Will trudged down the now empty streets towards the next tavern, holding his cloak against the hard gusts of wind as thick clouds rolled across the sky and promised a downpour later. Each breath fogged in the cold air before another gust sent it swirling away and sent a shiver down his spine. Even the few guards patrolling the street were stopping in doorways to give themselves a reprieve before moving on.

He’d been searching for hours already, spending only a few minutes at each tavern to look for the two men before pushing himself back into the cold. They weren’t in any of the taverns along the main road, or the adjacent side streets. Not unless they’d already gone to bed, which Will didn’t think was likely.

He was about to give up when he caught the sound of raucous laughter down a side alley. Will glanced down the alley to see it bathed in the light of two windows. Curious, he walked down the alley to get a better look and found a door tucked between two eaves.

There was no furniture or decorations inside, just a single counter with a bartender wiping down a few bottles with an old rag and a stack of tapped barrels against the wall. Otherwise, a dozen players were standing around talking and laughing.

“Will,” Voodoo shouted from the back corner as he weaved through the other patrons, Doc in tow, to slap Will on the back. “What’re you doing here, mate?”

Doc called out to the bartender, “Spade, another round over here.” Spade waved at him and grabbed them mugs, filled them and set them on the table. Doc placed a few coppers on the table and handed one to Will.

Will did a double take at the bartender, realizing he was a player. It had to cost a pretty penny to buy the place, unless the place was a quest reward.

The faction completely forgotten for the moment, Will asked, “Is this place really player owned?”

“Owned and operated.” Voodoo said, “Since this morning.”

“How did he afford it?” Will asked.

Spade overheard and replied, “I was in logistic. Only took me a few hours in game to figure out how to make a profit buying from one vendor and selling to a different one.”

“That’s impressive,” Will said, “Is everyone here a vet?”

“Yep,” Voodoo said, “Everyone but you, at least.”

“And none of you decided to do play the FPS?”

“Seriously, man?” Voodoo asked, “We all lived through that shit IRL. Why in God’s name,” He laughed, “I guess the Goddess’ name, would any of us want to pretend to fight? I had enough of it when it was real to last me a lifetime.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.” Will conceded.

“No worries,” Doc said with a shrug, “hard for a civie to understand. So, what can we do for you?”

Will glanced around suspiciously, making Voodoo laugh, “Don’t worry about these guys. Like I said, we’re all vets, and besides, we’re all going to team up to fight the orcs once the invasion happens. They won’t tell anyone your secret.”

Still uneasy, Will kept his voice low as he explained how he’d created a new faction, and wanted to know if they’d join. Will didn’t have a detailed plan yet, more like a general idea, but explained how he wanted to increase notoriety, gather supplies, and recruit members so that he could operate a resistance once the orcs took over.

A smile spread across Voodoo’s face as Will talked and was nodding along. After Will was done, Voodoo said, “Not a bad idea, but it depends on how much damage the orcs do when they take over.”

“I know,” Will acknowledged, “But I don’t think they’ll burn the whole place down. My guess is that they’ll destroy some of it during the invasion, then act more like an occupying force afterwards.”

“Maybe,” Doc said, “No way to know how the game was programmed. But it’s a better idea than Voodoo’s latest.”

“Hey, it’s a good idea.”

“What is?” Will asked.

Voodoo leaned in conspiratorially and lowered his voice, “It’s pretty simple, really. We wait until they breach the wall, then…” Voodoo smirked, “We kill them.”

Will stared at him for a second in confusion, a random thought about his stabby-stabby technique flashing through his head, but that conversation with Dean had been entirely different.

Doc grunted, “Yeah, you’re a real Einstein, Voodoo.” Doc turned to Will, “I’m game, what do I need to do to join the faction?”

“Uh, let me check.” Will fumbled with the status page, found a section that allowed him to send invites, and both men accepted.

“There a limit on how many people can join?” Voodoo asked.

“Twenty-five.” Will said, “Until we level up.”

“Cool,” Voodoo turned his head to the bar, “Hey, everyone, listen up. We got a plan that’ll work.”

“Shut it, Voodoo.” An older man with salt and pepper hair said, “Your plans suck.”

“Screw you, Pooh.” Voodoo replied with a grin. Will suspected this was a pretty common exchange between the two men, “And it ain’t my plan this time.”

“Pooh?” Will asked incredulously, “His name’s Pooh? Like Pooh Bear?”

“You got a problem with that?” The man heard and walked over to Will. Despite Will being a few inches taller than the man, Pooh had broader shoulders and seemed to loom over him.

Will gulped, “No, just curious how you got it.”

The man laughed, “Just messing with you. I got it ‘cause I used to record myself reading it for my kids back home while I was deployed.” Pooh shrugged, “So, I take it this is your plan?”

Will glared at Voodoo, who was acting innocent, before replying, “Yeah. I found a way to start a faction earlier and figured we could use it to mount a resistance.”

Pooh scratched his chin as he said, “Could work, if the orcs don’t destroy it in the process. Better idea than anything this idiot’s come up with.” Pooh jerked a thumb at Voodoo. Voodoo spluttered, spraying his drink. Pooh laughed. “Let’s here it, then. What’s the plan?” The other soldiers circled them as Will explained the rest of his idea. Afterwards, everyone wanted to be invited into the group, and like that, Will had a dozen members and the Faction’s notoriety level increased twice. Will pulled up the Faction tasks to see what had been unlocked.

“First we need to pickpocket some people,” Will explained. “Then, it looks like we can get a few more informants, assassinate a few rival criminal organizations to take over, and establish a business as a front.”

“Spade?” Doc asked.

“Sure,” Spade shrugged, “Why not? Might mean it survives the orc attack.”

A notification popped up on Will’s screen stating that the bar, named FUBAR, was now a faction location. From the menu, it looked like he basically owned the bar, if he wanted to. It wasn’t fair though, so he assigned Spade to the bar and gave him complete authority on the Faction asset. Spade nodded his thanks and Will sensed the others opinion of him improve slightly. He didn’t know how he knew, it was more like a gut feeling than anything. Or maybe something tied to being the Faction leader?

Voodoo said, “Gimme an hour and I’ll have the pickpocketing done.”

“Wait, don’t-“ Pooh said, but Voodoo slipped out the door. Pooh sighed, “If he gets caught…”

“I’ll follow him, and make sure he stays out of trouble.” Doc said with a sigh as he walked to the door and opened it. He looked back in resignation before leaving, “Great, it’s about to rain. I’m going to kill him when I find him.”

Will grinned, “I believe the words you’re looking for are ‘that boy ain’t right.’”

Doc laughed as he closed the door behind him. Will’s chest tightened momentarily at the thought of his friends. He shook it off and said, “There’s at least one other faction that’s been created. Don’t know if they’ll cause any problems for us, but better safe than sorry, you know?”

Pooh glanced at him approvingly, “Agreed, we should probably keep an eye out just in case.” Pooh gestured at two of the men, glanced at the windows. Both men moved over and leaned against the frames and started a conversation as they stared out at the street. It would look inconspicuous enough to anyone passing by, but they were obviously on lookout to anyone in the bar. “For now, we can come up with a plan, then go look at the headquarters and start leveling up the faction.”

It came out as a suggestion, but Will knew Pooh was only making sure he didn’t usurp Will. Pooh expected Will to discuss plans for the faction and would probably keep suggesting it until Will agreed. Will didn’t have an issue with discussing the plans. Now that he had trained soldiers on his side, he preferred hearing their input on how to proceed.

Will ignored the notifications about the pickpocket quests that popped up as he discussed plans with Pooh. He hoped Voodoo would pickpocket in moderation, but if Voodoo kept the pace he seemed to be going at, he’d pickpocket the entire town before breakfast. Will just had to hope Voodoo didn’t pickpocket the wrong person, get caught, or alert the other faction too soon. Something told him they wouldn’t get that lucky.