Rolly and Ben respawned in the Sedgewick Village Square. Immediately the effects of respawning hit them. The day was a bit gloomier, every joint hurt, and it took an effort not to throw up. At least Ben felt that way. Rolly staggered to his feet and put both thumbs in the air. "HAH! Sucess! Still drunk. Professor Rolly tests another theory. I'll be back in a few. Got to feed an animal." He staggered off towards the barn and corral area, leaving Ben to his misery.

A few heads turned their way, but this seemed a normal enough occurrence lately to not hold much of the locals' interests. Hearing a moan from his left, Ben realized they weren't the only ones repspawning. Jorge the Blacksmith had his head on the fountain rim, moaning. Two of the lumberjacks, Jon and Cham, were laying on their backs discussing cloud shapes. Miriam was using Jorges for a pillow.

Jon noticed Ben. "So, in case you were wondering. Being able to cut down a 24" tree in a minute does not mean you can actually kill a goblin. Nor does a blacksmith swinging a hammer. I think Miriam did the best with a shovel, but she was just tossing dirt in it's eyes."

Cham disagreed. "I told you, that had to be an orc! Maybe a midget Uruk-hai. It was tough as hell. I only did 20 damage on my one hit. It dodged all the rest and barely looked like it was moving. Had to be an orc assassin."

"It's rough out there. We got killed by a wolf, but we did kill a bunny." Ben got up, despite how his head felt. He planned to go visit Matthias and toss Beatrice a couple of apples.

An hour later Suzette and Ozzy appeared. Jon and Cham were still cloudwatching. Jorges had declared he'd feel better pounding out nails, and Miriam had moved over to Jon and joined the discussion of cloud shapes. Washing his head in the fountain made Ozzy feel a bit better. This lasted until he noticed Suzette was dancing around the fountain, spinning on her toes and singing some familar tune that he just couldn't quite place.

"Well, someone is feeling good. How are you overcoming the respawn BS?"

"Pretty people don't have bad days." And she was pretty. Prettier? Her curly brown hair ran down to the small of her back and was tied in ribbons. Her luminous green eyes and long pointed ears gave her an otherworldly charm. The people of Sedgewick who saw her smiled warmly at her and waved.

Ozzy's head hurt. Maybe he should find a way to get some CHR? Then again, maybe not dying would be a good thing to start practicing. He did feel pretty good though. A lot of the aches and pains were receeding. Adding two points of CON to his heritage might not let him win beauty contests but it did make him feel better. The extra STR had felt awkward at times. That feeling was gone now. He felt more balanced as he moved.

Rolly was just coming back from the barn where he'd tossed two empty buckets. Ben appeared from the livery stable with a coiled whip on his belt. "Borrowed this from Matthias. Need to practice some. Do you all feel like wandering a bit in the sunny fields of Sedgewick?" The others nodded and they started walking to the rabbit meadow. This time out they didn't have much of anything except for the clothes on their backs. What little gear they had was in their headstones. At least those would be easy to find, and if the message they had gotten was true, a chest of loot was waiting as well.

The meadow looked as they'd left it. Several Fat Rabbits were grazing. They could see their headstones in a small clump where they had died. They walked forward cautiously, but no wolf or other predator appeared. Sure enough, a stout chest was sitting about twenty feet past their headstones. Rolly heard a rustling in the brush and two men stepped out, obviously players. The first was dressed in a blue robe with white stars on it. His label proclaimed him to be 'MasterTBlaster Level 2 Elemental Mage.' The other wore a mix of armors and had a heavy crossbow pointed at them; 'Sniperdiperdoo' Blackguard Level 3' yelled at them.

"Looky here Masterblaster, just like you called it. Poor helpless lambs coming back for their stuff. Here's how it works folks: You all can just touch that loot chest to unlock it, then back away from it, opposite direction of your tombstones. We'll take the loot and leave. You get back your stuff. Try anything funny and we just kill you again. And again if you keep coming back. It will annoy us to stay here, but we don't mind the EP if you don't mind losing some levels in skills each time you die."

The group looked at each other, and then spoke. "We aren't stupid newbies, we know how this works. I don't feel like pulling crossbow bolts out of my ass and losing another level." He walked to the chest, slapped it and walked away 30 feet. The others followed one by one doing the same. It sucked, but no one wanted to die again.

"Smart people, good working with you. If you don't have a guild yet, you might consider signing up with us, we always need smart people." The two reached the chest and flipped it open. Pouches of coins dropped jingling to the ground, along with a large bulky bag and a pair of beautiful leather boots.

In the moment the duo's eyes went to the loot, Ozzy and Ben charged. Ozzy yelled at the crossbowman. "Hey, Goblin fondler! Over here!" The crossbow had been tracking Ben, but now swung over to Ozzy and fired. The bolt hit Ozzy in the left shoulder doing 80 points of damage. It hurt like hell but he kept charging. The mage yelled, "Bart, they have mage! Shoot her!"

Suzette was waving her hands in a pattern and muttering, and then a glowing ring surrounded her on the ground. Inner and outer rings or runes moving in different directions. Rolly saw a person in camoflage step out from behind a bush where he was lurking and launch an arrow at her. Many things happened at once.

Ozzy reached the duo by the chest and threw a punch at Sniperdiperdoo. He dodged the right hook, but didn't see the left to his gut coming. His gut wasn't happy. Even with the 5 points of mitigation, he took 50 points of damage and was knocked down.

Masterblaster was calling out words and yelling 'Fireb..ack,' but Ben's speed across the short distance took him by surprise, as did the whip that wrapped around his throat. He didn't take a lot of damage, but he also didn't have a lot of Health and he wasn't going to be casting spells with his air cut off. Ben was less successful trying to punch him with his offhand.

The arrow from the camouflaged ranger came close enough to Suzette that it actually went through her hair barely missing her ear. The Runic Circle had fully formed and she began to cast a second spell. Rolly moved up towards where Ozzy was fighting and started channeling Health to Ozzy. It was costing him Stamina, but he had a lot to spare.

The next round saw Sniperdiperdoo unsuccessful in both his attempt to bash Ozzy with his crossbow or get away. Giving up he went for his dagger. Ozzy, on the other hand, was in a good position to start punching hard. His first shot was deflected by the crossbow, knocking it from his opponent's hand. The other hit did 55 more damage when it hit Sniperdiperdoo in the head. Masterblaster and Ben seemed content rolling around on the ground.

The ranger put an arrow into Suzette doing 60 damage. Her spell in return did 30 points of damage to him as a brilliant glowing arrow steaked towards him and hit him in the face. The runic formation around her collapsed. Hearing Suzette cry out, Rolly moved back to her and started sending her Health.

Ozzy took a dagger in the ribs, but two hard hits sent Sniperdiperdoo back to respawn.

Ben began strangling the mage with the whip while he turned purple and flailed with his fists against Ben.

Suzette took another arrow, and returned fire with another glowing arrow. Rolly continued to heal her.

Ozzy started a charge towards the ranger. He promptly took an arrow in the chest that staggered him. But that was the last arrow the ranger would get off. A third spell from Suzette hit him in the face. In total the three spells had barely done a third of his Health, but the last one also blinded him. That was all Ozzy needed to tackle him and beat him with his fists until he despawned.

Ben finished off the mage and the fight was over. Rolly expended almost all of his Stamina to heal them all up. They quickly gathered up their coins and items and decided to headed back to Sedgewick before something else happend.

Your party has slain several Players:

MasterTBlaster, Level 3

Sniperdiperdoo, Level 3

DangerRanger, Level 4

You have each earned 250 points of EP that will be applied to your Tier 2 Progression Quest. Kill more players to earn more EP.

"Interesting, I wonder what all is involved in that quest? Not that i see us maxing out Tier 1 ever, at the rate we earn EP."

"Not the sharpest bunch. I hate jackals." Ben didn't mind PVP at all, but he considered it a cowardly act to ambush lower levels players. This bunch must have sat here for hours waiting for them. Their little camp confirmed it.

"I want to know when Suzette became a big, bad Wizard Queen! What was that freaky runic aura you had swirling around you?"

"Ha! Yes, I am now the Wizard Queen of Sedgewick! You want to be my minion Rolly?"

"Nope, just want the cool special effects. How'd you do that?"

"Honestly, no clue. I took the Hedge Wizard ability and got three random cantrips. I hadn't even tried them yet when those assholes attacked. I just started casting to get their attention and cause confusion. My awesome new magics are Runic Aura, Sun Arrow, and Bug Swarm. Problem is, I don't know runes, so I don't know what the Runic Aura does. Sun Arrow seems to be a wimpy sort of magic missle, with a small chance to blind the target, and the last one just creates a few insects." She gestured and sent a half dozen beetles towards Rolly."

"Oh, useful for feeding the chickens. They love bugs."

Rolly gathered up a few things the would-be ambushers had lost. The heavy cross-bow had been left behind, as had the archers' bow. Both had dropped their ranged weapons in the vain attempt to fight off Ozzy. They also left their packs behind in a hasty camp.

Rolly immediately went through their packs. He loved seeing what other players packed around. "Three pairs of socks, clean. Two pairs of socks, dirty. Tossing their underwear, who knows. Oh, except for this silk pair of boxer shorts. Oh shit...they might be magic. 'Silk Boxer Shorts of Twice a Night' - can you tell me if they are magical Suzy?"

"They look magical to me; sort of glowing."

"Keeping them. Hmm, string, a small knife, tobacco! a small clay pipe. Some leather oil, two wine skins, a wool cloak, and a book with a map in it. Surely nothing." Smiling he tossed it to Ben.

Ben opened it and then slapped his forehead. "Wow, not the brightest of people. The journal mentions "Going north to spy on ACME in Sedgewick." They were supposed to get back to their Momco supervisor in a week with maps and any info. I think they might be going home sooner. Wonder where they respawned?"

Ozzy shrugged. "Hopefully far away. How do we want to play this? We cant really say 'got ambushed collecting boss loot and killed three spies.' But I also think we should get the info to Billy; he might do something about them if more show up."

"Agreed," Ben said, "How about this? We take one pack, put in the dirty socks and underwear and the journal, say we found it and give it to Billy. I can take the two bows into town and either them sell or stash them in the livery stable. Split up the odds and ends as you need, and we stow the rest in the packs under hay in the barn." The others nodded. Simple plan, let Billy deal with it.

Suzette went up to Ozzy and made doe eyes at him. "Ozz-eeee dearest. Your old pal Suzette is just wondering what you're going to do with that lovely fabric and lace?" Seeing an opening, Ben took Ozzy's other arm and imitated Suzette. "Oh, Ozz-eeee, you big strong man, I bet you would just love to let me have that delicate leather."

Ozzy stopped and opened the bag. "Let me guess. Pretty dress and fancy hats are needed?" Heads nodded up and down. Ozzy's bag got much lighter. "The wood will make nice tool handles at least."

"You can share our spoils. All we got was this useless, hard cash." Each of them transferred 2 silver over to Ozzy.

"Thanks Ozzy." The two ran off - Ben to the livery stable to look at hat patterns in the Courier Journal and Suzette to the dressmakers. Ozzy expected that Rolly would head for a beer since he had coins in his pocket, but he sketched a quick goodbye and headed off to check on his animals. Ozzy decided he needed that beer and headed to the tavern.

====================================================================

In the village of Brockerton, many miles away

The unhappy trio of MasterTBlaster, Sniperdiperdoo, and DangerRanger respawned.

"Fething Hell! Those Cheaters! I lost a complete level in Heavy Crossbow."

"I lost my Whipowill Bow. Damn! You know what that cost me? Who the feth takes an arrow in the chest and keeps running at you?"

"They had a mage - and high level. That was an aura of some type she manifested instantly; plus some type of Elemental Bolt. She had two different spell sets."

"Set us up - that was a reverse ambush. Tank, healer, mage, and a rogue. All dressed up like serfs to take us by surprise - probably armor under the burlap. The tank had to be using brass knuckles, thos punches hurt! We've got to report back. The fields of groats and cow herds are just for show; ACME is building a damn army up there and trying to keep it quiet. Must be something big going down."

"Fething hell! Where's my heavy crossbow? Do you know how much that cost me..."

====================================================================

ACME virtual HQ, currently disguised as a stinking barn...wait, no, it actually is a stinking barn.

"OK, Billy, obviously you are in charge - home turf and all. Layla, you're under Billy for now. Get your people moving up to Sedgewick. I'm going to get a bit of muscle heading your way and two more work crews. I have things to take care of down south that I can't get out of until Monday morning. I'll use a teleporter to get North faster. Layla, send your crew up the road, but you take a Teleport to Rowan Keep and get to work. Keep me appraised. Now get moving."

Vern watched the two disappear from the barn to head back into the game world. Oh, this was delightful. A dungeon? And so early in the game? Excellent. Much more than he'd expected. And now he got to watch a new episode of 'The Billy and Layla show.' Endlessly amusing to see who got who first.

Now on to the next bit of drama which was actually the real reason for this meeting. He hadn't even had to fake a big announcement; Billy had done that for him.

"Who took the bait?"

His head of HR took off his hood and rolled back his sleeve to reveal a wrist comp. Two buttons got pushed, a nano-second went by, and he had his list.

"Anabelle immediately put in a call that got routed a few times, but ended up at a drop used by Pentex."

"Barbara communicated with one of our double agents that she thinks works for Soylenco."

"And your pal Sammy sent a message that bounced through 16 satelites before going to the HQ of Momco."

Vern considered for a moment. "Anabelle isn't worth trying to turn into a double agent, not bright enough. Transfer her to product testing for new products. We always need people to work out the kinks in this year's line of Rocket Skates."

"Leave Barbara where she is, but send her a gift of 3 pounds of the green variety."

"As for Sammy, send him North, he works for Billy now. Transfer Control of Anabelle's workers to Billy."

"All taken care of Boss. We should begin moving. You have a meeting in the Capitol in thirty minutes."

Vern hopped back onto his throne. The bearers picked it up and marched out of the barn, heading to the transfer point. Shouldn't be late to a dinner with the Emperor.