Waking up, trying to blink and then rub the sleep out of my eyes. I see the warm glow of the fires and people bustling about cleaning around the campsite while others had gone off to explore the city a bit. Sitting up and looking around a bit more, I notice I have a blinking notification.
Time Remaining:
Soul Companion : 0 days 0 hours 0 minutes
Kham Faldihr
Claim Completion : 0 days 1 hour 53 minutes
Integration Completion : 0 days 6 hours 53 minutes
Seeing the timer had expired for Wick, I quickly summoned him back. A red circle starts to glow in front of me then bright flash of light.
“DAMN IT! Dying REALLY REALLY sucks! Alright kid did you get killed too? Captured? What’s the down…” Wick stops and looks around. Seeing all the people had stopped what they were doing and just staring at him. “Well damn… What the hell did I miss?”
Seeing that it was Wick that cause the light show everyone got back to what they were doing. Balram started to make his way over, smiling loudy saying, “Bout time ya showed up ya lazy imp! Dis lad o yours is as green as a babe suckling on his moms teet.” Mouth open Wick looks back and for the between Balram and myself before saying, “seriously what the HELL is going on?!” Laughing a bit and slapping him on the back I start to run through everything that happened, killing the troll then freeing the slaves and claiming the city.
Rubbing his hands together with a wide grin, Wick looks at me. “So, you now have a bunch of slaves AND claimed a city while only being here a day or two. Here I thought you were captured or killed even after I so selflessly gave up my life to save yours.”
“Don’t you pretty much have unlimited lives as long as I’m around?”
“Well sure that is one way to look at it, OR that I selflessly saved your ass and gave up my life. I prefer to go with the latter version. So, what’s the name of our new city anyway.”
“Our city huh?
“Of course, as your soul companion what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine. You know how it works.”
“Uh huh, sure. Well anyway it’s called Kham Faldihr.”
“Huh well we’re in a mountain so I’m guessing it’s Dwarven or Duergar? God, I hope its not Duergar, their cities are buried so damn deep it takes hours to get to the surface.”
“Uhhhhh no, actually its KhorDuuarven.”
Wicks smile evaporated, hands dropping to his side. He looked at me a bit more seriously all hint of humor gone. “What did you say?”
Seeing how serious he was being, I looked up at Balram and then back to Wick. “It’s KhorDuuarven.”
“That’s impossible every city that they abandoned to head back to Durin were completely razed. All the city cores were taken. Hell, I know one is on that back water planet Endor and two are human cities on Naboo. The only ones that are left would be on..”
“On Durin. Wick Raylia IS Durin.”
Plopping down on his ass, Wick just shook his head then his eyes snapped wide open. “AND YOU CLAIMED THE CITY?! Are you out of your mind?! Do you know what kind of target you just painted on yourself? Once people find out you have a FRAKING CITY CORE, not to mention that you have a still intact..” Looking around at all the broken building Wick continued, “intact-ish KhorDuuarven city. Everyone is going to want to get their hands on you for this city.” Looking up at Balram, Wick gestured at him, “Tell this idiot he has to raze this place as soon as he can. It’ll just be a city core then. At least that he can sell and then be on easy street for the rest of his life.”
Balrams eyes nearly popped out, “He canna do dat! Who knows what be hiddin here, Once da city be razed it naugh’ be a KhorDuuarven city any more. It jus’ be a city core!”
Seeing that this was about to get out of hand I quickly put my hands up, “Stop! Both of you. Wick, I heard from Balram about how dangerous this will be. I know the risk. Though I think we have time. Only ones that know what this city is are the people here and I think the hobs in their village, and I doubt they’re going around telling people as they probably want this place to themselves for a bit. You’ve been in my head, you know how much I loved city building playing my games.”
Wick nearly screamed, “THIS ISN’T A GAME!”
“I know Wick, but this is something special. I’m going to need you and everyone here to make it so. As well as we all need to get stronger so that we can protect it.”
Balram nodded saying, “He be a good lad Wick. He made an oath to da gods about freein’ us slaves as soon as we earn it.”
“YOU’VE GOT TO KIDDING ME?! All this AND you start making oaths to the gods?! Just how crazy and stupid are you!?” Wick screamed, his veins nearly popping out of his forehead.
Looking Wick straight in the eyes, I calmly and firmly stated. “That was an easy oath to make. You know how bad slavery was on my planet, and how we had to work hard to over come it. Those prejudices ran deep and was a vile practice that I will NOT be a part of. Every slave that I ever get will be freed at the absolute earliest point possible. As soon as they are my slave they will NOT be treated as such, do I make myself clear?”
You have discovered the skill Leadership Lvl 1
Wholly believing in something with the entirety of your being and being able to inspire someone to your point of view. Increasing skill level increases the ease of inspiring those around you.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Taking a breath, Wick could see the conviction in my eyes. Gave a nod of his head and said, “You got brass ones kid. Well if I’m going to die again at least I know I’m serving one worth dying for.” With that he held out his fist with a quirk of a smile.
Giving a smile back I gave him the fist bump and said, “I’ll make sure to earn that loyalty.”
Looking back and forth between Balram and Wick I chuckled a bit, “well now that we’ve got that out of the way think we have a few things to go over. First, I want to go over the loot, REALLY curious what we have. Then we have to figure out the hobs. That seems to be our next big problem so can’t put that off.” Standing up I look back at Balram, “Wait why wasn’t I woken up for my watch shift?”
“Lad, ya freed us, ya fed us, ya gave us amazing cold beer instea’ of da piss water, ya’ve given us hope fur da future which we all nearly lost, an’ well ya be our master. We figured ya could sleep in a night.”
Wick laughed, “You finally used that stein huh? How was the beer? As good as you thought? You definitely owe me a drink after I sacrificed myself for you!”
“Seriously Wick, how long are you going to keep bringing that up?”
“Oh, I’m never letting it drop, want to make sure you never forget!”
We walked over to the pile of loot stacked neatly to the very far side of the last fire. The closer we got the more the smell began to assault us. Barely able to hold back a tear, I waved my hand in front of my face. “ Wow that armor really does reek.”
Balram smiled briefly then held his nose. “Aye, hob armor is disgusting, but we don’ have much else.”
Looking over the pile, I really didn’t want to pick anything up. “Ok Balram, so give me the down and dirty. What do we have to work with?”
“Well lad, we got nine sets of armor, if ye can call em dat. All poor quality and smell like shite. Two scimitar, three short swords an’ two long swords, all as sharp as a butterknife. Der be three fine short swords but dey in need of some repair. Four dull daggers, two fine daggers, three rings da add +1 to dexterity, strength an’ agility; 1468 copper and one scroll.”
Looking down at the smelly pile of loot I give a bit of a sad sigh. “Well sounds mostly like a pile of crap.”
Nodding at the loot, Balram perked up a bit, “Da shaman had da scroll, it be a portal to da village, he also be havin’ dis.” Holding out his hand he held a silver necklace. Picking up the necklace I have it a quick look.
You have found:
Silver Necklace of Wisdom
Durablility: 10/12
Item Class: Uncommon
Quality: Well Crafted
Weight: 1.4 kg.
Traits: +4 to wisdom
Blurting out, “Well THAT’S what I’m talking about!” Getting control of myself, I look to Balram and nod. “I appreciate that you and everyone else have been doing the hard and disgusting jobs of looking everything.
Inspect lvl 4 reached
“Ha well that was unexpected, got another level in inspect! I’m curious do we have a list of what everyones profession is? I saw that you’re a blacksmith Balram and Ashley is a cook.”
“Lad, we be your slaves ya jus’ have ta look in ay property tab.” Looking down at Wick, Belram asks, “Didn’ ya teach da lad at all?”
“Whoa there beard boy, when I died all this noob had was stinky hob armor and a few baubles, you’ve been around while he had everything else, so I blame you for him not knowing a lick.”
Balram gave Wick a steely glare, “Beard boy aye?....HA! Ye be right tiny, I shoulda’ gone over it a wee bit more.”
Wick gave him the stink eye, “Look who’s callin who tiny…. Hahahaha” Laughing and slapping Balram on the back.
Scrolling through everyone’s professions I see there is a trader, two miners, 3 stone masons, a tinkerer, an herbalist, couple of hunters, there’s even a diplomat. The classes are all The one that really struck me though was that Kali was a Druid. She was the only non-craftsman type class. Looking over at Balram I ask, “Why is everyone a craftsman here?”
“Lad, every fighter we had be put ta death. We be what’s left of da caravan to Bowland Fells.” Seeing a look of confusion start to cross my face he continued. “Bowland Fells was an’ I do mean WAS, a town da was in da Wilds. Raylia still be new an’ untamed.”
“Wait, now that we know Raylia is really Durbid, why don’t we just start calling it Durbin?” A notification, popped up.
Request for Planetary Name Change:
You have discovered the original name of the planet that you reside. Do you wish to petition for a planetary name change?
Yes / No?
Both Wick and Balram started to scream “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” As soon as they noticed my far off look.
Quickly choosing “No”. I looked at both of them stunned. As every on else around the camp, seeing there was no issue continued on with their tasts.
Wick was the first to reach me and slap me in the face. “What is WRONG with you? Are you a complete idiot? As soon as this planets name is changed a System wide alert goes out indicating the change. Here we are trying to keep the fact that this is Durin an absolute secret as long as we can, and there you are about to send a system blast to everyone about it.
Rubbing my cheek, “I get it, I didn’t realize that the notification would pop up. I was just asking talking about Raylia amongst ourselves.”
Balram took his turn, “Lad, you be a city owner now. Da system picks up on new information and gives ya a few more liberties dan da rest of us.” Seeing me nod he continued his story. “We be what’s left of a caravan ta Bowland Fells.”
Wick looked over to Balram, “Really, Bowland Fells is no more?”
“It be da hobs new village, dey took it few months back, while we be on da road der.”
Wick looks over to me, “My 174th soul companion Calandish, was a dungeon hunter. With Raylia still being fairly wild there are still wild dungeons that have yet to be found let alone claimed; not to mention all the land and resources that are available. The thing is Raylia is at the very edge of the System, and getting there is a pain in the ass. You either fly here on a ship which could take years since there are no jump gates anywhere near here or you use a portal, which is EXTREMELY expensive. You need a large enough mage guild that not only has a portal spell but has enough mages to produce a gate here. Though this tends to be a one way ticket. Last I knew there was only one mage guild here in the city of Kamont in the Amdon kingdom that had the ability to set up a portal though only to a few planets. They don’t have the mana to send one to the inner system planets.”
“Aye, da be right Wick”
Wick continued, “Calandish, was as reckless as you are stupid and hopped a Thalian transport to get here. We were in space for four months in the most disgusting of transports I had ever seen, when we got boarded and spaced for not having enough credit to pay off the pirates. Anyway, back then Raylia had four major kingdons, three human and one wood elf. There were also a few villages and towns in the wilds that didn’t want to be apart of the kingdoms. Bowland Falls was one of the largest and first. “
Balram nodding along. “Still be da case, or it was till the hobs took Bowland. Our guild broke apart and a few of us pooled da gold we could and joined a caravan ta Bowland. We hoped for a new beginnin’, Wit da hope of startin’ our own village in da future. We decided against da human kingdoms as dey still rely on slavery wit most bein’ of da different races. Why we were feelin’ hopeless when we were made slaves, as der was little escape inta human kingdoms.”
“I’m sorry Balram, I know you’ve all been through a lot. You said I was going to have to deal with the hobs though. Can’t we just deal with them as they come here?”
Wick shook his head, “No, you don’t understand. Hobs are extremely tribe oriented. They will beat and kill each other, but that is to make sure that only the strong are part of the tribe. If anything or anyone else kills a member of the tribe, let alone their shaman they will hunt you to the very last hob.”
“Well shit, alright. Any ideas?”
Balram slapped my shoulder, “we still be havin’ some time. Dey were waiting on da city ta integrate as well as fur us ta clean up da place.”
Looking at my clock
Time Remaining:
Kham Faldihr
Claim Completion : 0 days 0 hour 13 minutes
Integration Completion : 0 days 5 hours 13 minutes
“Well I’ll have the claim completed in thirteen minutes and the integration in about five hours. Tell me about Bowland Fells.”