Josie and her new clan, the [Art of War], arrive in Port Yarrow during the evening. The port is busy and the notifications that the [Nightfallers] clan have taken their fortress refocuses her companions. She can feel their resolve harden as they all walk with purpose toward the city square.

“Let’s get the quests for the fortresses first, then sell some gear and get the clan house,” Josie says to Alan, testing her control to see what kind of co-leader he intended to be.

“Let me manage the clan house. I’ve already sold my spare gear,” the cleric says. He continues, “I know the spots in town we need to set up advertising for the clan, definitely on the docks and at the square, maybe even hire roaming town criers.” Josie smiles at the unexpected enthusiasm.

“Great!” she says. “I’ll go get the quests and see if any of the new players ahead of us will join [Art of War].”

Grabbing Bran, she makes her way to the square. Josie finds that there are many quests that look great but would be distractions. There are the two fortresses unclaimed in this region, both within easy reach. The [Art of War] clan’s ranks swelled after Josie contacted each person who had NightFlower—Esme—on their Eye-for-an-eye list. Each player was eager for revenge. Esme had done the recruiting for her and she now had nearly enough players to mount a raid on a fortress. She selects the fortress quests and adds them to the clan quest log.

“So, the plan is to farm the instances?” Bran asks, shuffling in his heavy armor.

“Once we have enough people to raid one, the plan is to farm them, yea. We are going to enter the instance and get as far as we can before wiping, then exit, reset, and start over,” she eyes his nod. “We should quickly gain a fortress with a full group. It will be a huge draw for players looking for a powerful clan,” she says.

Getting a notification that their clan house was live, both Josie and Bran swipe away the notices and each bring up their local map. Josie turns and starts walking to the new clan house, Bran stepping quickly behind, a sword on his back clanging in time with each step.

“Are we going to have a media presence?” Bran asks.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“You guys want revenge, so do I,” she says. “We cannot rightly prove what happened. And, you surely cannot accuse them, or you would look like fools. Even though—and we all know it—there is no way that three stealth characters beat that dungeon. This is the way we win,” she says with a side-look of finality.

***

Alan set up the clan house in the city center, just off the main square and next to an inn called the Rampant Cat. He hired one crier for the docks and another for the town square to advertise for the [Art of War] and bring in new recruits. Criers were also there to make it known the goal was to take the fortress from the [Nightfallers]. It worked almost immediately, as a pair of new players came in from the docks and joined. Any players coming from the newbie island or from another region would hear about the [Art of War] clan now.

Josie walks up to the front to greet Alan. “Looks good,” she says. “I see we are recruiting, too. This will work!”

“[Nightfallers] are not recruiting yet,” Alan says. “A tragic slip-up that should allow us to retake the lead,” he says, smiling.

Josie thought back to her SAINT sessions with Sun Tsū and how she would use and monopolize on the slightest mistake her enemy made. Quickly, the snowball of their mistakes would overwhelm the [Nightfallers], and the tide of public opinion would be against them.

As part of their tactics, Josie has already talked with the streaming services. If [Art of War] can take a fortress, they will gain at least one streaming contract for this region. Another piece in the puzzle to limit the exposure and gold the [Nightfallers] can make. Smiling, Josie turns to look at the street, “We need to work to undermine [Nightfallers] clan as much as we can,” she says. “We need to isolate them. We need to corner them in and never let up. We must keep them from forming any alliances with other clans and especially clans in other regions.”

“Oh, they are going to pay,” Alan says through a toothy grin.

Sitting down, Josie goes over her plan.

This is just one part; this is just stage one. One step at a time, what is the next step?

With clan advertisements set, spare gear sold to make room in their inventories and to put gold in their coin purses, it was time to leave. Josie and Alan form a party and set out to the Leviathan Fortress. The travel takes the afternoon, along a winding coastal road. Wary after the distance they crest a rise and finally see the fortress. It is a bleak castle of green and grey, which sits on an outcropping over a raging sea. Seafoam and churn are all that is in the water, a sure death trap. There is only a narrow path to the gate of the fortress.

“We need to send out scouts to secure the area around here. We don’t want any surprises,” she says to Alan, who nods and starts typing in the air.

Stopping his fingers mid-type, he turns, and smiles, “We just got enough members to form a raid party,” he says.

Standing on the rise, Josie notices an old sign in the dirt on the edge of the cliff-side road. Picking up the decrepit sign and dusting it off, she reads the two words ‘Skara Brae’ with the right-side roughly cut to form a point. It’s an old road sign pointing to what is probably another dungeon. She sets the sign where it will be visible, and not forgotten later, and turns her attention to organizing the first raid.

The [Nightfallers] will regret wasting time.