Quest Completed: The Wayward Son

You gained 440 Experience and 440 Renown!

I paused, waiting for something, anything to happen. I said.

Ezzie said.

I said.

Ezzie said.

Ezzie said.

I waited for Faye and her husband to return, then caught her eye.

The whole group headed my way, but Faye was the first to speak up. “If there’s anything we can do for you—anything at all—please, please let us know.”

“Well, there is something,” I said. “After you’ve had some time to process all this, of course.”

“Name it,” her husband said.

“I was hoping you’d be able to talk to the other villagers about the uh, you know.”

I didn’t really want to welcome everyone back just in time to throw the whole invasion thing right into their faces. But it wasn’t like I could afford to skirt the issue either.

Faye nodded, then shook her head as her husband gave her a quizzical look. “Later,” she said to him. “What would you like me to do?”

“I’ve got a huge stockpile of wood, so I’m going to supply all the defenses while people are out and about. I just need a bit of help to get everything together.”

“Oh!” Faye said. “Of course! I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to help, after everything you’ve done. And if not…well, no. They’ll help. We’ll make sure of it.”

“Thanks, Faye," I said.

The little boy was clutching his father’s leg, but it looked like he had something to say, so I knelt down in front of him. The boy swallowed, and his father patted him on the back, pushing him forward gently.

“Go on, son,” the father said.

“Um,” the boy said. “Thank you for saving us, teapot man.”

I winced.

Ezzie said, shouting and laughing the words.

“You’re very welcome,” I said.

“I’ll spread the word as soon as I get these two settled in," Faye said. "Think they could probably use a hot meal. And probably two baths a piece.” She squeezed my shoulder as she passed, shepherding her family through the milling crowd beyond.

I said.

Ezzie said, trailing off.

I headed over to the inn and found the pair drinking at their usual table, with six empty mugs between them. “Hey,” I said. “You two got a minute?”

“No,” the woman said.

“You heard her,” the man added.

I said.

I said.

Ezzie said.

“So you’re just gonna stand there talking to your robo friend, huh?” the woman said. “As if it doesn’t make you look like a crazy person.”

“Pretty much, yeah,” I said. Both of the other players’ Constructors turned as one, their eyes gazing at my own Constructor.

“I do not like this,” the man said. “Not one bit. What are you up to, kid?”

I shrugged. “Don’t know. Not my plan.”

The woman looked me over, seemed to come to a decision, then pulled a third chair up to their table, earning a glare from her companion. I went to sit down, but the woman tipped the chair forward to make it inaccessible. “Price of admission is two rounds,” she said.

I nodded. “How much are they?”

“Just a copper a piece,” she said.

“Oh, sure,” I said.

Ezzie nodded through the link, and the Constructor printed six copper coins into my palm. I dropped them onto the table and the woman released the chair, so I sat down.

And then uh, nothing really. They just kept drinking in relatively hostile silence until a wire-thin innkeeper ambled over, then the man ordered six more drinks, motioning for me to make the payment.

I tried to hand the innkeeper the coins, but he shook his head and disappeared into the inn.

“Huh,” the man said. “That was weird. So how’d you get in?”

“To the grounds you mean?” I said. He nodded, so I continued: “I was a scavver out on a run for antibiotics. Crossed paths with an android patrol and they scooped me up and tossed me into a pet shop. My Pilot bought me, so here I am.”

The two of them seemed to relax a little bit at that. Or maybe they were just drunk. The innkeeper brought six metal mugs out, deftly setting each down around the empties that cluttered the table, then headed back inside without taking my coins.

I grabbed a mug and took a sip and really, really wished I hadn’t. The stuff was absolutely vile. “Dear god, that is atrocious.”

“Give it a couple years,” the woman said. “You’ll get used to it. My name’s Mara, by the way. And this is Nathan.”

“Silas,” I said. “Nice to meet you.”

“We figured you were a volunteer,” Nathan said. “We were scavvers too.”

“He’s trying to apologize for being a dick,” Mara said, “but he’s not any good at it. But in his defense, it gets pretty hard to stay polite in a place like this.”

“Especially when other people get to leave,” Nathan said, speaking over the rim of his mug.

“No harm done,” I said. “It’s just good to talk to some other people again.” I slid my mug back across the table. Wasn’t drinking that. I caught the innkeeper’s eye, and he ducked back out. “You’ve got the Ester brew, yeah? Faye’s husband’s?”

The innkeeper nodded.

“We’ll take three,” I said. “How much is that gonna run me?”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The innkeeper frowned. “Your copper is no good here, sir. Nor is that of your guests. Whatever you’d like is on the house.”

“Oh,” I said. “Well, thank you then.”

“Free drinks?” Nathan and Mara said simultaneously.

The innkeeper nodded, departed, and returned with the drinks right away.

“Did you say free drinks?” Nathan repeated to the innkeeper.

“For the Teapot King and his guests?” the innkeeper said. “I imagine that’s the least we can do.” He bowed at the waist and headed back into the inn.

Ezzie said. But more importantly, something was fizzing through the link, too: excitement, maybe? And it was clearly about something else than the horrible nickname the innkeeper had just bestowed upon me.

“Thanks,” the woman said. “Never had this brew before. Too rich for our blood.”

Nathan grunted, took one sip of the new brew I’d ordered, and whistled. “Welp. Gonna be another year before the budget brew tastes decent again. Thanks for ruining my perspective, kid.”

“You’re welcome?” I said.

“Don’t mind him,” Mara said. “He’s not what you’d call a people…” she frowned, all the mirth draining from her face. “What just happened?”

“You felt that too, huh?” Nathan said.

“What’d you do, Silas?” Mara said.

I held my hands up, palms-out. “I didn’t do anything!”

Ezzie screamed through the link, making me jump.

I covered my ears reflexively, though of course that didn’t help with the volume owing to the fact that her voice was inside my head.

I leaned forward in my chair.

I bit my tongue so hard I expected to taste blood at any moment.

“What’s up?” Mara said. “Your temples are twitching.”

“Sorry, one sec,” I said. “Trying to figure out what’s going on.”

The presence of a mail system raised all kinds of questions, but there were more important matters at hand.

Ezzie said,

I said.

Ezzie said.

<…But why would he let them go?>

I said.

<…Still. I get that it might be necessary, but it doesn’t feel great.>

Ezzie groaned.

Ezzie laughed.

“Huh,” Mara said. “It seems we’ve just experienced a change of ownership, Nathan.”

The other man grunted and took a deep pull on his beer.

“Yeaaah, sorry about that,” I said. “Pilot went rogue.”

Ezzie said.

“As they tend to do,” Mara said, shrugging.

I goggled at her. “…I kinda thought you’d be more pissed off,” I said.

“Eh,” Nathan said. “Terms didn’t change, so nothing changed. Same shit, different asshole.”

I laughed. “Oh that’s good, I like that.” I hesitated. “Wait, am I the asshole?”

“You’re the asshole, boss man,” Nathan said.

“Definitely the asshole,” Mara said. “Sorry, that’s just how it works.”

“Yeah that’s fair,” I said.

I said.

<…yeah, sorry,> Ezzie said.

I dropped the coppers onto the table. “First order of business: take the morning off. Or get absolutely blasted and go to work, I don’t care. My Pilot’s gonna grant you both access to my estate, that way you can stop paying for housing and food.

"If you’d rather pay to stay here, that’s fine too. If you do decide to come, though, I’ll get you some shelters built tonight. And we can figure something out for the other stuff."

Nathan looked to his partner. “You wanna get blasted then go, yeh?”

“Oh yeah,” Mara said. “Circle of light entry-point, right? Over on that hill a bit outside town?”

“Yeah that’s it. Only restriction is that you’re only allowed to leave the estate once a day.”

“We’ll be there at some point,” Mara said. “Might wait until the morning if we’re too drunk to make it up the hill.”

“Cool,” I said. “My Pilot thinks we can get a mine set up for you at the estate, too. Should cut down on that walk.”

Nathan grunted again. “Those are worries for a more sober time.”

“Well, thank you both,” I said. Nathan shrugged and Mara nodded, so I took my leave.

Ezzie said.

I said.

Ezzie said.

I said.

Ezzie hesitated. she said.

I stood there for a moment, dazed; I’d been thinking about the future, too. Here.

But if this was all over in a handful of days either way...

I shrugged.

Ezzie said.

We made another loop of the town, but as far as I could tell, nothing had changed: there were still huge gaps in the walls, and the guard towers more closely resembled piles of rubble than any kind of useful fortifications.

Ditto the catapults.

Ezzie said.

I said.

Ezzie said.

{Basic Catapult}

Effect: Launches a long range, AoE attack that deals 300-500 physical damage to enemies within a 15 yard radius of the impact zone

Operation Requirements: 2-4 villagers (assigning more villagers to this object will increase its attack speed)

Range: 50-200 yards {Basic Catapult} may not attack targets within 50 yards)

Attack Speed: One projectile every 60 seconds

Cost: 10 Lumber per Catapult (max 6 {Basic Catapults})

I said.

Ezzie said.

{Basic Guard Tower}

Effect: Villagers assigned to this structure will be upgraded into archers.

Operation Requirements: 1-5 villagers (assigning more villagers to this object will result in more archers)

Archer range: 0-75 yards

Archer attack speed: Slow

Cost: 25 Lumber per tower (max 4 {Basic Guard Tower})

I said.

Ezzie said.

I said. I walked from catapult to catapult, from tower to tower, selecting each would-be structure in turn and depositing the wood that was needed, which the Constructor scanned into existence in neat piles.

I turned my attention to the wall next, which required a small pile of lumber be dropped off at each gap in the fence. Once that was done, Ezzie and I made a quick loop around the town to make sure that we hadn’t missed anything. And we hadn’t.

Ezzie said.