25 days remain of contest A, Wednesday.

I get an email itinerary from the school; Friday is going to be a busy day for the students. The school day has no regular classes—the day is filled with mixed classes about cooperation, leadership strategy, tactics, and monetary strategy. The teachers get a good bonus if we win. They also get to keep their jobs. It’s incentive enough that they are trying to get us to work together. A smart ploy and we are going to have to do as they say if we want to win.

That is two days away, time to focus.

Logging in, I find myself in the Fortress with a log of my scripted events over the past night. The log events seem to all be sending scouts back out as they return—nothing exiting happened while we slept. Checking the clan roster, I see our clan house and aggressive recruiting have helped. Six new members have joined, all under level fifteen. I see the clan house manager has given them quests running one of the sewer dungeons in Port Yarrow.

Jumping into the clan channel, I say hi and welcome the new members. I request that if anyone new has friends to bring them in. I talk about our plans of raiding a dungeon soon—as soon as I find one—it will bring our levels up fast. I can see that two of our new members have the Hillhurst school symbol next to their name, a twelfth-level cleric named Bumblebzz and a level-thirteen fighter named FaydeOut. One of the civilian players is a crafter with armor focus, and the others are two fighters and a mage.

I really hope none of these guys were ones I killed by accident back in Kesmai. The new members realize the clan leader is in chat and begin asking questions.

***

Brief with answers I explain that they should continue to do the sewer quests for a couple days. I also tell them I’ll work with them to run them through a new dungeon once that is set up. I was lying, of course; I didn’t know how it would go negotiating with this clan of who were at the instance in the woods. I should be getting another report from the spy soon.

I take time and look through more menus for the fortress and familiarize myself with custom scripting. Testing scripts for use when I am offline, I run a few through a simulator. I see the report tab blink in the interface, and I check it as I walk to the table map. The interface changes and hovers over a point showing a stylized forest between two passes. The pass looks to be about as far from a road in that area as can be. My spy had followed a player there. Their clan name is [Ballzdeep], and their leader’s name is Sauce. The leader sauce has somehow gained the advanced class, Dark Arrow. The other primary members of the clan are Dignity a Tempest Cleric, Beards a Demonologist Mage, and a Titan Summonernamed Roll, some kind of tank. These players all have advanced classes and are level 20.

Checking my travel options in the fortress interface I see I can buy portal stones for travel. The stones are organized by length of time they function for. The cheapest being a portal stone that lasts for five minutes. The most expensive being a permanent stone, which has a purchase limit of two.

I buy a five-minute portal stone for fast travel to Eagles Crest fortress for 50 gold. This return stone will be worth it if my plan goes as I hope it will.

I discover that Eagles Crest fortress has decent stables. As the clan leader of the fortress, I am entitled a mount. I pick a male pure black Slythsteed, which is basically a horse with natural scale for armor and claws instead of hooves. I have to choose a name; I type Deathbloom and get a new icon in my interface which I can use to summon him. On my map I mark the position of this clan leader Sauce, then I jump on my mount and race out of my fortress. Charging at full speed down the mountain I mentally switch my view to Morrigan. From her eyes I see me, a dark tombstone rider, dragging hooked shadows in my wake.

***

I make a quick stop to the Old Man and turn in my quest, gaining my Shadow Scout advanced class. Several other windows pop up with what looks like basic quests to advance in level before other options become available for my class. The old man appears to be a far more advanced NPC than others in much of the world. He moves around with grace and asks topical questions. It’s somewhat unnerving after dealing with other NPCs in the game.

I take a quick look at my new skills, but the interface is intuitive, so they are easily available. I will need to spend time with them to get comfortable using them.

Time to go make an alliance.

***

As I ride, I pass through low forests, and a plain with enormous beasts that look like bison but with six legs. My map updates with a plains dungeon that looks like it is filled with something called Prairie Blades. I make a note of it for later examination. Finally, I come to the edge of the Pictish Forest, the area on the map shown as my destination. The report the spy submitted shows that the clan I am looking for are running a dungeon deep within the forest. I will need to move forward with care; this forest looks to be a maze and offers them a perfect defense.

Deathbloom and I pick our way through the dense forest lightly. As night begins to fall the sounds of frogs fills the air. Being a Shadow Scout, I gain my buffs and my advanced class shadow skill icons light up. My night vision kicks in, allowing me to keep my way. Getting closer, I dismount and cancel the summon for Deathbloom, who trots off into the night. I move forward in the shadows on foot over a small pass. Leaving the main trail, I work my way up higher. I want to get a nice vantage point to scout out where I will be going, to see if anyone is setting up an ambush.

Arriving above where I think they are, I peer down into the wooded canyon. I get new information on my map about Qeynos Catacombs, which is the instance this clan is running. I can see a firepit down below and it looks like the player Sauce is there sitting by the fire with a bow across his back. He appears to be reading his interface. I don’t want to seem like I am sneaking in to kill him, so I can’t stealth my way through this. I decide that I should use the shadows and move in close, then reveal myself with plenty of space.

I move back to the path and work through the darkness, shifting effortlessly in my element until I am close. Approaching Sauce from behind I examine the area for other players and see none, although I can see an entrance to the dungeon ahead of him. The entrance is raised stones with runes next to a deep pool of cold water. Inside the stones is a broken crypt door, emanating darkness. My kind of place.

I step out of the shadows and clear my throat.

“Hi there, NightFlower. What’s a little girl like you doing coming here by yourself with a bounty on your head?” Sauce asks without turning around.

Taken aback, I stop. Something is not right. I look around and say, “I am here because I want to offer you something, something that you need. I think we can help each other.”

“What do I need from you?” he asks. My perception picks up an oddity around him, I can’t tell what it is though, so I move a little closer.

“A way to win the first round of the contest. I’ve already won the first prize, but I need help with the second part. You and I, we join clans in an alliance, and we can take the prize.”

“Now, little girl, that is interesting,” he says, then disappears.

Sauce steps from a tree behind me, putting an arrow away. I see the other members of the clan drop from the surrounding trees—two more step from behind a rock. I am vastly outnumbered, outflanked, and overpowered by this entire group, every one of which has their advanced classes. Raising my hands, I focus on Sauce, who moves to where his clone had been sitting.

“I would like to join our clans, or create an alliance. We have the first fortress in the region and in the game. As part of the first in-game bonus we have an elite fortress guardian. We are basically untouchable for a while. The leader of [Art of War], Josie Hederman—Silverbtch—is working to take the Sea Fortress and has a forty-member clan already,” I lie.

“Josie?”says a mage named Beards. “She is Silverbtch?” I can see him chewing on the name and I recognize him as one of the math prodigies from the lab classes—his real name is Chad or something. I think. Sauce is one I easily recognize as a student two years above me, whose specialty is tactics. If there was only one student that I could have in my clan, it would be him.

“Yes,” I say, “and she is getting strong. If you would all like, I can give you a tour of the fortress and you can request anything you need that I can add to it. We could come to an agreement or at least have a truce of sorts while you consider our offer.” I pause and look at the members. “I know that you are farming this instance, and by your levels it is good. I would like also to have our members run this with you.”

“You guys want to go look at this place?” Sauce asks his clan, getting nods. “Okay, we will come check out your fortress, and then we will discuss among ourselves what we need and if this is a good fit.”

“Good,” I say. I’ve got them on the hook but I’m a little concerned with what they may ask for, “Let’s go.” I pull out the five-minute portal stone. “I have a shortcut,” I say as I active the small stone, which enlargers with a large glowing circle surrounding it. “You guys coming?” I slap my hand on the stone.

Covered with clinging electric blue bolts, I step into the courtyard of our mountain fortress, shooing NPCs away to make room.

***

With pops and crackling, the ranger Sauce and his clan appear in the fortress's courtyard. Stepping lightly and prepared for anything, they scan their surroundings; I welcome them as Simon steps forward to give them the standard tour.

I let Simon do the tour, as his demeanor is mild and subservient. Knowing the fortress better than I, he can answer questions I do not have answers for. He discusses the features of the Foretress, everything, including that we can train them all in alchemy. He also explains that we can have other trainers available. I save the best for last, of course. When they see on our elite guardian Frostcracker, I can tell in their eyes that they understand the power of a fortress. They particularly like how the floor could flood in the main hall and joke about getting pool floats.

“… and that concludes our tour. Mistress Nightflower?” Simon defers to me and steps back.

“Do you have questions for me?” I ask the clan.

“Where are the beer fountains?” one asks, to much laughter.

“No questions,” says Sauce. “But we need to discuss this.” And he turns to his clan.

Watching them walk across the courtyard, I go to discuss the matter of this alliance with Simon and how it works with the fortress. It’s simply just an option to invite them as a clan and select the alliance checkbox. We also need to provide an official name for the alliance.

Taking some time to look in the menus, I see there is an entire War tab on the alliance sub-menu, and only clan leaders can be executives of the alliance and declare war. There are some interesting options for war declarations. One type allows me to declare war until they pay our clan a certain amount of gold. That type of war declaration ends if they pay.

Just when I think I know what is going on, I find something like this.

Sauce walks up, the bow on his back swings, and his steps are light. He says, “We are going to return to the rest of the clan and discuss this. You can send the invite, and I will accept or decline it tomorrow depending on our vote. Either way, it looks like you will be having a hell of a pool party in there if you get attacked.”

“Okay,” I say as I send the invite. “I look forward to hearing from you.”

“

alliance?” He laughs. “It’s perfect, I love it.”

I watch Sauce and members of his clan leave. They summon mounts which come running from outside the gates. They rapidly ride down the side of the mountain, like a pack of wild dogs, and disappear out of sight. I hope my tactic of letting the fortress sell itself was the best one. I can’t come across as desperate to get them into an alliance, even though at this point I am desperate. Josie’s strength is growing out there, I need the rapid leveling Sauce and his guys have found. They need my fortress or risk trouble when [Art of War] turns an eye to them. This is beneficial to both clans.

My bathroom icon is blinking, so I log off real quick.

***

Logging back in, I see two new recruits have joined. Time to do my welcome speech in the clan private channel.

“Pardon, miss,” Simon says.

“What is it, Simon?”

With his calm, measured voice, he says. “They have killed our town criers in Port Yarrow. The criers are respawning in the fortress graveyard. Also, our clan house is under attack.”