“What is it?” he said. “Is it the Barongs again?”

Knife Ghoul shook his head.

“Good you here, we got trouble. Raiders, like maybe four. Maybe more.”

“Why are they attacking us?”

KG pointed at one of the three nameless ghouls from Arthur’s clan.

“These guys looking for more ghouls, like you say. Raiders see them, chase them.”

So they came back here. Hooray.

Peter looked at one of the new ghouls, who was pushing his whole body against the wall to shore it up.

“Why did they come after you? Did you attack them?”

The ghoul looked frightened.

“No way boss,” he said. “They come out of building, pointing at us. Shoot guns at us. We run away.”

“Anyone hurt?”

He pointed at one of the other three.

“That guy, they shoot his arm. He okay.”

The ghoul didn’t exactly look okay. He had a bloody rag wrapped around his lower arm, but to his credit he was still helping Dumbo Ghoul move heavy blocks up against the wall.

I need real weapons. How are we supposed to fight armed raiders with knives and rocks?

“Can you keep the wall together?” he said to Knife Ghoul.

KG shrugged.

“We try. Not forever. Need to kill them.”

Peter looked at his Clan Leader options again.

“What does a ghoul Thrower do?”

“Strong guy go up high and and throw things down. Heavy things. Hit people, they die.”

That was one option at least. Dumbo Ghoul was the go-to guy for strength of course. It was a damn shame he’d had to kill Arthur. He would have been useful here.

“Okay, what about a Mystic?”

KG made a strange hand motion.

“He talk to Dead Horde. Get good ideas. Dead Horde tell where to find good stuff.”

“Dead Horde?”

KG nodded seriously.

“If clan have good talk with Dead Horde, make them stronger.”

Peter didn’t really understand the lore here, but it didn’t seem to matter much. A mystic was presumably some kind of sensor who could detect hidden things. Good loot, or weapons, maybe.

Anything would be great, really. All we have right now is an empty building.

The wall shuddered again as something crashed into it from outside.

“Dumbo!” Peter yelled. “I want you to be a Thrower now! See if you can get up on the roof, but don’t get shot up there!”

Dumbo Ghoul stared at him blankly for a moment, then nodded slowly.

“Okay, I try boss.”

As he lumbered up the stairs Peter looked at the others. That left four ghouls without specific jobs trying to keep the wall together. They all had knives now, at least. Not that it would be a lot of help against Raider rifles. Not unless they could get them into close-quarters hand to hand combat.

He looked at KG.

“This probably isn’t the best time, but who do you think would make a good Mystic?”

No sense in leaving options unexplored.

KG frowned.

“Mystic is weak clan member. Talk to Dead Horde make them weak. Need strong clan to fight.”

“I want to know if the Dead Horde can help us out. Maybe there’s something here we can use.”

The ghoul shook its head.

“Barbie Ghoul then. She already weak.”

Peter looked at Barbie. She was fierce, but also very obviously not as strong as the others. He hated to do something that would damage her, but they needed to explore their options.

Meatshields. Stay focused.

“Barbie! “ he said. “We need to talk to the Dead Horde. You’re the one. Can you do it?”

Her expression was pure horror.

“Talk to Dead Horde? You make me Mystic?”

She made the same hand motion as KG.

“I’m sorry Barbie, honestly. But it has to be you.”

She stared back at him for a moment, like she wanted to say something. But then her head dropped and she nodded.

“Okay, I do it for Raider Ghoul.”

Peter felt a flash of shame. She’d already helped him out more than once, and it was obviously a lot to ask from her.

“I owe you Barbie,” he said. “I’ll make it up to you, somehow.”

She nodded without looking at him.

“I go upstairs and try to talk to Dead Horde now.”

She sounded like she was accepting a death sentence.

He put his hand on her shoulder again as she walked past him.

“Not kidding,” he said quietly. “I don’t know what yet, but you’ll get something special for this. You can do it.”

She nodded again, and flashed him a quick look with a little more determination in it.

There was a sudden crashing noise from outside, and voices started shouting.

Then a volley of rifle fire.

“I think Dumbo Ghoul find things to throw,” KG said.

Peter stopped to listen.

Rifles cracked again, and there was a loud crash from somewhere up above.

His ghoul count didn’t drop, so presumably Dumbo wasn’t dead. All the same he didn’t want to leave him all alone up there.

He couldn’t afford to leave the wall undefended either.

Looks like I’m up next.

“Keep the wall strong,” he said to KG. “I’ll see what I can come up with. I’m going to go help Dumbo.”

KG nodded without looking at him. He had other things on his mind.

Peter ran upstairs.

How did he get up on the roof?

There had to be a ladder or something.

He ran past Barbie and caught a glimpse of her. She was sitting in a dark room with her eyes closed.

Rifles cracked outside again, and there was a loud bang from downstairs.

He couldn’t see a ladder, or a hatch in the roof anywhere.

But he could hear Dumbo moving around above him. He was obviously dragging something towards the edge of the roof.

If he can find the way up, then so can I!

But there was nothing. He crept quietly into Barbie’s room, being careful not to interrupt her. She was chanting something low and guttural. It sounded like the same syllables over and over again.

But there was nothing in there, either.

He made a frustrated noise and went out into the hall again.

The window?

There were three windows, two of them broken and boarded up, but the boards on the far one had been removed . He stuck his head outside and looked around.

And there it is.

It led out onto a broken fire escape. There was no way down to the ground, but he could see what looked like a rusty ladder going upwards.

Before he stepped outside he flicked on his personal shield and was happy to see his health turn purple.

He seemed to be partially obscured from view at the front of the building, so it was possible to get up without being seen by the Raiders.

Or it had been, before.

Halfway up he felt something smack into the side of his face and a burst of pain nearly made him let go of the ladder. It was followed by a loud CRACK of a rifle.

His health bar stayed purple, but dropped down to 20% instantly.

That was a kill shot.

He scrambled up the ladder and another bullet smacked into the building beside him as he rolled over onto the roof.

Dumbo Ghoul came loping towards him, limping slightly but looking happy to see him.

“Hey boss!” he said. “I take big thing to edge! Wait for chance to drop it on guys down there!”

“Dumbo, you’re hit,” Peter said.

Dumbo looked down at his bleeding leg.

“Pfft,” he said. “Stupid Raider bullets not so tough.”

His health read 85% though. It had been a solid shot that got him.

“Okay, but don’t take any chances. I want you alive.”

“You got it boss. Come on, I show you!”

The two of them crept over towards the bulky thing that Dumbo had brought to the edge. It was a rusted air conditioning unit, and a big one at that.

Peter peeked his head out from around the edge of the unit. He could see the heads of two Raiders crouching down across the street behind a broken wall.

If I only had a rifle. And the ability to use a rifle.

He waited for a moment to see if they could see him. When they didn’t move he poked his head out a little farther to look down.

“Careful boss,” whispered Dumbo. “Other rifle guy over there on side.”

That must have been the one shooting at me.

But he wanted to see.

There were two more Raiders down below. They were staring up at the roof.

They know we’re here.

It was a stalemate. They weren’t going to let Dumbo drop anything on them.

They must have sent that guy over to the side to see if he could flank around back and find another way in. Or more than just the one guy.

He felt pretty secure. The doors to the back had been solid.

But there were the windows. He should have had those walled up too. They were boarded, but that wasn’t going to hold them against any serious attempt at breaking in.

Stupid.

He wondered if he could talk to them. He had been able to understand the Raiders that he’d killed with Shrieker. Could they understand him?

He pulled his head back in behind the air conditioner.

“Hey!” he yelled. “Raiders! What do you want?”

There was silence, then he could hear them talking to each other.

A voice came from below, probably from across the street.

“Fuck you Horde animal!” it bellowed.

Peter wondered if his Raider reputation hit was going to make it impossible to negotiate with them.

“I don’t think I’m your type,” he yelled back. “How about you tell me what you want instead?”

“Your stinking head on a stick!” yelled another voice.

“You wouldn’t be trying this hard to get in if you didn’t want something! What is it? Maybe we can trade!”

He could hear them talking angrily back and forth with each other.

Finally the first voice spoke up.

“We want the Nanocrystal!” it said. “Give it to us and maybe we let you live! That’s our trade!”

The what?

He looked at Dumbo.

“Do you know what they’re talking about?”

Dumbo shook his head confidently.

“Don’t know what that thing is,” he said.

Peter sighed. They had followed the three new ghouls back here. It had to be them.

“Why do you think we have it?” he yelled back at the Raiders.

“Just bring it out here. Now,” the Raider said.

I never checked their inventories. Stupid, stupid.

“Alright,” he said. “I’ll go and get it! I need to get down from the roof, so don’t shoot me, okay?”

“Bring it outside!” the Raider yelled.

He turned to Dumbo Ghoul.

“I’m going to go see if we have that crystal, whatever it is. You stay here. If it looks like things are going bad, you try to help okay?”

DG looked confused for a moment.

“Help by throwing things on Raiders?”

“Exactly.”

He grinned.

“Okay, I smash their heads!”

Peter nodded and crept back over to the ladder.

Nobody shot at him.

That’s a good sign, I hope.

Then a thought occurred to him.

Damn it, I forgot to ask Weller how rez works with ghouls. Do I lose my clan or not?

There were too many things to worry about, so he’d just need to make sure he didn’t die for now.

Barbie was still chanting to herself in the dark room. He left her alone and headed downstairs.

“You!” he pointed randomly to one of the new ghouls. “Your name is Bill now!”

The ghoul stared at him in confusion.

“Okay boss,” it said.

“Bill, you need to tell me what the nanocrystal is. I know one of you has it.”

“Oh,” Bill said. “That.”

“That,” said Peter. “Who has it and what does it do?”

Bill pointed at the ghoul who’d been shot in the arm.

“Him,” he said. “He have the crystal. We find it.”

The wounded ghoul pulled something out of a dirty pocket in its ragged pants.

“Here boss,” it said. “Crystal belong to clan now. You take it.”

Peter nodded and looked in the ghoul’s hand.

Is it Transcendent Tech?

It scanned blank red. Whatever it was, he was still too low-level to ID it. That didn't match the behavior of the door lock, so it had to be something else.

The crystal was pale blue, with little sparkly lights deep inside that moved slowly. Peter took it and held it up, looking deep inside the thing.

“Pretty,” said Knife Ghoul, staring over Peter’s shoulder.

“I’m guessing this is worth a lot,” Peter said. “It’s a shame to let it go. But the Raiders say that they’ll leave us alone if we give it to them.”

KG frowned.

“Raiders lie. They always kill Horde.”

The others all nodded. Their serious faces gave the impression that they had learned this much from hard experience.

“What does it do?” Peter said. “Does anyone know?”

The third new ghoul finally spoke up.

“Arthur talk about crystal when we find it. He say Biomorph take it, make fancy jewelry that talk.”

“Fancy jewelry that talks? What does it talk about?”

The ghoul shrugged.

“Sound stupid to me, but Arthur say it good thing to find. He going to trade it to Biomorph.”

“Well, that’s useful information anyway. Thanks for telling me.”

The ghoul looked happy.

“You,” Peter said. “Your name is Charlie.”

The ghoul nodded. Peter pointed to the wounded one.

“And you’re Dave.”

“Okay.”

A for Arthur who I killed, then B, C, and D.

Peter turned to KG.

“Any advice? I hate to give this up, but I don’t think we can fight off a bunch of armed Raiders. If this will make them go away, then I’m willing to let it go.”

KG frowned.

“Maybe they leave. Maybe not.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

Charlie snorted.

“We run out there and kill them all. That my idea.”

Peter nodded.

“That’s a brave idea, but they’re all armed with rifles and we have knives. We wouldn’t make it halfway to them before we were all dead.”

“Better than hiding,” Charlie said.

“I say living and growing stronger is smart. Being dead is just dead.”

KG nodded in support of Peter.

“Boss right. Horde who hide is alive Horde.”

It sounded like he was quoting some kind of common ghoul wisdom.

Charlie rolled his eyes but didn’t reply.

“So we give it to them?” Peter said to Knife Ghoul.

“Guess we see if that work,” KG said.

Peter nodded and went to the door of the building. He unlocked it and cracked it open.

“Okay,” he yelled. “We have it. We’ll trade you for it. You leave your rifles and ammunition at the door, then you move away. We will take them and leave the crystal. Once the door is shut you come and get it.”

There was silence.

“No,” said the voice. “Here’s the trade. You put the crystal down on the ground. We take it.”

“That’s not much of a trade.”

“You get to live and we kill you another day.”

Peter sighed. He hated having no negotiating room. He only had one thing they wanted. The only thing they needed to give him in return was just walking away. And there was no guarantee they were going to even honor that. He wondered if it might have gone easier without the Raider reputation drop from his gear.

He looked at KG, who shrugged.

“If this not work, we hide until they get bored.”

Bill nodded.

“That good plan. Horde good at hiding.”

Ghouls really are a weird combination of aggressive and unambitious.

With the exception of Charlie at least, who was apparently suicidally optimistic about his fighting ability.

But all the same they had a point. If the Raiders had what they wanted, they would probably want to get back to their camp with it and not spend all day on a pointless siege of a random ghoul nest.

“Okay,” Peter yelled. “I’m putting it outside now!”

He opened the door a bit more, and started to reach outside with the crystal.

“No!” said a harsh voice behind him. “Don’t give it to them!”

Peter hesitated, and turned to look.

Barbie Ghoul was standing behind them all, and her eyes were glowing with a dim red light.

She looked like she had lost ten pounds. Her already ragged skin hung off her cheeks, and her lips were curled into a sneer that was nothing like her usual meek demeanor.

“Shut the door. Lock it,” she commanded.

Peter was so surprised that he obeyed her without even thinking about it.

“What’s up Barbie?” he said. “You look… different.”

“She talk to Dead Horde,” Bill said. He sounded awestruck.

Knife Ghoul nodded.

“We listen to her,” he said.

He heard one of the Raiders shouting from outside, but he ignored it. The wall was still solid for now.

“Okay, we listen to Barbie,” he said. “What do you want to tell us?”

She pointed at him.

“You will take the crystal. You will construct a Mediator Token and wear it. We will speak further when you have done this.”

I’m not talking to Barbie right now.

“Who are you?” he said.

She ignored his question.

“You will serve as our conduit to the outer realm. You will create an army. The Desolate Horde will flock to your banner. You will be a God King, the greatest of the Desolate Ones.”

“I’m not doing shit until I know who you are and what you want.”

Barbie grinned. It wasn’t a nice grin.

“We are a power greater than you, but we will reward your service with riches and honor.”

“My service to do what? What would you want me to do with this army I’m supposed to gather?”

“Grow your realm. We will take the last of the human world. You are our vanguard.”

Ah, there it is. I’m supposed to wage war against the players.

Suddenly the new ghoul class made sense.

We’re going to attack the players. Take their land. Lay waste to their bases. Push them all the way out to the Raider Kingdoms and beyond!

He had to admit he liked the sound of it.

He smiled at the thing that was talking through Barbie.

“I accept your offer. I’ll do what you ask if you make me a God King.”

QUEST ACCEPTED: GOD KING OF THE DESOLATE HORDE PART ONE: THE GATHERING

QUEST ONE: MEDIATOR Well done! On the word of an anonymous demon-thing talking through one of your clan, you’ve decided to try to become a God King! This was no doubt a wise and well-considered choice which will result in many happy circumstances accruing to you. At any rate it’s probably too late to reconsider now, so it’s likely a good idea to listen carefully to whatever else the spawn of the abyss has to say to you. Receive 250XP LEVEL 5 UPGRADE Weapon and armor level cap +1 Now Level 6

You're going to need it.

You have 2 character points to allocate.

I get XP for just accepting the quest?

Suddenly he was a little worried. On the other hand the game hadn’t given him any other quests at all yet. This had to be central to advancing in the class. Didn’t it?

The Barbie thing nodded.

“We will send you a token of our good will.”

“What will that be?”

She ignored him again, and pointed upwards.

“In the middle room you will find a cache of weapons under the floorboards. You must look carefully. Use them to grow your clan and to seek a Nanocrystal Interface Bus. You must have a Biomorph Grand Tinker construct your Mediator Token.”

I hope that’s all noted somewhere in my quest log.

This was supposed to be hard mode though. He had no faith that Axiom was going to automatically write this stuff down for him. He needed to pay attention.

“Thanks,” he said. “Is that the token of your good will?”

Barbie-thing shook her head.

“You will know him when you see him. He serves our purposes, as you do.”

The light glowing from Barbie’s eyes flickered out, and she collapsed to the floor.

Peter rushed over to her, worried that she was dead. But she still breathed. He looked up at Knife Ghoul.

“Can you take care of her?”

KG nodded.

“We let her sleep, give her food when she wake up. Talk to Dead Horde is tough work.”

Dead Horde. That wasn’t a ghoul I was talking to. But I have no idea what it was.

There was another shout from outside. It sounded angry.

The Raiders were expecting their trade.

Peter went to the door and yelled.

“Hold on, we have big ghoul argument! They say we not give you crystal! I make them do it!”

I probably don’t need to do ghoul grammar, but it’s kind of fun.

“We’re not waiting much longer!” the Raider yelled back. “Hurry it up!”

“Okay boss!” Peter yelled.

He looked at his clan.

“Middle room, under the floorboards. Let’s go see what’s there. Fast.”