3.03

“Thirty-three. When killing a Traveller make sure they know it is all in ‘good fun’. But just in case have at least five new identities prepared.

Addendum: In the case of a particularly spiteful Traveller, two dozen and fake your death properly this time.” - Excerpt from Elric’s Enchiridion of Encounters.

“And the fucking mushroom jumped me!” Lung yelled, slamming the mug onto the table, “My party was fucking useless! Like I was fighting a 1v2 against that mushroom and some weird cat, while they were just dealing with a 3v2!”

Noam took a large gulp from his own mug, “Bro,” he said, waving his finger, “the first rule of online gaming is to never believe in your teammates! What is the fucking thing Decs say… a pig headed team mate is more dangerous than a powerful enemy!”

The fact Dustin was referring to him when he had said that was a moot point to Noam’s alcohol addled brain.

Lung heavily sighed, his breath reeking of alcohol, “But fucking online gaming depends on having at least competent fucking teammates man.”

“That’s why you gotta gather a squad man,” Noam replied. “Like my duo partner in LOTA is like the fucking best support I’ve ever seen.”

Hiccuping, Lung asked, “Really? What’s he like?”

“He’s the type to handle a fucking 1v3 properly,” Noam replied.

“He’s in Gaia too?” Lung asked.

“Yeaahhh,” Noam replied, voice slurring, “he’s in a library or some shit now, says he’s gotta learn more info or some shit.”

Lung nodded, “Hmmm. Smart guy.”

“Smarter than me at least,” Noam raised his mug, “to idiots that are smarter than us!”

Lung laughed, “To idiots that are smarter than us!” he said as he toasted Noam.

Both of them drank deeply, quickly finishing off their drinks, “Ahhh…” Lung moaned in pleasure, “Good shit.”

Noam nodded in agreement and lifted his cup, “Anozer one!” he yelled to a waitress running around the tavern.

“Same here!” Lung echoed.

“I’ll be right on it!” the skittering waitress yelled over the chatter of the tavern.

“Aight…” Lung muttered, eyes unfocused, “where was I?”

“What happened after to yah after you got jumped?” Noam asked, leaning on the table.

“Ahh,” Lung said, “so like after those assholes pk’ed me for no fucking reason. I came back to spawn as you do. And you know what I fucking found!?”

“What?” Noam asked, his finger lazily tracing circles on the table. Noam never realised that circles were so… oval.

Lung grunted, “Like it’s a fucking warzone outside spawn! The moment I left the spawn zone I was fucking pk’ed again!”

“Oh shit…”

“Yeah shit man,” Lung agreed. He sighed, “Like I tried again, and I died like seven times from spawn-camping.”

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“Sucks dude.”

“What was worse, was that I ended up dropping an item.”

Noam’s eyebrows perked up in pity, “Shit man, I hope it wasn’t anything important.”

Lung sighed, “It was a really good item… Like it was from the freaking tutorial but it was really good.”

“You got a tutorial item too?” Noam asked.

Lung nodded, “Yeah… the tutorial was hard as hell but I got a thing which raised my CON by a shit ton…” he glanced at Noam, “You got something too?”

“Yeaah,” Noam replied, pulling out a whistle, “This thing makes me faster for a while.”

“Nice,” Lung said, he paused as the waitress came over, quickly dumping them a pair of filled mugs.

“Thanks!” Noam yelled as the waitress rushed to another table.

“Thanks!” Lung quickly echoed.

“Man,” Noam started, resuming the conversation, “did you drop anything else important?”

Lung shook his head, “Just one of my bags, didn’t keep anything important in it.”

“Mmm…” Noam murmured. “Drop-rates seem to be pretty high, how long did it take to respawn?”

Lung took a gulp from his mug.

“Few minutes I think,” he replied, wiping his snout, “they seemed to pass by really quickly.”

“That’s good…” Noam replied, leaning back and stretching. Letting out a satisfied moan as he heard the familiar bone cracking.

He suddenly perked up, thinking of an utterly great idea, “Lung, you should totally join our party man!”

Lung looked at him, reptilian eyes focusing through the haze of drunkenness.

“I’m sure you’ll hit it off with Dustin,” Noam continued, “that’s the dude I mentioned earlier by the way,” he quickly added, “like there’s only the two of us right now so we need party members, he met some other dudes earlier but I don’t think there’s a limit to party sizes.”

“Sounds good,” Lung answered, “you seem like a cool dude, I was going to ask anyway.”

Noam laughed, “You bet I am!” he raised his mug, “I look forward to partying with you!”

Lung raised his own, “Likewise!” he replied as they clinked their mugs together.

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Unbeknownst to either of the two. There was a green-capped mushroom trying to push open the front door of the tavern. Another yellow-capped mushroom was cheering it on, but the door wouldn’t budge. Not until someone from the outside pushed it open, throwing back the small myconid but leaving the door open just long enough for both of them to scamper out.

Two pairs of black beady eyes looked at the bright, large world outside. Each burning with curiosity.

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Dustin flipped through yellowed pages, a thick not-quite finger tracing the words as he skimmed the text.

‘The Durand Treaty was made after the Red Wars. Breaking the monopoly of the Adventurers Guild in Alliance Kingdoms…’

‘Traveller Ghen introduced the concept of a steam engine…’

Dustin paused and folded the corner of the page.

‘The Lanterns are an Elite group of…’

‘A Great Migration occurred in…’

He paused again. That was the most recent mention of ‘Great Migration’ so far. Dated just eighty-six years ago. That pretty much confirmed it. This wasn’t the first time Travellers’ have been around, but the fourth. It seems like every century or so there was a sudden burst of new Travellers appearing. That would explain how they got recognised so easily. Though he had no idea who the previous Travellers were. Previous players or AI like Hendrix? Dustin had no clue.

So, like many things he learnt that day, he simply made a note of it. If he ever finds a Veteran Traveller then he’ll just ask. He simply lacked too much information to draw his own conclusions at the moment.

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Under the soft glow of the Wayshard, they came.

Two figures, their shadows loomed long and dark over the battle below.

One, a dark blue-skinned tiefling with a halberd resting on his shoulder.

The other, a large, brown scaled lizard man.

There was a brief pause in the battle around them, as the players quickly assessed the new arrivals.

Noam smiled as he looked around the bloodied battlefield.

Lung lifted a tankard which he… ‘borrowed.’

“Let’s get this slaughter started!”