8. Spyhunter
As planned in advance, Tarisha and my honor guard of ten pro-gamers were waiting for me near the nexus point, as well as a number of onlookers of both the Native and Traveler variety. The Natives saw me arrive, interrupted their conversations for a moment, then resumed them. Many walked away, while others would be following us to the Temple of Thedum, outside of which I would be holding court. I wanted to move into my mansion as soon as possible, but construction was ongoing. I was forced to continue to use a pavilion at the steps of the temple.
“Welcome home, My Lord,” Tarisha greeted. My honor guard repeated her words in unison, then saluted in the Yuikonese fashion, which Irvine hadn’t managed to corrupt quite yet. A few of the Natives and Travelers repeated the greetings nervously a moment later in a manner that was clearly not so rehearsed.
I knew that this was for appearances, so I put on my best smile and bowed to them as a Lord bows to his subjects, as, according to our tradition, we are ultimately servants of the land and the people. Well paid servants who live in castles and make life and death decisions which will affect everyone in our territory, but ultimately servants.
“Thank you for the hospitable welcome, my subjects. I apologize for my absence. I am certain that a great many issues have arisen over the last few weeks. Let’s try to resolve as many as we can before the setting of the sun,” I said. I summoned Shadow, mostly because I wished to show him off, but also to reassure everyone that I was swiftly reclaiming my lost levels and to be visible from a distance, as a reasonable amount of onlookers had gathered.
With my escort, it became a miniature parade, which soured my mood slightly, as I have a bad history with parades. I didn’t let it show on my face, however. Irvine was waiting at the entrance to the pavilion, dressed in the livery of the master of ceremony, but upon seeing Shadow, he looked torn between his two duties. Only one of which was official; I’m not quite certain how he’d ended up becoming my master of ceremonies.
I solved his dilemma by allowing Shadow to teleport back to his stable through my shadow. I paused before entering the pavilion to address him.
“How looks the agenda today, Irvine?” I asked.
“What?” he squeaked. “I don’t know. I don’t have it memorized! I didn’t know I had to, they said they were going to slip me cards like always!”
I padded him on the shoulder comfortingly. “Never mind. Where is Daemon, he’ll – oh, there he is. Good work, Irvine.”
“You’re level twenty, My Lord,” he exclaimed. “I mean, I figured that when Shadow disappeared on me yesterday, and I told everybody who would listen, but nobody believed me until you showed up today!”
I patted him again on the shoulder. “Good work, Irvine. I need to talk with Daemon and Tarisha now. Why don’t you spend some time reviewing your cards?”
“R-right,” he said, and he pulled a stack of index cards two fingers thick from his pocket.
Daemon was standing to the left of the throne, waiting for me. I whispered a cantrip that gave us a bit of privacy, preventing sound from traveling very far from its source for a few meters around us. We exchanged bows, his the proper bow for a servant to a lord, mine a proper bow for a lord to a servant. I doubt anyone present really appreciated how perfect the etiquette was.
“Welcome home, My Lord,” he greeted. “I have the agenda for today right here, if you’d like to review it before we begin.”
“Thank you, Daemon,” I said, taking the item from him. It was written in English, and the system started to translate it back into my Native language before I snapped at it. I knew English now, and there was no point in …
How did I just snap at the system?
Can I do that again?
Thoughts for later. I quickly reviewed the document, sighing at the length of it, before taking my seat in the throne. My normal HUD faded away, replaced by the menu heavy system which was uniquely accessible through each of my thrones.
A crowd had gathered around the pavilion, and an event bubble had formed, preventing anyone not on the agenda from approaching. I had known that I was in a layered instance since I’d arrived in North Shire, but that was common since it had become one of the major quest hubs for the level thirty to eighty range, and also the site where many endgamers came to gain Reputation with my faction. I hadn’t realized, however, how many of the instances were simply here to witness me hold court.
I scanned through the soap-bubble wall of the event bubble, and my blood ran cold when I noticed a significant number of Travelers with black auras.
Ever since I had posed as a worldboss to avenge my Grandfather’s murder, a portion of Travelers I encountered had an aura. The majority were either blue or red. Blue signified that they held reputation with me, and the hue told me if they had personal Reputation with me or if they’d only managed to gain it with my faction. Red told me that they had negative reputation with me, and likewise with the hue.
A white aura meant that a Traveler had significant Reputation with Thedum, although aside from clerics and priests who had chosen him as their patron, that was very uncommon. A dark purple indicated favor with Eclipse, the trickster god of shadows in my pantheon.
Black indicated the Adversary.
“I hereby declare that I, Earl Hail Jeoran, Lord of North Shire, am holding court. Let all who hold grievances in my lands come forth to have their matters settled, reviewed, or adjudicated. I vow my impartial judgment, free from bias or prejudice, to all who bring their arguments to me to be settled, even if those grievances are against my person or rule of this land,” I said, officially beginning the audience. “It seems that there is already a list of those seeking my judgment, and I will start at the top. Miller Jon, I see you are back in my court again today. Is someone tipping your cows again?”
While I hadn’t been planning on taking notes, it wasn’t unheard of for a lord to do so while holding court, so I summoned from my inventory a pen and empty notebook. I pretended to give Miller Jon my undivided attention while I [Scribed] a note to Tarisha.
It was a very simple note, but it took a moment to get her attention when I wanted her to read it, as she too was focused on Miller Jon and the audience. I took the time to begin describing the cultists – if they were gathering favor the Adversary then I might as well call them cultists – by their gear, appearance, level and class.
I went further, using [Noble Insight] for the first time.
Preferred Name
Jaxion
Level
184
Guild
Class
Cleric
Reputation (Hail Jeoran)
-123034
Reputation (House Jeoran)
-452447
Can issue Quests?
False; player is actively opposed
Can issue Bounty?
True
Completed Dungeons
(Focus to Expand)
Active Alliances
Storm Teoran
Completed Raids
(Focus to Expand)
Active Quests (sorted by Relevance)
Infiltration: North Shire
Gambit: Poisoned Rumors
Gambit: Locate the Heir
Gambit: Isolate and Eliminate
Other relevant Reputations
(Focus to Expand)
Relevant Titles:
Cleric of Nyxandra, 2 nd Stratum
Veteran of Mooncrest Manor (Northridge Freelancers)
Veteran of the Battles for North Shire (Northridge Freelancers)
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There was more, but I canceled the ability as it continued to feed me information as fast as I could understand it. I didn’t need all of that to know the two most relevant facts about these Travelers.
They were my enemies, and they were here to spy on me.
“I really am sorry to interrupt you, Miller, but as I told you last time, it’s not a crime to tip cows in Yuikon, and I don’t plan on making it one in North Shire. You can yell at the boys responsible, and you can chase them off your property the same as you would any other wanderer who was making their way through your fields. You can put up signs requesting that your cows not be tipped. But I honestly can’t think of any other response to give you than that, and I’m afraid there are others who are waiting with equally pressing matters for me to attend to,” I said.
While I was speaking, I was also activating the Quest Writing function of my Throne. I wrote quests specifically for the eight spies I saw present – one for each – and I wrote quests for spies in general.
There was nothing important on the agenda for the next six or seven petitioners, and anyway this was a public appearance so anything of importance that happens I would assume would make its way to my enemies anyway. But that didn’t mean that I wanted to let the spies just get away.
Unfortunately, they weren’t all in a group. Neither were they even in the same instance as each other. And, most unfortunate of all, they were surrounded by lower leveled Natives. I wasn’t worried about the Travelers who got caught in the crossfire; they would complain on the forums and suffer a minor setback in their leveling progress, but ultimately wouldn’t be harmed. The Natives might suffer a canon death if I did this wrong and they were killed.
I should know, as that was exactly what had happened during the massacre at my duel. Thirteen Natives had been caught in the crossfire. Only thirteen, compared to about ninety Travelers who had almost rushed to their deaths to get a better view of the action rather than retreating. However, I was quite certain that the longer this audience lasted, more and more Travelers would get bored and wander off. I wasn’t quite so certain about the Natives, as it seemed that half of Ebbyvale had turned out to petition me for something or other.
I was reviewing my options, switching through the menus as quickly as I could without raising suspicion, trying to find the one that would give me what I wanted without putting any of my subjects in danger. I couldn’t find it. I began to resign myself to the possibility that it didn’t exist, when the system seemed to perk itself up.
As it had done before when I had expressed a question about my ability, one option lit up. From that menu, a second option, and then a third. And there it was.
[Create PVP challenge quest; local area]. As I scanned through the description, I began to frown. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, because it would offer little protection to my Native subjects. But it would sync the high level spies into the same instance as the counterparts that were allied with my factions. The Spies’ goal would be to escape, while my faction would pursue and attempt to capture or kill them.
It would cost me a charge on my battle core, the one I had created to evict the bandits that had been plaguing my lands for years before my arrival, and it would do so without creating a battleground. That might be seen as something of a waste, considering how highly the Travelers value my battlegrounds, but the alternative was a full Dungeon Core, which was an even larger waste, as I could use the Dungeon Cores to create Battle Cores with multiple charges on them.
I made up my mind.
It wasn’t worth it.
I would issue bounties on the Travelers, but I wasn’t going to turn an official audience into a bloodbath when I could avoid it. I did, however, continue to scan the crowd through the soap-bubble wall of the event bubble. I used my [Noble Insight] ability to scan anyone with a black or red or purple aura for likely spies.
I wasn’t especially worried about Eclipse being my enemy, but neither would she be my ally. Travelers seemed to equate shadow with evil, and I knew of the existence of at least two guides on the forums on how to gather favor with Eclipse and the Adversary at the same time. If her followers decided to spy on me to my enemies, well, she’s the god of trickery. She’d consider it fair game, and possibly even a proper form of worship.
This was a problem for my constabulary. Fortunately my messaging system with my canon followers was the same while I was on the throne, so I opened it and created a chatroom, pulling everyone who was online which, thankfully, included the head of my constabulary who insisted on calling himself my deputy. Phil
Hail
There are spies in the audience.
Daemon
Well, obviously, Hail. It’s a public audience. I worked very hard to make certain that nobody on the agenda would discuss anything privileged or private.
Hail
I mean that I can see them. With my abilities. I’m writing quests for their apprehension and questioning.
Tarisha
Is that an ability you have innately, or is that part of your throne or current class, Lord Hail?
Hail
Is that relevant?
Tarisha
Knowing will make it easier to spread disinformation on how we outed the spies.
Hail
I can see people’s quest logs now. When I’m a [Lord], at least. I have to focus on them though. I’m using the throne to write the quests, obviously, but I could probably issue a bounty on the fly no matter where I am.
Phil
I’ll round up a posse, but I’m not sure what to do with them, Hail. By the time you have the chance to issue us the quests, they’ll have all scattered.
Laurant
I’m also mobilizing my subordinates.
Hail
I’m scribing a list of spies in my notes. I’ll announce a recess once I think I’ve got them all. You can come up to me to chat and I’ll slip you the list and issue the quest officially. But don’t move until the audience is over, or the targets decide to leave. I don’t want any of my subjects caught in the crossfire of trying to arrest them.
Phil
What levels are they? A few of my deputies were hires from Tarisha’s contacts, but I’m not going to be much good at arresting them if they’re endgamers, and there’s no point in making last minute deputies of trusted players if they’ll just get 1-shot
Hail
There’s eight endgamers. The rest are a mix of all levels. I’ll write their levels next to their names. The real problem is that they’re in dozens of instances.
Tarisha
That problem will solve itself, Lord Hail. Once a PVP bounty is issued, the pursuing character will be placed in the same instance as the target.
Hail
Oh? I didn’t know that. I almost started a mini-battleground. Stupid system was almost begging me to do it.
Tarisha
I’m glad that you managed to restrain yourself, Lord Hail. Spies are best dealt with discretely.
Laurant
Tarisha, can we borrow any of your guards for this?
Tarisha
I don’t think that’s wise. I don’t wish to leave Hail ungarded.
Hail
I’m not an egg. I can die now, it’s no big deal. I’ll go back to level 19, but only in Lord, and I can push it right back up to level 20.
Tarisha
It’s bad for Morale to see you die, Lord Hail. It affects both your Native followers, and the opinions of you on the forums.
Hail
What?
Daemon
We noticed a change in the Natives after you experienced your setback, Hail. Word that you had died, and that the curse of the Gray Man had set you back so far, it seemed to negatively affect the opinion many of your subjects held of you. Minor quest givers that were known to issue quests for your faction required more prodding to do so, and some of them seemed to no longer have the ability to do so at all. Someone put in a ticket about the matter and it was addressed. They were kind enough to forward the response they got from the administrators to us.
Tarisha
As for the forums, that should be obvious enough. A lot of Travelers thought you were balanced to be overpowered on purpose, or that you were really unkillable, or something like that. The truth has some of your fans disenchanted.
Daemon
In both cases, your appearance here will help – Lord Hail, you should probably start paying attention again. The last petitioner has noticed that you’ve been ignoring her for a while now and is beginning to become irate.
Hail
Right, back to work.