The necklace they had been sent to recover was:

Bertram’s Necklace of Leadership

Prince Bertram of Delisia’s necklace. Lost when the Delisian kingdom was destroyed by orcs in 1237

“Quest item” Dalmar said “doesn’t do anything for players, so you don’t get anything for it if you don’t turn it in during a quest” he pulled out two bags and handed Maria and I each one “95 gold, 56 silver, and 130 copper each”

Ok, that was a nice boost in money. From 2 gold to over a hundred now. Not a bad days pay. It sure beat getting bitten by rats for a couple of coppers. Dalmar and Maria said we would pick up the best of the armor and weapons on the way back out to sell later. Maria also said “You want to sell the magic stuff you’ll need to go to one of the cities. Your village doesn’t have a trade or magic shop, and without one of those you’re stuck trying to sell them to players when they come through” she looked me over before saying “Telinar is a day’s ride south, and it’s the half-elven city that kind of controls the Abandoned Lands. We’ll take you there and show you around if you want”

That’s what we did. The horses were still standing where we left them after we finished picking through the stuff left behind in the dungeon, and we rode about two hours before stopping for the night. The cooking thing was still kind of weird to me, pulling out meat, using the pan, and getting a full meal back. Dalmar must have had seriously maxed out cooking skills because he would give me half a chicken breast, a potato, various vegetables, and even pie at the end. It tasted freaking wonderful. When I cooked you got a couple of items, but it tended toward the sandwich and chunks type.

“It takes a while after you reach 50 on a skill” Dalmar said “and everything slows way down when you reach the tenth level. I was at ten by the end of the first month, and I’ve spent the last six getting to this level. Got killed a couple of times early on, so that set me back a couple, but if you don’t do dungeon crawls and quests, you’ll be stuck in the teens forever”

“You lose access to things if your level drops” Maria said between bites “that’s a real bitch if you’ve gotten used to using some spell or power move and find you can’t anymore” she shook her head in chagrin before saying “my passive archery skill started at level eight, and it gives me a huge boost on hit chance. I lost it when I was killed by a couple of players and dropped back to seven, and man did that suck when I realized I was missing shots again”

“Killed by players?” I asked. Dalmar nodded and said “Assholes mostly. There’s some bad people sent here, and they’ll do some nasty shit to women. Got a couple of other level 20 players floating around, and they’ll kill you if you try to stop them from abusing their locals. They hate Maria with a passion since she’ll snipe em if she gets a chance”

Maria was scowling at the fire as she said “Couple found my spawn point early on. If Dalmar hadn’t shown up I’d still be chained up being used by those shitholes. My house in Averdeen is stocked with guards now. Anyone wants to do that again they’ll have to kill my guards, and keep killing them as they respawn” her scowl deepened as she said “I haven’t found a way to control their spawn points, but I will someday and things will get real interesting then”

I had to think about that for a while. It sounded like Maria had suffered some bad shit, but it was the spawn point thing that really caught my attention “So if someone kills you, you start back at your original entry point?” at Dalmar’s nod I said “so someone knows where it is, they can just sit there and keep killing you?”

“Yep, which is why you want local guards” Dalmar said “they respawn too. Takes a full day, but you get a couple of level 10 or 15 guards and it makes life hell for anyone hunting you. I don’t think anyone’s figured out the whole respawn logic yet. Some locals die and never come back, but if you hire them, or they work at certain jobs, they come back. This dungeon will restock in a couple of days, though the treasure haul goes down after the first time”

“Costs” Maria said “figure a gold a month for a level 10 warrior. Twice that for a mage type of the same level. You can pay them up front though, so when you get a payout like this, you transfer a years’ worth toward their pay and you’re covered for a while” she shrugged and said “I’ve already transferred some from this haul to cover me another year”

“Wait” I said in surprise “you transferred it while we were out here?”

Maria giggled, the sudden mood shift making me blink in shock “Noob. A lot of money stuff is done through the interface, so you don’t have to go back to the city every time you need to do something. I get paid from my store even if I don’t visit for a month”

“Oh” I said intelligently. I would really have to put some thought into this, and I definitely needed to spend some time with Captain Andulin.

Telinar was a walled city that straddled a river that flowed through the middle of a huge valley. There was a fair amount of traffic on the roads leading to the city gates, four of them, one at each cardinal point. Two guards, level 8, stood holding spears and watching people enter the city. They were half-elven like I was, and both nodded a greeting to me, but gave Maria angry glares, though they didn’t try to stop us.

“Not my favorite place” Maria said as we dismounted and started leading our horses to a stable close to the gate “The history says the elves left the half-breeds behind when they moved to their new lands, which are supposed to be some kind of heavenly islands off the coast. Never tried to visit and haven’t heard of anyone who has, but locals talk about trade ships that go there so it probably exists”

Dalmar led us to a smith’s shop, then dickered over selling the gear we had scrounged up. I was pleasantly surprised to get another 11 gold pieces for basically junk since the draugr things only wore chainmail, something I couldn’t wear. The smith did have some better equipment available and I parted with some of my money

Leather Armor

armor rating 18

30/30 durability

Not usable: Mage

Leather Boots

armor rating 4

30/30 durability

Not usable: Mage

Leather Bracer

Armor 3

+2 armor

22/22 durability

Not usable: Mage

Good Mace

12-16 damage

25/25 durability

Not usable: Mage

I traded in the old armor and my mace of inadequacy for the set, paying 2 gold, 3 silver for the whole thing. We parted ways with plans to meet up again at the inn next to where we stabled the horses, and I played tourist. Generally the locals smiled and were pleasant to me, and the large number of young women and children made me realize how few of them there were in Mudtown. I had noticed a few kids, but probably not more than 3 or 4 tops. As for women…Mary was pretty much it in the young and pretty stage. When I reached the river, it flowed straight through the city, with large iron gates at the outflow points, and stone walls channeling. Three flat bridges crossed it, and just as I was about to cross over I saw my first temple. It sort of reminded me of the picture of the American president’s monument, the one who freed the slaves. A couple of columns supported a rounded roof, with steps leading up to the open front. It caught my eye mostly because it had Telina’s symbol carved into a round stone mounted at the front of the roof.

A guy dressed a lot like me, leathers and a mace, met me as I walked in. I was the only person other than him as he said “Welcome brother. I see you serve the holy goddess”

“Um…” I mumbled as I looked the place over. There was an altar in the middle of the open room with a bowl sitting in the middle on it. He followed my gaze, then turned back to say “No other eternal has chosen to worship holy Telina, so you do us much honor priest Loser”

Damn it. I had gotten used to being called Jake again, and that loser really grated. “Yeah, well I wouldn’t call it a choice, but thanks anyway” I jerked my chin at the bowl and said “What’s the story on the bowl?”

He seemed to be a pretty even tempered sort and just smiled and said “Those seeking a blessing or to be cured may make an offering in the goddesses bowl. It has been blessed by the goddess herself, and its presence grants a small blessing to the city. Its power has grown to encompass the fields surrounding us as many have begun coming to purchase the potions that cure disease”

I blinked as I realized he was talking about the disease potion I created, and wondered how he had heard about them. The mention of it though brought up a question that had been bothering me.

“If you can create cure disease potions, why can’t you make healing ones?”

He gave me a sad look and said “Only a healer priest may create such Loser, and in all the lands of Tarinath you are the only one wise enough to have chosen that path”

Ooo, a monopoly. I filed that away for more thought later, and pulled out the holy cup of cupness. Holding it up I asked “So what’s the story on this?”

His shocked expression said it might be worth something, but his words crushed my hope immediately. “An unclaimed cup! A true wonder priest Loser, as none were known to still exist. If blessed by a priest it becomes a font of holy power for his goddess, much as the bowl that blesses this city. It is stated that the priest who imbues it with holy power will choose how it serves his goddess”

“So I can carry it around and do…what? Blessings and stuff?”

My dismissive tone drew a frown as he said “That is for you to say priest of Telina. An unclaimed cup is a limited gift if used by those with limited faith”

Blah, blah, blah. Somehow I was sure I wasn’t going to end up with the Holy cup of laser beams or something just as useful regardless of how much faith I had. I couldn’t make money selling potions, something I had an absolute monopoly on, and I wasn’t strong enough to kick ass and earn money on my own, so I was relegated to exactly what I did for Dalmar and Maria: sidekick. Stupid world.

I met up with my partners back at the inn, and we sat at a table and discussed what I would do next.

“You could travel with us” Maria said “we’re heading back north to drop of this quest and hit up a few other dungeons we heard about” she shrugged and drank some ale before adding “I mean, what else is there to do?”

She had a point. Life seemed to revolve around raising your experience level and getting strong enough that other eternals left you alone. But honestly, the whole thing seemed kind of pointless. I had gold now, but other than defending your spawn point, what did you really need?

I shook my head and said “I think I need to look at defending my respawn point before I go out in the world. Judging by the Butt Boys I’ll be pissing off a lot of the other players”

“You leave them alone and they’ll mostly leave you alone” Dalmar said softly

“Yeah, but that’s not happening” I said back “I’m no saint, but I’m not going to sit by and let these morons abuse people just because they can. I might not start hunting them, but if I see it, I’m going to stop it”

That got a nod and “Pretty much what I do” from Dalmar before Maria said “Well hell, life is sure a lot nicer with you around” I chuckled, having enjoyed having the beautiful elf woman with me, but based on her experiences to date I didn’t see us ever developing anything other than a friendly relationship. Made me wonder what Dalmar did in that area, though I wasn’t uncouth enough to ask.

“We’re riding back through your area anyway” Dalmar said “so we’ll accompany you that far. If you have any more potions you’ll sell, we’ll pay good prices for them”

I waved a dismissive hand and said “Nah, I’ll give you everything I have when we get to town. Least I can do for the fun and friendship. Not to mention the opportunity to get chewed on by a dragon” I faked checking a block and said “checked that off of my bucket list”

The ride home took two days, and I made potions twice a day to stock up. Mudtown was looking a little less muddy when I rode in, with the street actually being dry all the way along its length. I noticed two more fields had been planted and made a note to bless the whole group of them again. I blinked in surprise when I saw a pack of children playing behind the houses, and again when I found a small market going in the center of town.

“Grown a little” I said to the Captain when he walked up as we dismounted

He gave Dalmar and Maria a measuring look, then nodded a greeting to both before saying to me “It is good to have you back priest Loser” Maria smothered a chuckle as I ground my teeth “and it is true we have grown. Our rich harvest and the gains from the silver mine has begun to bring some prosperity to our town”

I nodded as I looked around, pleased to see things picking up. I liked the people here and it would be nice to see things get better. I showed my partners to the inn, where I got a hug and kiss on the cheek from Mary, something that left me a little flabbergasted. When did this happen? Samuel even said “Welcome home loser” getting a giggle from Maria, but a nod of appreciation from me. I needed to just have everyone call me loser, because it was really grating after hearing my true name for the last week.

“The locals here seem to have better programming” Dalmar said “They always been like that?” I shook my head no and said “Nah, they’ve warmed up some, though I’ve only been around for a couple of weeks”

We talked about plans for a while, but they could mostly be summed up as ‘kill things’, which didn’t seem all that great of a plan to me. I was kind of sad to see the two of them leave in the morning, especially after Dalmar shook my hand and Maria gave me a warm kiss goodbye. I gave them ten potions, which should see them through a couple of dungeons. Dalmar actually offered to give me a hundred gold pieces for them, something I could feel Telina reject immediately. I was kind of grumpy when I had to refuse, but Dalmar understood. Rich priest, poor priest, what difference did it make as long as you were a priest? I needed to sit Telina down and have a discussion about what living down here on the earth was like.

The partnership got broken when Maria rescinded the request, which meant they wouldn’t be losing a third of the experience points while they were killing things.

After they were gone I went out to the fields and gave them all a blessing, pleased to see the original group full of green plants. Andulin and one of his men walked with me, and we talked a little while I worked. I had asked him to talk with me so I could figure out how the whole guards of the town worked.

“We are paid by the people of Mudtown” Andulin said. I noticed he was level 16 now, making me wonder how they leveled up. “With the greater prosperity I was able to bring private Lentz here, which increases the security of the villagers”

“If you could hire more, who would you get?” I asked

“We are in need of a mage” he said thoughtfully “but for the cost of one mage I could hire two archers, and that would be a better use of the people’s money”

“What would it cost to get a mage?”

He took some time to consider the question, then said “For a level 10 elemental mage I would have to pay 2 gold per month. It would cost an extra gold for a level 15, though they are hard to find. For the same cost as the level 10 mage, I could get two level 14 archers”

I ran the numbers in my head, then said “So for 4 gold a month we could get a mage and two quality archers?” at his shrug and nod I asked “If I gave the money for this, could it be done?”

The question threw him for a while, and he stood there blinking until finally saying “You…I…yes” he finally shuddered all over, then relaxed and smiled before saying “This is a very unusual thought Loser, and one that would not have occurred to me. Eternals do not pay for a cities defense unless they claim it by killing the existing guards. To actually pay to add guards is a strange thing”

That got a shrug from me as we walked back into the village “So if I give you 48 gold pieces, you can hire them?”

He grinned and said “Yes, yes I can” He seemed kind of surprised as he said it, but he took the money when I gave it to him. With a mage and two archers I figured the Butt Boys would have a hard time trying to take over the village again and squatting on my spawn point. Goddess knows I didn’t want a repeat of the Krin adventure.

I settled in and began making healing potions, trying to stockpile some since they were so useful. A couple of days after I got back I pulled out the cup of cupness. It sounded like I had to cast a bless spell on it, and that would activate it to do…something. Something I had to make a choice about. Well, it wasn’t like it was doing me any good as a cup since Mary wouldn’t even pour ale in it. I asked one night, but she said it would be sacrilegious.

When I cast the blessing I got:

Telina’s Holy Cup of Blessing

Once placed, may not be moved by player

Player must choose one of two uses

Holy Aura

5pts/sec damage in 10ft area against those who oppose Telina

50pts/sec damage if touched by those who oppose Telina

+10% Stat increase for 6 hours for Telina’s faithful – cast when within aura

+30% blessing of increased growth for plants within aura

+50% increase in healing rate while within Holy aura

(Does not stack with other blessings)

(Reduced affects if placed in location accessible only by a few)

Holy Touch

+10% stats increase/12 hours

+25% spell damage/maximum 120

Resurrection once per week –player returns to life with no loss of levels

(Player must touch the cup to receive the blessing)

Wow, that was a lot better. I was all about the holy touch, but settled back to think things through before making a hasty choice. It looked like it came down to good for the many, or good for the one. Since I was the one, I was pretty ok with that. But…the cup was going to be sitting in one spot for the rest of eternity it sounded like, so to get the stat increase I would have to touch it every day, and probably once a week to get the resurrection thing. The aura one would give me the same stat benefit, but not the hit damage one, though for half the time.

I sighed and picked Holy Aura, but decided I was going to place it somewhere it would do the most good for me, like next to my spawn point.

The captain recommended speaking to Seth, who led me to a guy called Joseph, who said he could make me a granite column for 8 silver. I had him make it like the classic roman thing, waist height, with a square top and bottom, and a round column between them. Joseph was nice enough to carry it a couple days later since it turned out I wasn’t strong enough. By the time he set it down about two feet away from what I remembered as my spawn point we had a crowd of people watching. Since I popped up almost slap dab in the middle of the square, my column was going to impede traffic a bit, but if anyone wanted to complain they could take it up with Telina.

When I set the cup on the pillar there was a flare of white light that caused everyone to duck and cover their eyes for a moment, and those of us within ten feet immediately felt the effect of the stat increase. Andulin patted my shoulder and said “You have blessed our town Loser, and we are proud to call you one of us”

So here I am, a healer priest named Loser who is also a member in good standing of Mudtown. Who needs money if they have that? Right?

Bite me.