Taylor drinks from her glass and puts it down on the counter. “So here’s the tale. After ye left our ship we spent a couple o’ days just transferring goods in between coastal settlements. Until one day when we were loading up another bunch of cargo we spotted some sails in the distance.”

“The inquisitors?”

“Aye.” Taylor nods. “We were barely off shore when they started shooting at us. The Dwarger saw them attack their friendly neighbourhood traders gettin’ shot at and didn’t take very kindly to that so they started opening up with their shore batteries. We managed to hold them off from getting within fire range of the city. That’s what we’ve been doing for the last couple of days but they’ve been pretty unrelenting. It’s been taking some toll on our vessel. Luckily enough we only got some minor wounded and zero casualties.”

“How does the theocracy even have the naval capacity for all this?” Sam asks. “I thought Hilda said it was only a small nation.”

Taylor nods again. “Looks like they’ve pulled some strings in the kingdom of Sharab. It’s been mostly their ships we’ve been fighting after the initial wave.”

“Did I hear Sharab?” I hear Hilda’s voice coming from behind us.

“Ah, Hilda, good seeing ya again.” Taylor lifts her glass and afterwards takes some more glasses from the cabinet. “I was just tellin’ a tale of our heroic deeds to the youngsters here.”

My sister, Nikki, the Dwarger captain and our other Dwarger friend also join us.

“Yes, good seeing you again.” Hilda takes the barstool next to me. “So, Sharab?”

“Aye, Sharab. Never really liked that kingdom in the first place, this only affirms my beliefs.”

“Sharab has always been overly zealous when it comes to listening to Osvik so it’s not that out of the blue, it’s still bad news though.”

Taylor nods once more. “Anyhow, that’s why we’re at anchor. Our Dwarger friends ‘ere offered us some of their tech to upgrade our mighty ship. Cannons and armour platin’ and such.”

“Are they working fast enough for you?” Captain Mountainforge asks.

“Yes, was just here to ask if we could get some deck guns too. The engineers said it was classified and that I had to take it up with you.”

“I’ll clear you for that.” The captain nods.

“Thanks.” Taylor raises her glass and then takes another drink.

“What did we learn from the inquisitor?” I ask the group.

“They are preparing an assault on the city but I think that was already quite clear. We are preparing our defenses.” The captain replies.

“But why are they here and so many of them? Does it have something to do with Ami?”

Hilda and Élise look at each other before they give us an affirmative nod.

“Both yes and no. It’s a bit complicated.” Hilda says. “Apparently us going to this continent had more meaning than we initially thought. According to what the inquisitor told us, there’s legends that this continent used to be the ancient home of the god who created this world. That there supposedly are relics here that could change the balance of power drastically in the hands of a ‘heritic Goddess’ as they call you...”

“Oh…”

“But why now?” Sam scratches her cheek. “Didn’t they know of this continent’s existence before?”

“There was some kind of forcefield that shielded off the entire continent. They’d planned to set sail towards this place once it went down, but the appearance of the ‘heretic Goddess’ made their plans accelerate a lot.”

Right… the shielding is probably because of that weird MMO logic the God of this world used?

“Aye, it definitely was a lot harder to get here in the past. Only skilled captains like meself could slip through without having their ships sunk.”

“Did you ever see this forcefield?” Hilda asks our glorious captain.

“Less of a forcefield, more like incredibly unfavourable winds.”

“I see. So maybe they interpreted that as a forcefield then.” Hilda rubs her chin.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Quite possible.”

“What kind of relics were they talking about?” I then ask the group.

“He didn’t say.” Our Dwarger friend answers.

“But do you not perhaps know what he is talking about? Ruins or stuff like that.” Élise asks.

“Hmmm.” Captain Mountainforge thinks for a second. “Not immediately but then again we are only a coastal settlement. Not many scientists here. You’ll probably have more luck asking about that in the capital.”

“Is that a long way from here?” Hilda takes out a piece of paper and a pencil.

“A couple of days of travel on foot, but we might be able to give you some transportation.”

“Can we get the directions too?”

“Of course.” Captain Mountainforge takes a moment to help Hilda draw a crude map.

“Okay, thanks, that should be easy enough.” She puts the paper on the inside of her jacket.

“So, are we going to go to the capital then?” I ask.

“I think that would be our best option right now, sis. If that relic does exist and in fact does have a lot of power, I’d rather not have some theocratic fools get their hands on that.”

“That’s true… but will the people here be okay? With the inquisitors so closeby.”

“Don’t worry about us.” Captain Mountainforge proudly sticks his chest forward. “They will not be able to break through our walls.”

“And while we can’t attack them directly, we will be here to disrupt their supply lines and do some raidin’.” Taylor winks.

“As long as you stay safe. We wouldn’t want to lose a friend.” Sam says.

“Awh, that’s cute.” Taylor pats my girlfriend on the shoulder. “We’ll be fine. Had some way tougher challenges in the past.”

“I’ll go and get you some transportation after I write a letter to my engineers regarding the captain’s deck guns.” Mountainforge quickly walks out of the room, presumably to his office.

“Does anyone want to have another drink?” Taylor offers to which everyone raises their hand.

“For me something a bit stronger please.” Our Dwarger friend laughs.

“Comin’ right up.”

When the captain returns some time later we are all ready to go. He hands a letter over to Taylor and to Hilda. “Give this to the capital’s city council. They’ll point you towards our scientists.” He says after handing the letter over to our leader.

“Thank you, we will.”

“As for your transport, it should be ready outside.” The captain walks out ahead of us, expecting us to follow him which we gladly do. Outside of the building, in between the walkers stands a vehicle. It’s approximately the size of a van, supported by 6 metal legs. It’s roof looks more like a tent than anything else. It’s made out of sloped thin metal plates, connected in tree parts with rubber. The sides are completely open, apart from the railings of the sitting compartment.

“This nation really doesn’t like wheels doesn’t it?” My sister says as we all look closer to inspect our transport.

“Wheels are so primitive.” The two Dwarger say at the same time.

Taylor looks at our ride for a second and then grins. “Well, I’m happy I have me ship. Speaking of which, I should probably head back now.”

“Hope we will see you again soon, Taylor!” I give her a hug. “Please stay safe.”

“Aye aye.” She smiles. “If you find yourself near the coast, don’t forget you can use our flare.” Taylor pats my head.

“Will do.” Hilda replies.

I let Taylor go and she waves us goodbye as she heads towards the harbour.

In the meantime Nikki looks inside of the vehicle. “Does anyone know how to drive this thing?”

“I think so.” Hilda walks over to the driver’s seat. “Looks pretty straightforward to me.” She then looks over to the two Dwarger men. “Both sticks forward makes the thing go forward, left one back, right one forward to turn it left?”

Captain Mountainforge nods. “Just so.”

“Are you familiar with our technology?” the other Dwarger asks.

“I’ve seen something like this before.”

“Is there anything that Hilda can’t do?” I whisper to my sister.

“If there is it hasn’t been invented yet.” She softly giggles back.

“Alright, we should probably get back to work.” The captain continues. “Please don’t try to run into our houses on your way out.”

“We will definitely try.” Nikki smiles and with that we say goodbye to our Dwarger friends and step into the vehicle.

Hilda gets into the driver position and turns something that looks like a key. Making the engine start to puf-puf out some smoke. The thumping of the engine was a lot more silent than I had expected.

“Let’s get this thing moving.” Hilda says as she pushes the two levers in front of her forward, making the machine move.

It doesn’t take long for our machine to drive out of the city.

“I had expected this to be a lot more bumpy, with the legs and all.” My sister stares over the edge at the legs moving below us.

“They got some pretty good stabilisers it would seem.” Hilda nods. “I think this thing can also climb rocks.” She looks down at the panel in front of her.

“Let’s not test it unless it’s necessary, wouldn’t want to take the rest of the trip on foot.” Lise stops looking down and leans back in the relatively comfortable seat. Nikki immediately rests her head on my sister’s shoulder.

I decide to do the same with my girlfriend.

Sam smiles at me and then turns herself towards Hilda. “By the way, Hilda, where did you see such a system before?”

“The driving system?” Hilda looks back for a second before looking at the road again.

“Yeah.”

“Ah, I play a tank simulator on this console too. Some World War 2 tanks have the same kind of steering system. It’s called clutch braking. This is the first time I’ve seen that used with legs though.” She laughs.

“Huh, that sounds like an interesting game.” Sam smiles and then leans her head against mine.

“I’ll play it with you one day if you’d like.”

“That’d be cool.”

-Tank commander Sam… She’d definitely look great in a uniform…-