered about a twenty foot area. Since she was only level three, the thing didn't do enough damage to kill the goblins, but it did knock them down and set them on fire. The fire faded after a couple of seconds, but I imagine it did damage until it did. She had enough mana for a magic missile spell, then she was done for this fight.

After the fight Dalmar set off a trapped chest, getting a bunch of darts in the chest that caused 15 points of damage, but then gave him a disease. This was the first time I had seen that since the start, and it appeared as a darkening of the skin around the wounds, as well as a drop in total health and stamina. A potion made the whole thing disappear, but it was cool to see what it would have been like without a cure.

"I would have stayed in this dungeon since I have the health to handle it, but normally you would have had to call it quits and head to a temple if you didn't have one of Jake's potions" Dalmar said as Ariel searched the chest

"What the hell?" Sienna said in an irritated tone "It seems like everything requires Jake. How come he's so damn important?"

"Only person who's a healer type priest. No one else selected it, so we ended up with a world full of warriors and mages, but no useful priest to heal us" Dalmar said, then gave her a bit of a hard look before adding "and he's important because he's our friend and he's willing to help you out"

"And it wasn't like I was intelligent enough to choose it myself" I said as we started to the third level "Tennant chose it for me as a punishment. Until level 10 I was pretty useless in a fight since I couldn't do any damage, so Dalmar and Maria kept me alive, kind of like we're doing with you two"

"What changed?" Ariel asked quietly, though she did look at me in question.

"Better weapons mostly" I said, holding up Zac "Zac here does a shit load more damage than my original mace of major inadequacy. And after I got above level 5 one of my spells added pretty good damage when I hit something"

"He lacks the strength numbers to do full damage" Dalmar said, patting a door ahead of us to see if it was trapped. It was, and he got a face full of fire and 50 points of damage. I healed him and chuckled as he didn't stop talking through the whole thing "You need....blargg...shit, strength numbers if you want your weapon to do anything like serious damage, or magic to compensate"

Sienna gave her first small laugh at the display, then focused on the hallway ahead, that had at least eight goblins, a couple with bows. Dalmar had her launch a fireball down the hall as he and Ariel blocked the door. She knocked down most of the group in the back, and actually killed one of them. Then I was busy keeping her and Ariel alive as arrows started hitting them. I was happy that Ariel had 100 health, but Sienna had only 70, so a couple good shots could take her out.

We finished the group fairly quickly, and worked our way through the rest of that level with little trouble other than something called a goblin leader that was a level 8 and gave Ariel a good workout. The girls reached level 4 here, so we stopped and took a break, letting Dalmar cook some food.

"Why do your names both have Dragonsbane at the end?" Ariel asked as we ate. Sienna looked up in interest, so I shrugged and nodded for Dalmar to explain. He gave me a look, but said "A month or two ago we went south through the forbidden lands to see if we could fight one. Four of us, with Maria and a warrior named Bob. He's a paladin of Telina like Sue is, but wasn't at the time" he kind of looked pleased as he said "a good fight. Thing was a real monster, and took out Maria and Jake before we could put it down. Level 30 and 1200 health, so not something you'll want to run into unless you go south looking. Did so much damage that Jake couldn't even heal Maria or himself before it killed them" he actually had a nostalgic look as he said "lot of fun, that fight was"

The wistful tone got another chuckle from Sienna, while Ariel seemed like she was thinking about possibly hunting her own dragon. "If you kill a dragon the name appears?" Sienna asked. I exchanged looks, then shrugs with Dalmar before I said "Message said as the first ones, but I'm not sure if that means no one else would, or it just meant we were first"

"Dalmar Dragonsbane" Dalmar said in a deep voice, before laughing and saying "has kind of a ring to it"

"As opposed to Loser Dragonsbane" I muttered darkly "Asshole Tennant"

 "Yeah" Ariel said with a small grin "that is pretty bad"

"Bob actually told the tale first I think" Dalmar said thoughtfully "at the inn in Mudtown. I was surprised to hear the governor mention it, but it was definitely the same story" he gave us a bark of laughter and added "which is why Maria wants to kill him. He called her the laughing ranger and now she's stuck with it"

"Telina called her that, he just repeated it" I said "though I doubt that's going to make any difference"

"You guys say shit like it means nothing" Sienna said with a frown "but it isn't. Are you talking about the goddess? How do you know what she said"

Darn it, I didn't want to have to start explaining the whole goddess and her plans thing. I gave Dalmar a beseeching look, but he just looked innocent as he shrugged and said "Jake's area"

"Thanks" I said disgustedly before looking over at the girls to say "Goddesses are real here. They can't interact directly with anyone except their priests, but the paladins can hear if she speaks to me, and they meet her when they are offered the paladin path. Telina kind of likes Maria, thinks she's sort of funny and a good example. So when Bob met her, she mentioned something about following the example of the laughing ranger, and Bob was dumb enough to use it in the story" I chuckled as I remembered the look on her face when he said it, though we were both laughing through most of the story.

"Just like that" Sienna said with a shake of the head, before speaking in a deeper voice to mock me "by the way, goddesses are real and I talk to them and its not really a big thing, she comes over for dinner a lot and watches tv with us...blah...blah...blah" I chuckled at the words, but shrugged and said "Well, I guess everyone kind of makes their own choice about them. The eternals I've met act like their not real, or not a part of all this, so there's really no opportunity to interact with them"

"But you do" Ariel said, getting me to say "Yeah. Telina's good people and..." I grinned and kind of looked up as I said "she's really hot" I liked the soft laugh I got back. I realized that might have been a little insensitive, but not until I had already said it. I think the two girls weren't sure I was teasing or not, but didn't ask.

"Jake's weird" Dalmar said, standing up to get started "but you'll get used to him"

I renewed my armor spell and then the blessing since the girls stats had gone up, before we started down to the next level. Dalmar got hit by some kind of gas on the stairs that did damage for 30 seconds before dissipating. I healed him two times since the thing did a cumulative 100 points of damage.

"That would have killed you both without healing" Dalmar said, giving them a pointed look to ensure they understood how precarious things could be.

This level got a little fun with the addition of something new...a troll. It looked like a stretched out goblin, being seven feet tall, green, and really thin. It was the only thing in the first room, and I saw Dalmar's sly grin as Ariel started fighting it. I realized before Ariel did that the thing was regenerating lost health, but did like Dalmar and stayed quiet.

"Son of a bitch!" Ariel finally yelled after the second time I healed her "it's health keeps coming back"

"Troll" Dalmar said "restores health really fast. You need fire to injure it and not have it regenerate"

Ariel kept it busy as she and Sienna discussed options, but I finally got bored with the whole thing and waved Dalmar over and said "hold it for a minute" and after he pretty much backed the thing into a corner, held out my hammer to Ariel and said "This is Zac. He does fire damage, so have fun" I pulled Bruce out just in case, then turned to watch Ariel go to town on its ass. The hammer was a different skill, but the bonuses made up for it as she pounded the thing, flames popping up on every hit. The troll went down about five solid hits later, with a pleased grin appearing on Ariels face.

"Keep it" I said, feeling more then a twinge as I said it. But the way she was admiring it meant it probably meant more to her than me

"You're joking right?" She asked after a moment. I shrugged and held up Bruce before saying "I've got my buddy Bruce here, and the hammer will do more good in your hands than mine"

"You are weird" Sienna muttered, and I was both surprised and pleased when Ariel scowled at her and said "Why? Because he was nice? Maria was right you know, not everyone is an asshole, and if that's all we expect, that's all we'll see" she was frowning when she turned and said "Thanks" but it was heartfelt and that was good enough for me.

We worked our way through a couple more rooms, Ariels grin as she beat down various goblins damn near as bright as Zac's flames. Sienna sidled close after one of the rooms and muttered "Where'd you get it"

"Dragon. Dalmar pulled it off the corpse. It fits her better than me" I muttered back "I think her and Zac are going to be famous one day, and a weapon that good needs a warrior, not a priest"

"That's from the dragon?" She asked, then shook her head in confusion as she muttered "they're right, you are weird"

I shrugged, a little offended by the dismissive tone, but not to worried by the girl's opinion at this point. The dungeon was pretty straightforward as Dalmar had said, and with him and me there it went quickly. We let the girls do all the work, but there was little risk. We finished it at the fifth level after killing a goblin king and ten of his friends, with me even slapping a couple down with Bruce when they started to flank us.

The whole Mage thing seemed even less impressive to me as we went on, so at the end when they got level five, and Sienna asked my opinion about specialization, I said "Well, you guys kind of remind me of me, except you take longer to restore your mana. Like me, you'll probably never go dungeon crawling on your own since you really lack the consistent hard hit. So my thought would be to go defensive and team up. Let's face it, going it alone is an invitation to the cursed, so plan now to work with friends. You find a tank like Dalmar or Ariel and travel with them. The support guy is kind of a shitty role, but ask anyone here who they miss the most and they'll tell you it's the support guy. Everyone sent here is a type A asskicker, so theres no shortage of them, but someone who will keep you alive while you ass kick?" I raised my hands in a shrug.

Ariel and Sienna exchanged a look, something I said had them thinking the same thought, so I wasn't surprised when Ariel asked "And me? Do you think I should do what Maria did?"

"Nope" I said immediately "you're doing what you do best, stand firm and protect your friends. You were made to do this, which is why I gave you the Dragons Claw. I don't know much about warrior options, but Dalmar would be able to help since you two are following the same path"

"Being the ball boy doesn't sound like much fun" Sienna muttered

"Yeah, know what you mean" I answered seriously "when I met Dalmar and Maria I was pretty pissed that I was essentially a caddy, but after a while I realized I was important" I paused, and before I could continue, Dalmar said "Caddy my ass" in a distracted tone as we walked out of the dungeon "morons don't realize a high level warrior ain't worth shit without someone strong behind them. Maria, Bob, Jake, and I made a perfect team, and you ask any of them to choose between me and Jake, or Maria and I, and they'll pick Jake or Maria, because warriors are a dime a dozen, but useful skills?" He gave the girls one of his pointed looks at the end.

"I don't want to be weak" Sienna muttered quietly, but loud enough that Dalmar heard and said "Don't waste your time. The system is stacked against loners here since our health doesn't balance with the hit damage. Look at Jess the jerk, high level, good weapons and armor, and he was killed by a couple of people half his level because they had friends and he didn't" he grinned as he said "and they didn't even use the high level shit because it was a walk in the park"

"I'm not going to even attempt to understand what you feel about this" I said with a shrug "but you don't have to be friendly to have friends. You stand with us when needed, and we'll stand with you"

I doubt I made much of an impression on Sienna since she was stuck in her head, but I could see Ariel thinking things over and asking Dalmar a question or two as we rode away.

We reached home late the next evening, and Daria's boy stabled our horses for us, and Mary came running out of the inn to jump in my arms and kiss the living hell out of me. Back in reality I might have been embarrassed, but this was my town, my girl, and my people, so I said the hell with it and kissed the heck out of her. We were both laughing by the end, and when I finally set her down, she took my arm and snugged in close as I led the way to the cup.

People started following us, coming in from the fields, or out of the completely wooden buildings lining the street now. Andulin exchanged grips when we joined him in the center of town, but I gestured for him to wait as I turned to a couple wide eyed eternals, and a grinning Dalmar to say loudly "We have new guests in our blessed little town, both eternals, but good people all the same. Ariel and Sienna have suffered greatly and need the simple comfort of Mudtown, so I have offered them sanctuary" I smiled as I looked out over the forty or fifty people crowding the square, then added "their presence means greater risk for the people, and this is your town before all else, so I ask, and i ask for honesty...do you object"

No one said anything, and I could see Ariel and Sienna looking around worriedly, until Seth said impatiently "Oh bosh! You be wastin time Dragonsbane, don't be makin the poor things stand there a worryin, get it done so we can be gettin some drinking done!"

I laughed at the cheer of agreement that followed, but turned to the girls to say "The Cup of Charity protects this town and this square, but you have to remember that it protects us from those who oppose Telina's will. If you decide you disagree with the direction we are moving, then it may hurt you too. Telina's rule for eternals is...do onto others as you would have them do onto you. Being an asshole is not wrong, as long as you are willing to be treated as one" I gave them a serious look as I said "this is my town and my rebirth point, so never forget that this is my family first and foremost" I looked around, enjoying being home, then shrugged and said "So, I can do one of you now, who goes first?"

We ended up doing Sienna first, then waited around so we could see her return. Dalmar headed to the Inn with Mary, while I talked with Andulin and Ariel

"BigBob is presently at the mines dealing with bandits with three of my men" Andulin said, then turned to point to one of the stone, circular archways, that was flush against the side of a building at the north edge of the town square. The buildings door was offset to the left, which meant the arch didn't block the door. There was a window in the wall that looked through the arch opening. Turning, I found the other two in similar locations on the south, and east sides of the square. The arches were partially buried so that when walking through them you didn't step over the stone. That still left a good nine feet of opening, more than enough I would think.

"That's a great idea" I said with a nod.

"BigBob suggested this arrangement after we found the stones were so large that they blocked access to the square. He said that he understood their purpose and the walls would not interfere"

"Yeah, I think he's probably right" I said just before Ariel asked "What are they?"

"Maybe portals" I said with a shrug "there's a spell that supposedly turns them into one anyway, but I've never tried it"

"To where?" She didn't seem very surprised, and I must have looked surprised myself since she gave a half smile and said "Most games use something like them. I was kind of surprised Tarinath didn't when I realized we'd be riding horses"

"Oh" I said intelligently, wondering how people could take teleporting portals in stride, but not the rest of this. Shaking my head ruefully I told her "Don't know yet. I need to think about it for a while and see what would be best for Telina and the town"