“Are we there yet?” Dawn asked.
Ryan laughed at his companion’s singsong voice as she vocalized her frustration. The journey from Liberty had been long and while they were getting closer, they were not done with their journey. “No, but there is a village just ahead. We can take the rest of the day and relax there. Stay a night in an inn and have a hot meal and a drink or two.”
Dawn gave him a big smile. “Oh, I like the sound of a bed,” she said with a wink.
Ryan felt his cheeks warm. His relationship with Dawn was rather new, and the sparks were still flying. It only took a look from her to get his blood boiling. “Yes, it does sound like a good idea.”
“It is fairly in the day though, perhaps instead of just sitting around in the inn, we should see if they have a quest or two available. We haven’t exactly been racking up the experience points this trip.”
Ryan nodded. Aside from the first few days when they’d run into a few scouts from the Braven and sent them to their graves, a temporary but expensive setback for the players they’d killed, and boon to their own experience points, they hadn’t had many challenges along the way. A few bandits and a couple monsters and wild animals had given them a few good fights, but nothing exceptional. Completing a few quests, if they could find quick ones, was an excellent idea.
It was with that in mind that they entered the village of Blackmoss.
“Greetings travelers,” a guard said as they approached the gates to the village. A wooden palisade surrounded the village and there were only two entrances to the village. The guard looked twice at Hedwig, but didn’t say anything. It was obvious he’d dealt with unique pets before.
“Hello,” Ryan replied as they arrived at the gates. He examined the guard to see how strong he was.
Stephen Level 30 guard
Ryan raised an eyebrow. This village guard had a higher level than some of the main guards from Mara.
Dawn noticed the same thing. “You’re rather strong,” she said to the guard with a smile. “Are all the guards of this village at the same level as you? We haven’t encountered many guards above level 20.
Stephen’s chest puffed out at her praise. “I’ve only recently reached this level, and I’m currently the highest-level guard in the village, but several others are close. We’ve had quite a busy time with bandits and rogue adventurers trying to capture our village. But we’ve held our ground.”
“Oh? Can you tell us more about these rogue adventurers?” Ryan asked.
Stephen’s face darkened. “A group calling themselves the Black Wolf Guild, but they aren’t wolves, they more like flea bitten coyotes. They aren’t strong enough to defeat us in a straight up fight, despite multiple attempts. Now they harass and kill our hunters and farmers. Now we have to send out village guards to protect our farmers, but it makes hunting and gathering almost impossible. We’re strong as long as we’re behind our walls, but out in the fields and forest they are able to harm our people.”
“Sounds frustrating,” Dawn said.
“Yes, it is. On the other hand, everything those idiots attack us I gain experience. Killing adventurers while defending the village is the quickest way for a guard to level up. If it weren’t for the fact that we could use some fresh meat to eat, I’d be happy these idiots keep coming for us.”
“Hmm. The village is short of meat? You think your mayor would give us a quest for meat?”
“We don’t have a mayor. We have a clan elder, but if you spoke to her, I’m sure she would give you a quest. But be careful, the woods are full of those dirty little coyotes.”
Ryan grinned. “Maybe she’d give us a quest to deal with the bad doggies.”
Stephen snorted. “If you’re capable, ask for it. Anything that helps weaken them helps us. Elder Shavonne is in the big house at the top of the hill. You can’t miss it. Just head into the village and follow the hill to the top.”
Thanking the guard for his help, Ryan and Dawn headed up the hill with Hedwig following behind. As they climbed the hill, several of the villagers stopped what they were doing to stare at Hedwig. While it seemed that Stephen was used to strange sights, the majority of the villagers were a little more shocked to see a massive owl-bear in their midst.
At the top of the hill, they found an elderly woman waiting for them. She stood erect, her head held high and her long silver hair flowed behind her with the wind. With the sun behind her, she looked almost outworldy.
“Greetings adventures, I hear you are looking for quests?”
Ryan raised an eyebrow. There was no way she’d heard them talking, did they have a chat system like their guild chat? Or was she some type of special NCP?
Elder Shavonne noticed his look and chuckled. “Sorry, I’m a vain old woman and I love to play the mysterious saga role.” She moved out of the sun, and a small bird landed on her shoulder.
“It was an impressive show,” Ryan said with a grin. “How did you know?”
“A little bird told me,” Elder Shavonne said.
The tiny bird, the size of a sparrow, squawked. “Adventures coming to see you, want quests for food and to kill the coyotes.”
“An impressive little messenger system,” Ryan said.
“Yes, as long as the messages aren’t too complicated,” Elder Shavonne said. “But Stephen has developed his own shorthand that is rather effected. This is one of the longer messages he’s sent me, but we don’t get many adventurers asking for quests to fight other adventurers.”
“Then you haven’t made the rewards high enough,” Dawn said with a laugh. “Make the quest worth enough and some adventurers would fight their own mothers.”
“I’m not sure I’d want to hire adventurers willing to do that, but I see your point. Unfortunately, we aren’t’ a rich village, so we can’t offer too much, but we do have some valuable alchemy ingredients that we harvest locally. And with the Black Wolf Guild has been raiding our traders, we haven’t been able to trade as we normally would.
“That is a problem we’d like to help with,” Dawn said.
Elder Shavonne looked them over closely, taking a particularly long look at Hedwig. “I do believe you might be able to help. I haven’t met any adventurers with such a powerful beast companion before.”
Elder Shavonne has offered you a quest! Bring her wild meat to feed the village and kill any members of the Black Wolf Guild that try and stop you. Receive 10 silver and 1 bunder of alchemic ingredients per carcass and kill.
Ryan accepted the quest. “Any areas that we should be focused on?”
“Yes, the forest to the south of town is rich in wildlife, and is our normal hunting grounds. That is where the guild has a base from which they attack us and where they patrol to limit our ability to supply ourselves with food.”
“Shall we go hunting?” Dawn asked with a grin.
Ryan smiled. He nodded at Elder Shavonne. “It was a pleasure to meet you. We’ll be back with some supplies in a few hours.”
“If that is the case, we’ll have a feast awaiting your arrival. We have a few local dishes that are famous in the kingdom. If you supply fresh meat, it will be a meal to remember.”
Considering how good the food tasted in the game, Ryan had no doubts that this feast would be amazing. He vowed to himself that they’d bring back plenty of meat.
Leaving Elder Shavonne, they headed back down the hill and back to the gates. There, they found Stephen waiting for them.
“I’m glad Elder Shavonne thinks you’re up to the task,” Stephen said.
“We hope we are, but one never knows until they try,” Ryan said.
“Very true. Now as you head south, you’ll see a trail going into the woods. If you follow that trail it will lead you to our normal hunting grounds, and more than likely an ambush. Do what you will with that info.”
Ryan looked at Dawn. “Let’s go for a walk.”
Dawn laughed. “While do I feel like I’m about to be used as bait?”
Ryan grinned. “Because we are the bait.” He then looked over to Hedwig. “When they attack us, Hedwig is going to attack them, aren’t you buddy?”
The massive owlbear huffed and clawed the ground before heading into the woods. They’d done this before where Hedwig was the bait, and it seemed the owlbear was rather glad to take his turn as the hunter.
As they walked through the forest, Ryan noticed the abundance of plants that held medicinal properties, and the further they went into the woods the richer the herbs became. He could see why the guild was making a play for the village. While it might be small, it had ample resources nearby that would make it a treasure trove for aspiring alchemists. “We’ll have to make sure to establish our own trade route with the village.”
Dawn agreed. “Yes, I wonder of these idiots ever though of just trying to establish trade instead of trying to conquer them?”
“That’s not very nice,” a voice rang out from the trees to Ryan’s left. “Taking poorly of your betters is rather unseemly.” A player stepped out of the woods, a wicked looking bearded ax in his hand.
“I don’t consider anyone who hides in the trees listening to other people’s conversations, to be anyone’s betters,” Dawn replied.
“That’s not true,” Ryan said. “They could be better than Red Belly Slime-Slugs. You remember those things? They were awful.”
“But the slugs served a purpose. They’re slime was an excellent anti-septic,” Dawn said as she shook her head.
Ryan sighed loudly. “Dang that’s right. Sorry, mister. I have to agree with my friend, everything is your better.”
The man’s brow furrowed as he stepped forward. “Bunch of comedians, are you? You’ll regret coming here. This is Black Wolf Guild Territory!”
“Wait, did you say Black Wolf Guild Territory?” Dawn said, sounding shocked.
“That’s right,” a second man said as he came out of the woods on Dawns side of the path.
Behind them, Ryan could hear more members of the guild as they tried to sneak into position behind them to complete the ambush. In truth, they weren’t as sneaky as they thought. He’d noticed them far before they’d walked into the so-called trap. There was a slight breeze and the bandits upwind of them had an unpleasant odor. It seemed that personal hygiene wasn’t a requirement for joining the Black Wolf Guild.”
The second man raised his sword. “You’ve got a smart mouth boy. I wonder how smart it will be when I cut your tongue out.”
Suddenly there was a scream from behind them. Both of the players in front of Ryan and Dawn shifted their eyes to the source of the scream. It was the signal Ryan was waiting for. He casually turned as if he too was looking towards the screams, but instead he reached into his magical bag of holding and pulled out his glaive, all the while the two men were focused on the screams of their companions, as Hedwig found a second member of the ambush squad that was still hidden in the bushes.
Turning and thrusting his glaive all in one motion, Ryan stabbed the bearded-ax holding player while Dawn attacked the one with the sword. Both of them were able to land critical hits to the men before they realized the danger they faced wasn’t from the monster in the woods but the two travelers in front of them.
Hitting the player with a combination of Rapid Thrust, Power Slash, and finally Shock, his lightning based magic attack, Ryan rapidly depleted his opponent’s health.
The guild member was in shock. “What? How are you so strong? Please don’t kill me!”
Ryan continued the onslaught, but allowed himself a brief hero dialogue, or villain depending on who was listening. “You idiots think that joining a guild that spends all its time harassing NPCs is going to make you strong? Play the game the right way and you won’t die so easily.”
The players eye’s went big, either in fear of the killing blow that was coming, or he’d reached an epiphany about play style, Ryan didn’t know or care. With a double thrust attack, he finished him off.
You have defeated 4theLolz Level 15 player. 500 exp
Hedwig has defeated 3 players (Lvls 12,11,8) You receive 350 exp.
Ryan looked over at Dawn who was smirking at him. “What?”
“Play the game the right way and you won’t die so easily? When did you start playing a self-righteous smite the wicked holy paladin?”
Chuckling, Ryan replied. “OK, maybe it was a bit much, but I was monologuing. He was obviously a noob that got sucked into playing with a lame guild. Maybe getting his ass handed to him, along with a smite the wicked rant will make him look at how he plays this game. New Realm Online is so much more that just a regular game, these bone-heads are missing out on half of the experience by not respecting the NCPs and learning from them.”
Dawn nodded. “I suppose that’s true, but come up with a better tag line. That was cheesy as hell.”
Ryan laughed at Dawn’s assessment of his monologue. He would concede that it needed work. “I’ll come up with something better.”
Hedwig came through the bushes, face covered in blood but a satisfied twinkle in his eyes.
“Come on, you can work on your cheesy kill lines while we hunt. We have a mission to finish and guild members to find,” Dawn said. “You’ll have plenty of time to practice your lines soon enough.”