INTERLUDE: WESTSIDE GUILD
FORT IRWIN CA
WEST SIDE COUNCIL
Before the Breaking happened, an alliance of Vegas wisemen, former politicians, artists, and billionaires who were in the know joined a globally organized effort to take down the governmental Strongholds, like military bases, JTF R&D locations, hospitals, and prisons once magic had returned. Why? Because they wanted to be the power in the new world while not allowing the current powers to keep their head start.
It was one of the largest coordinated attacks in the history of mankind and required the involvement of a prodigious amount of corrupted, underpaid, and overworked government workers. Some of them were only asked to look the other way on something seemingly insignificant. But if you can get an air traffic controller to lose a plane for an hour or a weigh station employee to let through a few more tons, no one would connect the seemingly random ask even if someone had investigated, which no one did, or at least no one did for long, or they went missing in one of those seemingly random events.
The patterns were never caught.
The architect of these events was, of course, a Duster, and an extraordinary one at that. She was the niece of the most powerful political family of the last three decades, and she had a seer enhancement and a potent one. She predicted that the Breaking would happen, which would have been the best places to hit before they could react, and even places they had no chance of taking, no matter the planning.
In most of the places, they weren’t successful, purely because the Breaking was a shit show of epic proportions, and no one could have expected everything to get so powerful so fast. Also, the JTF was much more prepared for the attacks than even a seer could see. That was because her sight had never been seen beyond January 1st, 2039.
As a part of the main organization, the subordinate entities, the Syndicate and the West Side gang, had suffered losses. Still, they had been overwhelmingly successful in their conquests since the beginning of the Breaking with the knowledge passed down. The west guild had done even better than the Syndicate because of the LA Stronghold attacking a god’s chosen people on their land. The Golden Bear had killed a full twenty percent of the Governor’s strongest Classers, and that forced them to sit back in their Stronghold to lick their wounds, which gave the gang free range at the unaffiliated players and Strongholds in the area.
But then the damn continuous horde came, and that halted the gang’s advancement due to a ceasefire brokered by the Golden Bear. This turn of events allowed the Syndicate, which was based in Vegas, to catch up and surpass the Gang, but they were ultimately meant to work together. So when the Syndicate sent in some powerhouses to help them tame their surroundings, they had both blossomed. Unfortunately, that growth came at a price. Slaves, and lots of them. They had been mass producing the slave collars and enslaving any player too weak to oppose them.
Slavery was and has always been a cheap way to power for humanity. It was more so after the Breaking. When a person is collared, they are blood bound to the owner of the collar, and because of that, their body isn’t their own. Strong-willed people and higher-tier individuals couldn’t be collared. But for the majority players under Tier 5 a collar meant a lifetime of servitude.
Why would someone or an organization do it, one would ask? The answer was easy. When someone is collared, they give a portion of their EXP to the collar owner. That not only severely slowed down the Slave’s growth, but it increased the growth of the slave owner. It is a cheap way to power and is mostly accepted by Nobility and Merchant groups, and some Clergy factions use it as a punishment for a set amount of time.
In the Syndicate case, it was Nobility. When the Breaking happened, the leaders of the Syndicate got the Noble Caste and the Slave Collar schematics from a Wild dungeon in their area.
Vegas was ironically more ready for the Breaking than most major cities. Being in the middle of the desert and having had most of the hotels renovated by a Duster, the buildings on the strip were more equipped to handle Mana winds and the random beast attacks in the first week, but as the beast got stronger and the first hordes came, the people flocked to the bigger, and more secured casinos, those, of course, were Strongholds of the Syndicate.
As people flocked to them, most were collared and put to work growing crops, building up the infrastructure, and fighting the beast. NPCs got it the worst. Without a class or a profession, they couldn’t advance by EXP from kills just by leveling their free skills, but if those skills weren’t compatible with the task they were forced to do, then their skill progression would fall behind.
The first six weeks blew by for most members of the Syndicate. The heads gained so much power from their slaves that every noble jobholder had at least two slaves to help raise them up faster. The Syndicate had Tier 3s by the time the Uncommon Horde started. It didn’t help them at all.
Because of the mentality that comes with owning a person, the leadership of the Syndicate made its biggest mistake. They left the slaves unguarded when the Horde came, and they were slaughtered. After the first full weekend of beasts attacking the combined group of casino Strongholds, the Slave force was cut in half.
The syndicate used that as an excuse to expand their admittedly powerful alliance and expand they did. The syndicate knights captured every little former town, as well as the newly built CAMP and Hamlet.
The slave numbers skyrocketed again, and with that, the power of their leadership. By May, the Syndicate had gotten their first Post Breaking Tier 5 Classer, which only empowered them to keep going. They had linked up with a few pre-breaking allies and added to their power base. With the help of the West Side Gangs Professionals, they created a communication network of runners and Style creations.
The Gang was the first to get their professionals to Tier 5, and that was more than likely why they weren't outright absorbed by the Syndicate.
The Westside Gang and the Syndicate worked together to establish control over Fort Irwin, a former Army base. It turned out to be a Town-size Stronghold, but without walls, beasts could spawn within. So a massive undertaking was put into place, executed by the slaves of the Syndicate and the Professionals of the Westside gang.
In under a month, the walls were finished, and the Westside gang was upgraded to the West Side Guild. The Guild was run by Merchant Caste as opposed to the Nobility-led Syndicate. It was working out perfectly.
That all changed when the professionals of the West Side Guild made a Collar that could control Tier 5 players, including Nobility. The Westside council had many meetings on how to handle this new development.
At the time, about a third of the Council had a bad taste in their mouth about the whole thing. Most didn't mind using players from other Strongholds as slaves because they were told they were just criminals serving their time, but making their own was not something everyone was on board with. These meetings would often fall apart into yelling competitions.
Both sides had points that the other side couldn’t get them off of, and those points were often contradictory to the other side. It was becoming increasingly clear that the West Side Guild was not going to stay whole if Slavery became a part of their Stronghold, especially now that they had risen to the size of a town.
That was when the Syndicate collared all of the leadership that opposed the Westside guild's new direction. That led to a quick civil war that ended with only five of the original thirteen council members. Four of the leaders who opposed the new orders escaped after the fifth leader; Game held off the other eight councilors with the help of High platinum gear and potions. Game died, but he took three councilors with him before he was killed from behind by the Syndicate representative.
Seven men sat at a table with thirteen chairs in total. Two of them were new, and were obviously vampires who just dropped their disguises to talk among each other. The other five members gave them wary looks but didn’t seem to mind them that much.
In the last month since the Coup attempt, the guild had undergone some changes. They had lost two more Councilors to the escaping newly dubbed One Blood gang. Their combat trades were not to trifle with, and they had paid dearly when they tried to chase. Because of their weakened state, the Syndicate added two nobles to the council, which gave the whole stronghold bonuses. Then a powerful Vampire of another ‘allied’ faction the Dark Colony had offer them all immortality if they could gain control of the State of California. The Syndicate had already taken most of Southern Nevada, so they had the resources to help support the guild in that mission, and they all wanted immortality. They had to take LA first, but the Golden Bear's cease-fire was preventing that.
Adding insult to injury, the one-blood gang was heading in the direction of the LA Strongholds with a lot of the Westside Guild’s secrets.
The Syndicate was not idle either. They had pushed their forces into Southern California so that they could take LA on two fronts.
They were planning that very operation in their council room. It was pretty bland and functional; the members of the guild were mostly professional tradesmen, but they were all combat Professions, so they were not into the opulent lifestyles of their Syndicate allies or even their new Vampire allies who were prone to dragging slaves away, never to be seen again.
“Okay, let's begin.” Marco, an Italian man with hard brown eyes and gray hair at the edge of his sideburns, said as he sat down at the round tablet. He was the de facto leader of the Westside Guild.
Across from him, the two vampires ignored him and continued to speak in whispered tones. He frowned, and looked to the other councilors, they shrugged and began to sit down with their own reactions. No one was looking forward to this meeting.
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Other than Marco and the two male Vampires who they never got the names of, there were four other players in the room, two males and two females.
Lorenzo was a young man with dirty blond hair, he was covered in Style tattoos and sat quietly next to Marco’s left, he was the Melee combat leader. Valentina, Lorenzo’s former boss's daughter, who he was tasked to protect before the Breaking sat to his right, and she didn’t need protecting anymore. She was a powerhouse who, more than likely, was the only one who would survive a fight with the vampires. They were wary of her firebase styles. She was the combat magic leader.
On the other side of Marco was Stella a women of mixed Italian and Arabic descent, her big brown eyes assessed everyone in the room as people began to sit down, she was the spy leader. Next to her was Mr Rossi of the Rossi noble family, a member of the Syndicate. He was a labor leader and in charge of the slaves of the West Side guild.
The last person was the other Syndicate plant, a noble from the Colombo family. Bruno Colombo was a hitman for his family before the Breaking. They had made him go into the navy seals so that he was trained to kill humans more effectively, and he became the most prolific mob killer of his generation. He was the range fighter leader.
“The first thing on the agenda is-”
“Taking Los Angeles.” One of the vampires, the one with white hair, said.
“While they may be related, no, it's not first; first is the one blood gang problem issue,” Marco said, annoyed at the interruption.
The vampire just scoffed but said nothing else, looking at the black hair vampire.
“What about them?” Mr Rossi asked angrily; he had lost a few people to them, but with the callousness of power, he didn’t miss them, though he didn’t like that his possessions were taken away from him.
Marco looked at Stella. She nodded at him, then turned to the table.
“We have been getting more and more information about them trying to ally with the major strongholds; the Golden Bear hasn’t denied them outright, but we don't know if there are enough of them with native blood in them to get the whole gang accepted to the Clergy of the Golden Bear.
“If that happens then we can wash our hands of them. They won’t fuck with us, and we won’t fuck with them. We can’t beat the Golden Bear.” Marco said.
“Yet.” The black hair Vampire said.
“More than likely never. That kind of power is not something we mortals in the Mortal realm can accomplish.” Stella disagreed.
“That is because you are weak and young; when you have immortality, it is only a matter of time.” The White hair vampire added.
“You can’t even beat me,” Valentina began, “and what do you have a hundred years on me? Stop interrupting with your useless statements, or I’ll break out my pack of matches and make short work of you.”
Marco rolled his eyes. They never get anything done when everyone was like this.
The white hair vampire looked at Valentina with ire but said nothing. The other chuckled under his breath. Say what you want about this new world; power talks and bullshit shut the fuck up.
“What about the one blood gang?” Bruno asked, bringing the meeting back on track.
Marco nodded to the man. “They will be a bigger problem if they link up with Los Angeles Stronghold. Since that would pit us against some of the best professionals in this part of the world.”
It was time for the Syndicate Nobles to scoff. They had thousands of professionals; some were slaves, but others were part of their family’s noble merchant families. “They are just Professionals. They can’t be that dangerous.” Mr Rossi said, confident in the statement.
“They have at least four Artisans; more than likely, six or seven could even be as high as ten.” Marco paused to let that sink in. Everyone in the room was at least Tier 5 and knew that Tier 5 was a power threshold that couldn’t be underestimated. “We also believe that of the forty thousand that defected with the gang, over half are above Tier 3 in two crafts, and all are Tier 3 or above in 1 craft.”
The room stilled. Even the Vampires didn’t have a snarky comment. The biggest problem, especially early in the Periods of the GREAT GAME, was resource management. No matter how powerful you are, if you don't have the resources to use your skills, even a tier 5 could be overwhelmed by a few hundred tier 2s. It was why even Tier 5s made their way to Strongholds during Hordes.
“What are we going to do about this then?” Stella asked after no one had said anything for a few seconds.
“That is what this meeting is for,” Marco said, annoyed. “We have a few options, we should vote on. Hold your vote until I have given all options.”
The room nodded to him. He inwardly smiled, finally getting the meeting on track.
“First thing is we need to expand into the LA area territory, take as many Hamlets and Villages as we can while the Continuous horde continues to keep them behind their walls. No matter what we vote, this has to happen. Mr Rossi, Bruno can you handle that, We will provide you with Mage and healing aid of course.”
The two Sicilian men looked at each other before Mr Rossi answered. “We can do that, but we would like the Los Angeles Stronghold as a Syndicate and West side Guild joint base.”
A vein throbbed on Marco’s forehead. “We can discuss that as well afterward; this will be a long campaign, the world has grown quite a bit, and Hamlets have popped up everywhere. So do as you wish with the people you capture. But the Vampires have first dibs on the Los Angeles Stronghold.” He nodded at the Vampires.
“We want their leadership dead nothing more, our leadership had a divination about a powerhouses coming out of that stronghold that needs to be put down before they fuck up our plans.” The White hair Vampire said.
“Which are?” Stella asked.
“Which are our own.” The black hair one answered.
“Oh, you guys are not going to stab us in the back at all." Stella scoffed.
The two vampire’s faces became guarded.
“Leave them alone, Stella.” Valentina said, “We are all entitled to our secrets. The five humans give each other a knowing look.
“Fair enough. Sorry, Marco.”
“No problem, we can break the golden bear-brokered ceasefire now since the minimum time in our clause has elapsed. It would be frowned upon by the god, but not deadly like it would have been earlier after signing it.
“We can maneuver our troops in place so that when the damn Dungeon is finally cleared, we can just snatch it from them and hand it to you two.” Marco continued looking at the bloodsuckers in the room. The Vampires wanted that plan, but they didn’t say anything, just nodded.
“We can push on Sacramento and take the state; there is a slim chance that the LA Stronghold could come under our control by taking the old state capital.” No one in the room believed that, of course.
Control requires power over something, and without a pledge, oath, contract, or collar, nothing can be truly controlled in the GREAT GAME. Live Well or Die Free was not just a motto. It was one of the meanings of the Game. You live a good life in the game, and you could live forever, but when you die, you are free of that burden of getting to that peak, or at the very worst, you are free of the burdens of servitude. A soul can’t be enslaved only the body can, a person can enslave their own mind into believing anything, but that to goes away if you Live Well or Die Free.
“We have to decide on who we will be sending to the Sky Way when it opens to the public. According to our intel, the trash up there would probably be treasures beyond anything down here, and we would want to be the first to get those benefits.” Marco turned back to the vampire. “With that, some of us have to look into the Demon Road by the ocean. That one could be problematic for the protection of the planet in the long term.”
“Demons and Devils are Rogue gods who take a race change at some point. It doesn’t happen often because if you were powerful enough to change to one of those races, you would have the potential to get to Jade Rank on your own merit, and Gaia would give any being that can make a Domain godhood. Who would give up a chance at immortality just for a small boost in combat power and losing all their humanity, you just become a lustful, hateful, rage filled animal.” The black hair Vampire said, the other nodding sadly.
“And now we have a road to the Demon realm at Santa Monica Pier,” Stella said.
“Why can’t we do it all at once?” Lorenzo asked stoically to no one in particular.
Everyone turned back to Marco. He couldn’t hide his smile, ”Cost. It would be expensive and would spread us thin. We have a lot of troops, but they aren’t very high levels because of us getting the EXP. But we can continue to multiply our numbers if we go Hamlet to Hamlet and collect slaves and add them to our army.”
“Bruno and his Family could do that with Valentina’s help. I could march on to the Los Angeles Stronghold and hold them in place so even if they clear the Dungeon; they would still have to deal with my family and me with a little Vampiric help. He looked at the two pale-skinned men.”
“Once you are set up, we will come support at night, but with the curse lessened, we would have to retreat prior to sunrise.”
“Naturally,” Rossi said.
“Who is taking the capital with me then?” Marco asked, keeping the meeting on the rails.
“I’ll go,” Lorenzo said. “As long as some of Valentina's mages help us out, we mainly need healers.”
“I think that could be arranged.” Valentina smiled at her former bodyguard.
“Good, Stella, you have home base protection and finding out as much information as possible about one blood gang, and if they go to LA, we can kill two birds with one strike. We will be sending slaves back to you for training and indoctrination.” Marco continued. “How long will everyone need?”
***
FORT IRWIN CA
WEST SIDE COUNCIL
It had been about two weeks, and most of the plans were ready to be executed. The Rossi family had left and were almost in position near the LA stronghold using stealth macro styles. Bruno’s family was capturing all the soft target Hamlets full of NPCs and low-level players, and he negotiated with the tougher Villages and even a small Town as they pushed west on the heels of the Rossi family.
Marco wanted to have one last meeting before he and Lorenzo headed north, and the Vampires moved closer to be within striking distance of LA.
“Okay, it looks like we are ready. Stella, do you need anything before we go?” Marco asked as they closed out the meeting.
“Nah, pretty much everything was co-”
_____________________________________________________________
< ALERT >
{A LOCAL DUNGEON HAS BEEN UPGRADE TO ANOTHER TIER! It has been cleared, however. For the next Uncommon Period, the continuous horde will be paused. Clear the first floor of the Dungeon again to increase the pause time.}
_____________________________________________________________
< CURSE DOWNGRADED >
{CURSE NAME: Scourge of the Undead
CURSE TYPE: Physical/Death
CURSE LEVEL: 1
DESCRIPTION: Scourge of the Undead is a curse that slowly levels over time or as more undead are assimilated into the local area. As the curse levels, the more adverse the reaction is, the more it affects living beings in its sphere of influence. The Scourge also levels the highest level of death or dark being over time. This being must be killed to end the curse.
Level 1: Allows the recently dead to rise again as undead in 24 hours' time under the leader of the scourge. Mana and Health Regen for non-Dark and Death creatures is reduced by -10%.
NOTE:
{The Curse information does not show up on your Character Sheet. Pay attention to your POOLS}
_____________________________________________________________
“Nooooo!” The white hair Vampire burst into flame as sunlight blasted through the window. Before anyone could react, his partner kicked him out of the sunlight and then sat back down calmly as the burnt Vampire slowly began to recover.
“We should declare war now, or the timeline will only get longer the longer we wait.” The calm black hair Vampire said.
It all happens so fast that the councilor in the room doesn't even feel their stats and cools increase based on not being under the effect of the curse anymore, but they also know the plan and react.
A prompt appeared in front of the councilors.
_____________________________________________________________
< CEASEFIRE HAS EXPIRED >
< NEW EVENT: WAR VOTE >
{WOULD YOU LIKE TO DECLARE WAR ON THE LOS ANGELES STRONGHOLD?}
{Earliest Time until the start of war 3 Common Periods}
YES/NO touch one 8 Councilors abstain/2 Yah/3 undecided.
_____________________________________________________________
The two vampires already voted. The other three look at each other. Marco voted yes, “For the Illuminati.” He nodded to the vampires.
The other two councilors all bowed as well. “For the Illuminati.”
The black hair Vampire stood and nodded to them all. “I am the Avatar of lord Athen Benedict, and I am here to serve the Illuminati.” He smiled as everyone got a new prompt.
_____________________________________________________________
< STRONGHOLD EVENT ALERT >
EVENT NAME: War
DESCRIPTION: Your Stronghold has declared war on another. War is the primary way to control a stronghold. The Los Angeles Stronghold has been a thorn in the Side of the guild since its inception, and now it is time to remove that thorn.
Objective: Conquer the LA Stronghold. (0/1)
Objective: Defeat any allies of the LA stronghold. (0/?)
Rewards: EXP, City leadership, 1000 Stronghold points. 100 Rare mana Stones, 10 Platinum Mana Stones, and New members to your nation.
_____________________________________________________________
“It is our pleasure, Avatar of Vampire Lord Athen,” Marco said with a smile. They were finally ready to make their move, and with the help of their allies, no one could stand in their way.