Nick stood by with the clipboard as Cain, Theresa, and Graham escorted the survivors the rest of the way. It took a day to get them to Whispercreek Village and they spent the second day walking the road from Whispercreek to Harehill. Nick grinned as he looked at me. “That’s all of them.”
“What’s the total?”
“26 players. 14 men, and 9 women. 3 kids under 12.”
“Levels?”
“6 players between 13 and 16. 4 players between 11 and 13. 10 players between 5 and 10. 6 players underneath five, 3 if you don’t count the kids.”
“Classes?”
“3 Barbarians. 2 Rogues. 5 Mages. 2 Rangers. 3 Knights. 1 Paladin. 2 Shifters. 2 Priests.”
“No Monks, Warlocks, Samurai, or Bards?”
“Nope.”
I nodded. The group was not exactly the filet mignon of players, but they were exactly what we needed. The 26 members of Hubbard Survivors had something critical that we didn’t. They had crafting skills. Cooks, tailors, alchemists, breeders, and other specialties filled the town that were no longer just Rabbitfolk. We had warned the Construction Master about the influx of new people. He had gotten straight to work and we saw new stone and wooden structures being built along recently carved out streets. The walls were large enough to accommodate up to around 150 to 200 citizens. Additionally, Softpaw had also begun building walls, so we had overflow space.
The Hubbard Survivors, following their vote, revoked their old guild and joined ours. The Harehill Commonwealth lurched in the rankings from some random 3 digit number to #99. We were now in the top 100 guilds in Texas. The competition from here to the top was massive, but we had just more than pentupled our numbers.
I called the six major combatants into a meeting. Jerry, Jackson, and Bill joined three others. Five of them were men between the ages of 25 and 40. The sixth, though, was a young asian woman who carried two daggers. My core five, made of myself and the original four other members of the Harehill Commonwealth, joined them in the room.
The stone floor and walls contained a dozen wooden chairs wrapped around a large wooden table. This was intended to be a storage facility, but I had convinced Chief Cassil to let us have it as a meeting room. Graham laid out a map of the area on the table and I gave a greeting. “Evening, folks. For those who haven’t met me, I am Jeremiah. The man laying out the map for you is my right hand man, Graham. Next to us are Nick, Theresa, and Cain. We are a party of 1 tank, 1 healer, and 3 DPS fighters. It’s a solid combination. If you could all go around and introduce yourselves as your name, class, and level…it’ll help move things along.”
Jerry nodded. “Jerry, Barbarian, Level 16.”
“Jackson, Knight, Level 14.”
“Bill, Barbarian, Level 14.”
“Casey, Paladin, Level 15.” The man was young but had the face of a veteran. He was strong.
“Matt, Mage, Level 14.” Matt was a younger man, probably around my age.
“Elsa, Rogue, Level 15.” The Asian girl had no emotion on her face. I had no idea what she was thinking, and it made me slightly uncomfortable. Still, we had a mission.
“Good…good. Anyone specialize in tanking or healing?”
Bill nodded. “I have a lot of defensive passives. Pretty sure I’d fit as a tank.”
I couldn’t see his specifics, but I took his word for it.
“I’m a nature mage.” Matt gave a smile. “I have a healing spell. The Priests are all lower levels, and didn’t have an interest in combat. Because of that, I chose my Level 10 skill as [Restore Life].”
I nodded. “That means you’ll make a second squad. It’d be good to have some more healers or tanks, but this is great. This means we have double the fighting force that we did.”
The group nodded in response.
“Alright…so…here’s the plan. We’ve done a good job of taming the wild land around here. Most of southern Shackleford County is safe. The monster factions are weaker than they were, and it’s noticeable. We don’t know what triggers the zone level changes, but my squad has reached near the top of this zone. 70% of monsters are Level 15 or under out in the wild. We are expecting that Moran and Albany have higher levels.”
Graham started pointing at three red circles on the map, causing the people around the table to lean forward a bit as I spoke. “There are three dungeons in this county. We don’t know the rewards exactly, but we all have quests to head in there. The rewards are high levels of experience and gold, but no gear. That means that everyone can pick it up. The dungeons have recommended party sizes and levels, but the quests seem to be completable by as many people as needed. This means we can all receive the rewards.”
“The first dungeon is The Shattered Mines. We aren’t sure exactly what the monsters here are, but we know the boss is most likely a Level 18 Ogre Elite named Choctog. It is recommended for 5 party members of Level 15 or higher. The second dungeon is northeast of Albany. The Sickletail Nests are Kobolds. It is a Level 15 dungeon as well. he third dungeon is smack-dab in the middle of Albany. The Albany Crypts are almost certainly full of undead-type enemies. This means that fire skills, like Nick’s are important. Fire does +50% damage against enemies who are susceptible to burning. Undead and Treekin fit that bill. We aren’t sure what the boss is, as the quests haven’t specified. Still, the recommended level is a party of 5 members who are Level 18 or higher. It’s the highest of the three.”
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The newcomers all gave nods, except for Elsa. She seemed to have little to say and seemed almost uninterested save for her eyes scanning the map. I continued. “Additionally, we have another goal. Moran. We want to clear the town. From what our sources have told us, the town is occupied by a Level 18 Ogre Colossal who can summon goblin minions. We’ve already killed a Level 18 Colossal with 7 players around Level 15. We expect we can take him.”
Jerry cleared his throat. “7 players?”
I nodded. “One was a Shifter who was killed by the Abilene Crusade. I’ve told you about them already. The second was a Ranger who left after they attacked.”
They all nodded. Jackson raised his hand.
I was a little surprised at the gesture, but I guess I was in charge. “Go ahead.”
“What’s stopping them from coming back?”
Me and Graham looked at each other. We had a way of doing that whenever someone mentioned something we had been worried about at length. Graham replied for me. “Nothing. We don’t think they’ll bother though.”
“Why?”
“They are busy conquering I-20. We’re a solid distance away and there’s nothing of value to them up here yet.”
Jerry spoke. “Yet?”
I nodded. “After these Rabbitfolk settlements expand, we might have a trade hub. The idea of hundreds or even thousands of NPCs producing goods constantly day in and day out-”
“And my horses.”
“...-and Graham’s horses, will be attractive to players. We have a tool that, as far as we know, is not being utilized by other guilds. Our progress isn’t built on the backs of players. It’s built on the backs of NPCs. This means that they’ll start doing things we haven’t even thought of yet. This lets us advance steadily and safely without sacrificing ourselves to do work we don’t need to do. Hopefully the other guilds get caught at some progress wall with no idea of how to move forward whilst our Rabbitfolk towns just keep chugging along.”
Bill laughed. “That sounds like a damn good plan.”
I nodded. “It’s our only plan.”
The group seemed to finally be sharing our excitement and hope for the future. It was time to suggest the next step. “So! Those are our 4 objectives. Clear the 3 dungeons, and clear Moran. Moran had a population of almost 300 at one point. The city hall is a one story shack. It’s not exactly a big win on paper, but that’s housing and land for up to 300 more people. It’s loot and structures that people are used to. We also think that, at some point, we can convince the rabbits to move into Moran and start converting it. Whatever the Ogres haven’t destroyed can be utilized. The rest can be rebuilt.
“So where do we start?” Elsa looked up at me from her laid back position.
“Well…that’s…that’s what this meeting is for. We are looking for ideas and plans. Mainly, we want to decide what we’re doing first.”
Jerry nodded. “Well, ya said that Albany is gonna be the hardest. Right?”
“Right.”
“So we’ll do that one last. That makes sense, yea?”
“It does.”
“Okay…so…the dungeons are new and hard territory. We don’t even know what it’ll give us.”
“That’s right.”
“It’d make sense to delay as long as possible while we level up.”
That’s what me and Graham had been doing so far. “That’s true.”
“We already know what’s in Moran and that we can win it. Right?”
“Right.”
“Why don’t we go for that one then?”
I smiled. That’s what me and the core 4 had come up with already, but it was always better to let them think it was their idea. We needed this new group to trust us. They outnumbered us 5 to 1 and, even with our higher levels, they could crush us in an instant and take everything we have if they wanted too. It was better for us and for them to maintain a good relationship. “That sounds perfect to me. Graham?”
“I vote Moran.”
We took a full vote amongst the group. 11-0 in favor of Moran. I had one final thing to say before the meeting ended. “We are the leaders. Those who choose to stay behind for personal reasons and not fight and not level up are going to fall farther and farther behind the power curve. Keep in mind that every minute we sit or rest, a million other players are out there looting a monster and advancing. I have a feeling that in five years, the landscape is going to look very…very different. It’s crucial that we stay together and advance quickly. We are already behind, and I’d like to start catching up. Stay strong and we’ll soon be one of the top guilds in the state, if not the country.”
The speech got a few smiles and a happy single clap from Jackson. “Good speech, GM. It’s gonna be fun. Moran tomorrow then?”
I nodded. “We’ll leave at 9.”
--------------------------------
As I laid in my straw, rabbit-made bed, I thought back to life just a few months ago. What would have happened if I never went to Moran with Danny? Would I be part of the Crusade? Would I be on the run like Lincoln…or with Lincoln? What if I never left them just before Moran? Would I have died too? Would they have won? Was I the tipping point between victory and the deaths of four players?
It wasn’t the first time these thoughts had crossed my mind, but I hoped it was the last.
REPUTATION
TEXAS RABBITFOLK
Honored (85%)
I opened the menu to see my reputation. What happened when I hit the next few reputation levels? What was my legacy going to be? Was I going to be titled a “King” like Perseus? Jeremiah the First? It didn’t sound very appealing. Jeremiah the Rabbit King. I blew air out of my nose. This was getting oddly stressful. I never liked being around large crowds of people, and yet I had someone managed to put myself in a position where people depended on me. This was a genius plan and horrible all at the same time. I wondered quietly what life would look like in a decade as I slowly drifted to sleep.