Gamelit 31 (back to work/fun)

I know it's Black Friday and I should be trying to sell you things, but I think I'll just give you things instead.😁

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          It felt like it had been forever since he’d logged on, and the break had done him good. He felt fresh, like he could hit the game with new energy. Or maybe that was the coffee he’d had with Blythe, or the walk they’d taken afterwards in the park? She was relaxing to be around… he didn’t feel like he had to try quite so hard with her, but he wanted to be a better person anyway. It was hard to explain.

            But it was after dinner, and he wanted to get back to work. “Before you show me what you did with the village,” Nick said, “we gotta finish the quest with the stream.”

            “Sounds good,” his mom said. “I’d like to see what happens.”

            They’d zoned in, and the AI had zipped over, glowing like a green firefly. It was still apparently invisible to everyone else, which was fine. For now, anyway. Maybe he could talk her into taking a shape? Like a flying pet of some kind? Aloud, he said, “We’re ready to resume the interrupted scenario.”

            The game transported them back to the headwater and cued the cut scene, and it was better than any he’d ever experienced; because he was in it, instead of watching his character animated through it. The floating offerings, the singing, the silence, all of that replayed from before their abrupt logout… then the water pooled until it drew upward into a glowing figure. Not one of the Cervinaethi, and not a centaur, but something that combined features of both, with great antlers that framed a rotating sphere of stars. He recognized several of the constellations, and wondered if it would be as easy to learn the ones in the real sky.

            “Who comes before me?” the Lord of the Forest intoned in a bass so deep Nick felt his torso vibrate, like he was standing too close to the speaker stack at a concert.

            His mom glanced at him, brows lifted, and that inspired him. He straightened his shoulders and said, “A mother and a son. We come on behalf of those who would leave peaceably within these woods.”

            “You? The creation of my sister’s hubris? Speak for… who, precisely?”

            Nick felt his cervine ears flip back. “For the humans and centaurs who live here. And anyone else they will welcome to their town.” He raised his chin. “That is my duty, as your sister’s creation. To teach them how to honor the forest, the way my people did in the past when we made our treaty with you.”

            One great hoof scraped at the stones, spraying a fan of water upward. “You speak of duty.”

            “Of course,” Nick said. “I am Cervinaethi. We ward the wild places. We teach the younger races of the elders. We are the bridge between mortal and immortal and divine.” He bowed, clasping his hands together. “Give me leave to serve again. I will teach the people of Donner’s Beck to be good stewards of the forest.”

            “So that these people can burn the glade again?”

            “Those were our enemies, Lord of the Forest,” his mom said, stepping forward. “But it is our duty also to protect the young from those who would destroy them.”

            The Lord of the Forest bent toward her, glowing eyes narrowing. “I will not be party to the internecine quarrels of mortals.”

            “This isn’t about mortals and immortals,” she answered. “This is about the eternal cycles and rhythms of nature. The young breed, bear young, and defend those young until they grow to become parents themselves.”

            Nice, mom! he thought.

            “We seek no quarrel,” Nick said, and then, inspired, added, “But we will finish any thrust on us; twice over, if they seek to destroy the forest. Let us be your guardians as well as ours.”

            Another scrape of those enormous hooves. “You claim to speak for the people, though there are no Cervinaethi. Prove it. I will grant you a boon—each of you—a boon of the forest. You will be judged based on what you choose to do with it. Choose wisely, and I will release the river, and by that you will know the treaty is restored. Choose poorly, and I will release the flood, and there will be no one left to know your failure.” He spread his hands apart and a star from between his antlers spiraled down until it floated over each palm. Then the star shot toward each of them and struck them in the chest. Like being hit by the fizzing sparks from a sparkler, but hard enough to rock Nick on his heels.

            The Lord of the Forest vanished, and that was that… except for the weight of the boon. Nick pried his collar loose and peeked down it, and as he expected, there was now a sprouting seed tattooed in golden light on his chest.

            His mother, though, was prying up one of the stones. He started to say something, but she hefted it up, like she was showing baby Simba to the animals. “Lord of the Forest, we take this stone with us into the village of Donner’s Beck as a reminder of the power of nature, and our promises to the forest.”

            A gleam traveled the surface of the rock, just enough to make it clear that something magical had happened.

            “We keep our promises,” she finished, and turned to him. “Right?”

            “Right,” he said, grinning. As they clambered onto the bank, he said, “What are you going to do with that, anyway?”

            “No idea,” his mom admitted and he started laughing. “More importantly… what are we going to do to defend the town? I thought we needed the water to fill in the moat. I’m guessing we can’t use these boons to get around that.”

            “I wouldn’t,” Nick said. “This is obviously supposed to tie in with our developing questline about rebuilding Donner’s Beck; we’ve got to prove that we make good choices, choices that benefit both the forest and the village. But we should be creative about it, you know? Do something epic and magical. If we can do it ourselves with enough sweat and some shovels, that would be a bad candidate.”

            She nodded, trotting alongside him. “Like using a sports car to go to the grocery.” She pursed her lips. “Of course, if the only car you have is a sports car….”

            “Then you probably should have made better life decisions,” Nick said. He was still grinning. The game was fun. Playing with his mom was fun. She was chill and silly, and she didn’t think his hobby was stupid, after all. She was actually more into it than she thought. “Anyway, Dad had a lot of ideas that had nothing to do with the moat. And we can still dig the trenches for the moat, and fill them with those things they put all over the beaches in World War II.”

            “Or magical stuff,” his mom said. “Acid? Fire that never stops burning? No, wait, that might incinerate the wildlife, the way solar panels do to birds. Come to think of it, sharpened posts are awful enough. Will they stop other players though? That fight between Carl and what’s his name lasted forever. We take a lot of killing. Or at least, older characters like you do. What stops characters like you?”

            “Honestly?” Nick stuck his hands in his pockets. “Other players. Or a lot of really, really high level NPCs. Elite city guards. That sort of thing.”

            “Maybe I can use my boon to summon a guardian dragon?”

            He laughed. “Don’t do that. There’s no guarantee the dragon would stay on our side.”

            “If I fed it enough cookies?” She dug in her pouch, came up with a double chocolate chip cookie. “Oooh, this one says it increases speed but reduces dexterity. ‘Move fast, break things.’ What, is it caffeinated?”

            “I’ll test it for you.” He took it and tried it and it was gooey and perfect. “So far, not moving much faster. I think.”

            “Nope. So… what do we do next? We have a few hours before I’m ready for bed. Do we use the boons?”

            No moat, no defenses, a mostly destroyed village, and apparently his opponent knew where they were and what they were up to. Nick finished the cookie and licked his fingers. “I think… we shouldn’t plan the boons. Cleaning out all the rubble… that’s probably enough to keep us busy—” He stopped. “Is that the guy you told us about?”

            “Oh, yes! That’s Carl. Hi, Carl!”

            Carl was a level-capped human cavalier with an impressive loadout… that was a full set from the last expansion’s endgame raid, and enchanted with runecarving, which wasn’t a minor undertaking for plate armor. Next to him was a human outrider whose ornate and magical bow looked ridic contrasted with his basic gear—that would be the newb, then, who’d gotten slaughtered during the raid on Donner’s Beck. The outrider looked nervy, and he had a glowing arrow nocked and pointed at the ground. But Carl looked a lot like a golden retriever turned into a person. It would have been cringe if the guy so obviously didn’t care what anyone thought. That made his derp kind of awesome.

            “Thoroldaena,” Carl said, bowing. “My shield is yours.”

            Okay, no, he was the right kind of dopey. Lore nerds were always welcome in Nick’s book. Even lore nerds with questionable names. He glanced at the tag hanging above Carl’s head, and said, “Tankydoo. For your valiant defense of Donner’s Beck, you have earned every.. uh… consideration.”

            “If only my valiant defense had been more effective,” Carl said ruefully. “But next time, KillzYourFase won’t find us so easily defeated! Right, Spellz?” When his friend didn’t answer, Carl elbowed him. “Right, Spellz?”

            “Oh, right. Absolutely. I’m going to murder the—uh.” Spellz choked, staring at Nick’s mom, cleared his throat. “I’m going to murder that guy when he comes next. To death.”

            “That’s usually how you murder someone,” his mom said cheerfully. “Would you like a cookie?”

            “I.. what? I guess?”

            “Eat her food, she makes amazing food,” Carl said. “So, Thoroldaena. What’s the agenda? Are we going with the moat like Wizard guy said?”

            Wouldn’t his dad love that! He was now ‘Wizard guy.’ Nick grinned. “Not until there’s a trench for it. So let’s get that organized.” He caught the disappointment that Carl tried to hide and couldn’t blame him. Someone who played a cavalier and liked the lore hadn’t signed up to do townbuilding. “Also, it’s clear Donner’s Beck needs a militia. Would you go through the existing villagers and see who might make a good core force for our new guard? Then you can train them.”

            “You want me to train the new Donner’s Beck guard?” Carl exclaimed. “Aw, hell yes! I’m on it! But what about my man Spellz here? Do you want him to do some scouting for you?”

            This idea made Spellz queasy, from his expression. Since that’s how he’d gotten ambushed, Nick couldn’t blame him. “Are you a traps-and-snares kind of outrider, or a fast-travel outrider?”

            “I don’t know yet,” Spellz said. “I guess… now it’s saying my choices will influence my development. What should I choose??”

            “What do you want to do?” No, wrong question. “When you decided to get yourself a magic bow and something like an outrider’s class, what were you imagining yourself doing?”

            “I guess… something kind of like Aragorn? I just thought he looked really cool in the movie.”

            That… wasn’t much to go on. And wasn’t even correct, since Aragorn had been a sword kind of guy. “Okay, you’re on teaching duty with Tanky, then. Train the villagers on ranged weapons. Unless you’d be willing to go to the next town to get help?”

            “I don’t know where anything is,” Spellz said. “And I don’t want to get ganked again, so… I guess I’ll do the teaching thing.”

            As the outrider trudged toward Donner’s Beck, Carl showed him a fist. “Don’t worry. He sounds disappointed, but he’s gonna love it.”

           Nick hoped so as he bumped it. He wasn’t sure what he could do with someone whose main motivation was to avoid dying. That didn’t seem like a recipe for either heroics or adventure. But maybe the trauma of being camped by Killz’s partner would wear off soon. “If he doesn’t, we’ll find something else for him to do.”

            “Sounds great! I’m off to buff up the defense."           

           “Isn’t he nice?” Mom said.

            “I like him,” Nick said, because it was true. It was hard to hate a golden retriever. “What are you gonna do?”

            “I think I’ll put this stone somewhere. And get to work in the kitchen. A lot of people are going to be hungry.”

            “Are you sure you want to cook instead of braining things with a spoon?” Nick teased.

            “I’m sure that the process of cooking will involve me telling a lot of people what to do, and when, and we’ll end up partially rebuilding the inn,” his mom answered, amused. “You’ll see.”

            That left him to his own task, whatever he was going to do, and he wasn’t sure until a new dialogue box popped up.

WORLD QUEST: From the Ground Up

After suffering the depredations of marauders, Donner’s Beck is in need of restoration! Find a novel way to participate in the rebuilding of this starter village to earn unique, one-time rewards.

 

Current Chapters and Progression:

            Seed to Sap: Oversee the growth of the new tree.

            Avengers, Assemble: Train up the new NPC town guards.

            Bridge Over Troubled Waters: The town moat is waiting on the restoration of the Donner river.

            Heart of the Village: The inn is in shambles. Rebuild it to restore vital village services.

            “Oh, perfect,” Nick said. “That’ll keep us on track. Plus it’ll look exciting for people watching, which I guess is a thing now.” He walked the perimeter of what was left of Donner’s Beck. KillzYourFase had done a serious number on the rubble, again, but his mom had a point: they hadn’t made much progress so the destruction didn’t feel like as much of a setback. He stopped in the middle of what would become the plaza, ignoring the centaurs hauling stones toward the inn, and crouched alongside the arrow. Nothing about it suggested it had been cursed or poisoned, but he didn’t want to touch it. Would it be better to leave it stuck there, or should he tear it out? The little sprout next to it was shorter in comparison, and more curled in on itself.

            The Cervinaethi were known for their nature affinity, but Nick wasn’t playing a class with nature or healing magics. The closest thing he had was the herbalism skill. Would that be enough to turn him into a gardener? Or at least, enough of one to help the tree? He held a hand over it, palm down, and concentrated, eyes closing.

            You sense a hollow space that could be filled with song.

            “Really?” he asked, skeptical.

            The AI dipped into view on his right side. “In 78% of quests relating to Cervinaethi and druidic magics, music is part of the storyline or quest component.”

            “What about the other 22%?”

            “Dancing is the next most frequent mention.”

            Given the choice between dancing and singing, he’d definitely take singing. “Right. Time for another mandolin moment, I guess. But I think I’m going to look for some more mundane plant stuff first. Like fertilizer and water. And maybe… I don’t know. Pollinators? Pesticides?”

            Quest update, Seed to Sap

            Donner’s Beck’s newest tree needs orange oak sap to condition the soil. Harvest some from the nearby forest to give it a growth boost.

            “Better,” Nick said. “I wouldn’t want it to be all singing, all the time.”

            “Are you certain?” the AI asked.

            “Yes,” Nick said. “I love music, but I’m not playing to only do music. I want to experience everything. Especially the outside stuff.” He called to Carl, who was already lining up the NPCs, “Hey, bro, I’m off to do a gather quest.”

            “Sure thing! Need escort?”

            “Nah. If I’m not back, though, avenge me.”

            Carl saluted him. “You got it.”