After logging back in, I looked around for a moment, realising that during the time I had been away, the day had turned to night. There were fewer dwarves walking around outside, even Kangur was still sitting there but he looked sound asleep. But other dwarves I had seen around were gone, making me wonder if there were quests that were dependent on the time of the ingame-day, either to complete or to receive. But for now, I had rats to hunt, so I stepped away from the pillar I had logged out to next, walking toward the smaller door next to the barn-door, the one made to allow people inside, without needing to open the larger doors.

Inside, I was greeted by a sleepy dwarf, looking as if I had just woken him up. He scowled at me while blinking owlishly, making me wonder if he was Sleepy or Grumpy, either would have been fitting.

“What do we have here?” he asked, after giving off a grunting noise, “Oh, you are that Orc that recently got here. You can help, distribute food to the sheep.”

New Quest offered.

Feeding Grey Quarry’s Sheep

Walter, the dwarven stablehand in Grey Quarry, asked you to help feed by feeding eight sheep in Grey Quarry.

Success: EXP Decline: No penalty Failure: You will be demoted to ragpicker, as feeding sheep seems to be above your skill-level. .

Amused. I mentally clicked the accept-button and the sleepy dwarf sat back on his chair, apparently falling back asleep instantly. I wasn’t quite sure where to get goat-food but I was certain it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out, so I started to walk deeper into the barn-cave. It was quite spacious, especially compared to the cramped tunnels I had seen earlier but just as, if not even more, utilitarian than the other tunnels. Looking around, I noticed that I either had some sort of night-vision or there was something that I couldn’t perceive here, illuminating the barn, otherwise, it would have been completely, utterly pitch-black around here. Granted, it would have been quite annoying to play around a light-source, especially as I hadn’t seen anything that could work in that regard, so I was happy that I wasn’t forced to blindly fumble around.

The barn seemed to be split into three main parts, one for goats, one for sheep and the third one for storage, at least from what I was able to tell. I was supposed to feed the sheep and kill rats, so I started towards the area I had deemed storage, due to the large bales of straw that I saw from the outside. Hopefully, I would find something to feed the sheep in there, maybe some hay or grain, complete with instructions on how much I needed to feed a single sheep. Somehow, my life as a city-girl had not prepared me for feeding dwarven, or any kind of, sheep.

Inside the storage-area, it only took me a moment or two of looking around to realise that some of the bales were highlighted as interactable objects and when I tried to grab part of one, I heard a loud squeak and a rat, looking relatively similar, just not as filthy, as those I had fought beneath Stormhelm jumped out, looking rather angry about being woken. The moment I heard the noise, I jumped back, managing to dodge the rat’s first attack while looking closer. Focusing on it told me that it was level one, so I simply reached behind me, letting my lance fall into my hand and, when the rat was about to attack a second time, swung my lance in a wide, sweeping arc, almost casually slapping the rat mid-jump. The sharp blade of the lance, combined with my recently increased level and strength caused enough damage to kill the rat out-right, causing me to grin. Sadly, the EXP were just as meagre as the challenge, giving me just thirty exp for my trouble.

Once the rat was dealt with and I had grabbed the tail it had dropped, focusing on the fact that it might sell for a few coins, I tried to gather up some of the now de-ratted hay again. This time, it worked like a charm and an inventory opened, allowing me to take “a portion of hay” and run with it. Not that I needed to run, it wasn’t like the hay would get cold or anything.

Now, with some hay, I walked over to the sheep-area, looking around. There were quite a few of them, standing or lying around, sound asleep. I wondered what sheep did if they couldn’t sleep, did they count farmers? Grinning, I took the hay from my inventory and tossed it to one of the nearby sheep which gave a happy bleat and started munching on it. A quick check on my quest-counter told me that I had indeed fed one sheep and had seven more to go.

Not much of a challenge, but it was likely the first set of quests you got when starting as a dwarf, I just had some extra experience, equipment and level from the tutorial-start. While walking back to the storage-area, I wondered if the tutorial and the choices I had made during it would come up again or if they would just be swept under the rug.

The rest of the quests went just like that, go pick up some hay, kill a rat or two when getting it, go back to the sheep and feed another one, sadly, I was unable to carry more than one portion of hay because it was set as a limited item. That was a little annoying but didn’t change anything, it only took up a little more time.

Once the two quests were completed, I went back to the sleepy dwarf, waking him back up.

“The sheep are fed.” I told him, getting an affirmative grunt in reply and a window that told me I had gained one-hundred and fifty experience points, not a whole lot, but it had to be enough. He grumbled something, shaking himself awake before speaking coherently.

“Good, now that is done, why don’t you get some water to the goats?” he asked and, who would have expected it, another quest-window popped open, this one telling me to water ten goats. I accepted and was told that the well was outside, and that I would have to watch out not to get too close to the billy-goats or they might knock the bucket from my hands.

Shaking my head about the earth-shattering impact of the quests I was sent on, I left the barn, walking over to Kangur and shaking his shoulder to wake him.

“Hmph, yes what is it?” he asked, sounding surprisingly coherent. It had to be the lack of beard that made him so much easier to understand, even right after being woken up.

“Those rats are done for.” I told him, getting a nod in response and a window that told me I had gained another two-hundred experience. He also handed me a curious looking rock, called a lesser sustenance crystal. Focusing on it brought up the tool-tip and told me that I could use it outside of combat, to draw on my unique connection to the Irminsul to quickly regenerate my Health, Mana and Stamina. Nifty and useful, especially as soon as I had enough resources that my normal regeneration didn’t quite cut it any more. The amount I regenerated was dependant on the quality of the crystal and each crystal only had so much stored energy and once they were depleted, they crumbled to dust.

“Good, but there’s a lot more to do. There are some martens that try to weasel their way into our barn to wreak havoc. Go and kill them, bring me their pelts. I want to have a furry hat!”

New Quest offered.

Murdering Malicious Martens

Kangur wants you to kill Martens and collect six complete pelts from them.

Success: EXP

Sable-fur Gloves Decline: No penalty Failure: Kangur might use your beard to make his furry hat. Or your hair. Or whatever hair he might find on your body.

I accepted the quest and had to hide my laughter when reading the consequences for failure. It seemed as if the developers went heavy on the bearded dwarf-stereotype, but it was a funny one, so I wasn’t complaining, much.

“Before I go, I was told that you could teach me to harness my rage better?” I asked. He just nodded and an interface opened, showing me further class-abilities and skills, but sadly, only one of them was for my level, Medium Armour Training. A quick, mental click later, he grunted and a window told me that I had learned the ability, at Novice I. At the current level, it didn’t do much but that would hopefully change with level.

“Thank you, I will head out now.” I told Kangur and set off, looking for the well and the martens.