With trade up and running, and city management handled, Yamina and I were finally able to head back to the plateau and fight the undead there. I invited the rest of the party. Fannon was able to come, Thorbjorn and Jimni were already grinding up there using our fountain as a bind point. We’d join them soon. Rhuad was too busy grinding his new magic. We offered to pick up one of Granny’s Priestess healers, and was told they’d meet us soon.

To my surprise, instead of a young woman, it was a short and slender young man who approached silently. He wore the new blue robes Granny had adopted. Instead of dress like, his looked more like a martial arts Gi. His shining ebony skin set the dark blue off wonderfully. He said nothing, just giving us a nod, and standing his feet apart and hands behind his back. I used ID to see how he stacked up.

I caught his eye and said, “You okay with me calling you Onu?” Receiving another nod, I continued. “Since you are only level five, I want you to stay in the back. Be sure to land at least 1 Wounding Heal on each mob, and save the rest of your mana to heal Thor and Jimni. Did you bring melee weapons? Another nod, did you bring something that can attack from the back row? Instead of nodding, Onu just smiled flourished each hand, a blessed mace appearing in one and a blessed spear in the other, before slipping them back into his inventory. We set out along the river north to the waterfall.

On the plateau we familiar figures, one tall blond and dressed in blue, another small hunched and slender, wearing bearskins over his clothes.. Thorbjorn and Jimni were sitting, resting with their backs to the fountain. Looking about, the two had set up a small wall of sharpened blessed oak stakes, preventing undead from storming through the gap at the fountain.

It was then, that the crack of a firecracker went off, scaring the crap out of me. I said, “I’d totally forgotten about that part”.

Thorbjorn replied, “Ja, I’ve been trying to ignore it. We’ve been pushing as many skeletons as we can into the well, feeding the settlements CP as we fight”.

Jimni spoke up “Dat’s slowed our leveling, but we didn’t want to get too far ahead of you two, we’s Lvl 8 now.”

In surprise I said “Wow that’s great guys! Congrats! Have you seen anything other than Screamers and Corporals so far?”

“Thorbjorn said “Nah, we’ve been just working here, we haven’t gone deeper in. We were waiting on you. Before we came over to this side, we set up a pile of trees so skellies on that side were funneled into the river. We Figured Danu could use some points too. Not sure if it worked, but it was worth a try”

I pointed to the cherubic young healer and said “This is Onubuko, He goes by Onu, he’s going to be joining us. I’d like the three of you to start operating as a triad. If he sticks to the adventure side, he’ll be a great addition for you two.”

Thor nodded and said, “Ja for sure, we know Onu, he used to work at the Ratsnest. Don’t let his silent act fool you, once you get a couple drinks in him, he’ll talk your ear off”.

At that Onu stuck his tongue out and gave them both a raspberry. In a quiet voice he said “I talk fine, you are just boring.” Turning to me he said “Sure, I’d love to make a hunting trio with those two. I can level when you are both busy.”

“My idea exactly. Ok, every one bind on the Fountain, so we can quick travel between here and homebase. If things go squirrely while we are up here Recall to homebase and we’re all gather there before going here as a group.”

We formed up behind the wall of stakes and Jimni ran out to pull us some mobs.

Soon Jimni came running out of the woods with a dozen skeletons on his tail, Jimni was laughing uproariously, maybe cackling with glee was a better word. Dove over the wall and rolled across the grass. Thorbjorn set up like a baseball player and waited for the screamers to bunch up at the wooden palisade. He then took a mighty swing decapitating 6 skelles at once, before shouting “Danus Touch!” and a cone shaped wave of blue light shot out of his hand, causing all the skeletons to start smoking. I reached out with Shape squirting all of the skeletons with water from the blessed fountain. Onu was casting like mad with one hand, his spear in the other. Suddenly Yamna appeared zooming full speed left to right in front of us and dropped a hundred-pound stone sideway through the skeletons. After that Fannon just leaned over the wall and started popping the skulls of the downed skeletons with a spear.

I hoovered up all the shattered bits of skeleton into my inventory before the bless field destroyed them. “That was easy XP, not a lot of it, but easy.”

Jimni grumbled, “Aye, me and Thor here were killin’ that many. Getting harder to pull big lots, we’ll be needed further up I think.”

I thought a moment, “Lets drop a road of trees through here to the big building up there I said. I’ll drop them in the shop for the boys to handle. Thor Jimni and Fannon formed a line, I move out front started trees crashing to the ground in a wide strip as we moved up to them, I touched them and they disappeared. We started getting Skeletons and Corporals running at us in 1s and 2s.

Thorbjorn’s laughing voice said “This is a lot easier than cutting road by hand I tell ya! I could get used to this!”

Up ahead in the forest through the brush I began to see an old sagging Iron fence, inside the fence were more skeletons including some we had never seen before. I identified the new ones as Skelton Sergeants, who looked like the Corporals, but with axes instead of clubs. The fenced in area appeared to be a cemetery, filled with moldering headstones and graves which appeared to have been exploded from the inside. The Skeletons seemed to avoid both the Temple in the center of cemetery, and the fence itself.

I hopped on Guild chat [Rhuad, Ahg, can you two focus on trimming the trees in the shop inventory and shape them into logs of consistent diameter. Get with Bart to manage the shop and process them in as quickly as you can,and put them back in the shop. Olaf, can you get any barrels of river water you have to Bart as well please? We may put empty barrels back, if you can refill them that would be great. We’re currently not in combat, so don’t kill yourselves thanks!]

They agreed to get on it, and we settled down to make a base here by the fence, in case we needed to fall back.

I started concentrating the rocks about us into big blocks, preparing to put together another fountain I had a feeling we’d need the help once we opened up this fence. That is a lot of skeletons inside the graveyard..

Fannon got my attention and spoke to me quietly her soft voice just carrying to me. “Over there to the left on the far side, I can see a gate in the fence. Since it seems to repel the undead, why don’t we set up our new fountain in front of the gate. I’d hate to poke a hole in the fence and break the spell holding them in.”

I gave Fannon a firm nod, and I waved everyone else in and we huddled up to discuss our plans.

Jimni Spoke first “We’s should build a ramp and go over da fence. Dat’d be a hoot!”

Thorbjorn slapped his shoulder and replied, “I thought you were DONE being a berzerker, then you say something like this!” Which made them both grin like boys.

I began “We need to be careful and work from our advantages. Thrilling and dangerous battles are a sign of bad planning, not adventures to be sought. The way I see it, we need to build a fountain at the entrance to the gate, anyone got a better idea?”

Onu’s quiet voice came next, “What about a scouting tower, that the skeletons can’t climb. 4 posts, a platform. None of the skeletons so far have ranged abilities.”

Fannon added to the idea. “We could sheath the legs in stone, so the skeletons can’t climb it, and make the fountain surround the base.”

Thorbjorn gave Jimni a meaning full look, Jimni hunched his shoulders and looked away. After a few seconds of this byplay Jimni burst out hissing “Fine, here, I had da shaperboys makes us some new toys.” And dropped 3 barrels of wooden caltrops out onto the ground. Muttering “I wanted it to be a surprise” and casting dirty looks at Thorbjorn.

Thorbjorn’s singsong voice picked up Jimni’s conversation “Jimni had wooden caltrops made out of blessed oak, and soaked in river water. He thought they would be a good defense against skeletons. We tested some, they penetrate the bones of the foot and stay in place burning the bones the whole time. It made them dance on one foot, it was quite funny” Thorbjorn’s leaned over a bumped his shoulder into Jimni’s whose pouting face cracked into a smile.

“Yeah dey looked like right fools.”

Fannon spoke up again, “Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up. I see it two ways, we put the fountain up against the fence, or we pull it back and build walls to funnel them in. Which is it?

Yamina stroked her chin in thought and said, “The closer it is, the deeper the bless field goes into the compound. That’s got to be a good thing.”

I nodded. Fannon continued. “Okay fountain, wider than the gate, or walls that but up against the gate?”

Jimni and Thorbjorn looked at each other and said “Both, of course both” in unison.

“That’s better. Now we’re moving” said Fannon Tower, inside the fountain, or behind the wall?”

I mused, “I love the idea of it being in the fountain, in case we get hit from behind, but that’s a lot of skeletons. I think we need the defensive depth of behind, we just need the tower big enough to defend all sides at once.”

“Can you just shape the tower and the fountain?” asked Thorbjorn wiggling his fingers ‘magically’.”

“Nah too much in one go, we’ll have to prep the pieces and I just weld them together.” I said “We should probably chuck the caltrops over the gate to give us more space to work. Some of those Skeletons are better equipped than the corporals we fought before, we should assume those are intelligent”.

Fannon stepped up again, she’ really impressing me today “Okay, 1. Thorbjorn, Jimni and Onu, chuck caltrops across the gate to give us space. 2. Bill fuzes the base, to make the fountain. Yamina and I drop blocks out of inventory to form the wall of the fountain. 3. Bill fuses the walls together, and we all start dumping water in as soon as he’s done. 4. Thor, Jimni and Onu, hold logs for Bill and he fuzes them together to form the tower. 5. I’m going to do a quick and dirty rune carving on the legs to make them extra bad to the skeletons. 6. Bills team moves up and set the floor of the tower. After that we all move up and finish it. Anyone see anything we are missing?”

Yamina said, “I can fly around and call out any skellies attacking us from outside, but we probably need someone whose job it is to be ready for them.”

Fannon said “Okay I’ll do that job until the legs are up, after that Thor can come do it while I do the runes. Anything else?”

Jimni spoke up. “We could have some soldier boys over at the old fountain, in case we have to scoot.”

Fannon looked to me at that, she being out of the guard command structure, I nodded and said, “Great idea Jimni, you and Thorbjorn arrange that with Sgt Plum, get with Granny and have them send some healers too. We may be ready before they get here, but it’s a good plan. We should have cut the number down back there with our push, it should be pretty safe for them to hunt.”

Fannon nodded firmly “anything else?” All were quiet. Okay let’s do this, everyone keep your eyes out, and look for trouble. Sing out when you see it starting.”

We formed up, Thorbjorn, Jimni and Fannon across the front. Myself on the right flank rear, and Onu up the back of the wall. Yamina was in overwatch as usual. We moved quietly, through the brush and brown grass surrounding the tall black iron fence.

As we rounded the corner, Yamina spoke up “Everyone, I see one of the better equipped Skelton’s watching us move. It’s back by the temple. It hasn’t done anything yet, just watching.”

It comes back as a skeleton Captain, lvl 8 I also see a Seargent Lvl 6, looks like the corporal but with an axe instead of a club. I also see a lvl 7 Lieutenant with a sword and a bit more armor as well, not very many of those. Only 1 captain so far.

“Okay, Onu, I want you to keep an eye on him, so that Yamina can stay on overwatch, tell us if it does anything.”

Onu’s quit voice came back “Yaah, and he a male skeleton, if that matters.”

Jimni looked and said “How can you tell dey’s all bones?”

Onu chuckled back “The armor has a Cod piece Jim, a codpiece.”

About then we reached the gate and I realized our first error in the plan. I said, “Everyone form a perimeter until the lads there get the first barrel of Caltrops deployed. Then peel off as you need to do a job.”

Onu and Jimni dropped barrels at their feet and started throwing handfuls of caltops over the gate. Spreading them to get a perimeter out a few feet from the fence. Thorbjorn being Thorbjorn, picked his barrel up in both hands and started pouring caltrops out over the fence line extending several feet off either end of the Gate. Then he too started throwing handfuls over with a casting motion like you’d use to sew grain.

I said “Fusing” and started to fuse the dirt and rocks on the ground into a solid piece of stone 15 feet on a side. Easily covering the 10-foot-wide gate, and butted up against it.

Onu spoke up “I took my eyes of the Smart skeleton and he’s gone when I looked back”

I looked at the gate, and just to be sure, I welded it shut using shape. Then I went back to working the plan. Fannon and Yamina we dropping the stones quickly to form the perimeter of the square fountain. This was loud enough we had Screamers notice us and start rushing the gate. They ran ta full tilt and when they hit the caltrops they tumbled and fell, burning everywhere as caltrop hit them looking like smoking pincushions. The heal and bless folds kicked in and they smoked all over.

Onu’s quiet voice cam again “One of the axe guys just banged on the door, I think he was getting the smart guy’s attention, Yep smart guy just peeked out and looked at us.”

I said “Fusing walls”, and quickly fused the fountain water tight. I dropped 4 more stones 1 per log column we were putting up and formed sockets the size I wanted for them to slot into.

Fannon called out “Start Pouring Barrels” we dumped them all, and then I sent [Refills please Bart and Olaf].

I dropped the first pole directly into its socket, using shape to get a tight fit in the hole holding it at the angle we needed, while the lads braced it. We repeated these steps 3 more times and we climbed up, each of us on a Corner.

Onu swiveled and said “I see spearmen coming to us.” I looked over seeing a line of 8 spear skeletons heading towards us in heavy armor. I called out, “Yamina Nuke please”, she appeared out of thin air, over them dropping a stone block that crashed and tumbled through them end to end, just like Alejandros’ men. Yamina then zipped up at max speed and disappeared again.

I dropped the first horizontal for the floor and fuzed the wood in place. We quickly built a perimeter, and started laying logs width wise across them.

Another boom startled me and I looked up out into the forest behind me, I saw a streak of light in the sky and a skeleton crushed by a rock where it had run at us. Go Yamina!

Just then Onu called out, “Spread out line of archers, they learned from the spearmen.”

I flashed my eyes over to the skeletons and they had a loose zig zag skirmish line of archers out side the bless field. These damn skeletons were learning faster than Alejandro.

We finished the floor and started working on a wall on the side facing the archers. It was then I figured out the next problem without plan. “Onu, drop down, consecrate the fountain in Danu’s name. when that’s done get back up here. Yamina when he moves up, fall back and set up the bless and heal fields. Spend whatever you have to, get level 3 on each, more if we can afford it easily.

It was then the archers started let fly. Arrows started thunking into the tower. The three of us put the side walls up quickly, and started on the back, the most exposed to the archers. We were all drenched with sweat from wrestling the logs into position so I could weld them.

In my combat logs, 2 lines appeared;

While reading these, I heard a loud “ugnn!” below us, “Who got hit?” I called out.

Fannon called back “Onu got hit in the leg. He’s healing himself and I’m covering him, I have not finished the posts.” I looked and arrows were hitting Fannon’s shields as she hunched over him. I cut a hatch in the floor and pulled it up. “Thor grab him when he climbs, get him up here fast”

I realized we’d failed to plan for a roof for the tower, so I put some logs in the corners and welded them to the walls. I set my square shield up against the wall to give me a bit more cover and welded two logs up as a base for the roof. Jimni grabbed the shield and gave me cover, as Thor yanked Onu up into safety by one arm. Damn these Skeletons were adapting fast.

Fannon called “Runes done heading up, Cover me”, And I stopped on the roof and put out darts as fast as could at the skeleton archers. When Fannon was up, I pulled 3 rectangular wall shields out of the shop and handed them to Fannon, Onu and Thor.

“Cover me while I get the roof up, and put up some protection on the temple side.”

Yamina shouted over party chat [Bill, Check your mana!] I looked and I was dangerously low. I drank some water, and watched as the archers started focusing on Thor. I welded the first roof timber across the front side near the temple, and started just chucking the others up, not welding them at all yet.

I called “Out of Mana” and sat down to meditate. Arrows continued to thunk into the tower and the shields. Suddenly I heard a really loud thunk and Thors health bar dropped about 10%.

Thor shouted “Heavy crossbows, one just went through the shield and my armor and into my arm.“

“Shit! everyone down in the tower, while I get Mana. Yamina if you are not invisible get so and stay safe.”

Everyone dropped except Fannon who was on her knees, carving runes into the inside wall closest to the Temple.

Yamina called back in chat [I’m lights out, tiny and up high, so far none have seen me. Dropping a barrel of water on two of those crossbow Skelton’s].

I heard a large splash and checked the inventory, the barrels in the shop were full again. I dropped several of them on the floor, and kicked them over. Water ran out the hatch in the floor, but we were all soaked. I kept this up in rotation till all the barrels were empty again.

[Bart, refills we are in hot combat.]

Bart Replied [On it]

Sgt Plum chimed in [5 at fountain, 12 on the cliff, ok to wait?]

I sent back [Keep your guards there, we don’t have enough safe space here. We’ll call if we need you, adding you to Raid]

Sgt Plums face showed up with an arrow next to it and a bar.

The Sargent replied [XP incoming]

My mana was 75%, it had to be good enough, I started pulling logs, and putting them up on top of the front wall. I picked long logs that stuck out over both sides, so we got a little more cover out of them on the sides.

Soon the wall was solid and Yamina called in [I see 5 skeletons with axes, heading your way with a log. Looks like they are trying to make a ram to get through the gate.

Instead of working on the side walls, I used shape to make archers loops in the wooden wall. 25% mana

Yamina again [Bill, did you sheath the posts in stone? There are screamers inbound from the forest, to many to stop]

Jimni and Thorbjorn moved to the loops with their crossbows, starting a steady fire on guys with the log.

I rolled over to the trap door and started pulling the stone footing up the rear pillar closest to home.

I got the back two pillars covered, before I ran out of mana [Out of Mana]

Yamina got back on the horn [Fannon, Do you have a fire proofing enchantment? they just brought out fire arrows from the temple]

Dammit these guys were smart and prepared, not what I expected from a bunch of skeletons. I thought this was going to be an eazy grind with dumb mobs.

Fannon Replied [Fire resistance, Yes, I can start on it, in the meantime drop water barrels on the top of our roof, to wet everything down.]

I checked the inventory only 6 barrels left. I sent [Save the last two barrels, you can dump them if you think you can handle them, but don’t break them, unless it’s an emergency]

The Tower boomed like a giant drum and water ran down the side of the roof.

Onu slim form hopped up to peeked out the loop “There are about 3 dozen screamers pushing on the gate. As many again on the ground burning. The guys with the log are pushing through them, going to hit the gate soon.

Fuck, we need mana potions and more shapers badly.

I sent a message on the officer’s channel [Granny give Plum access to my shop. He’s going to need logs to build a defense if he moves up. I’m thinking we might need them. Plum pull anything from the shop you think you need, don’t worry about cost. Come up where you can see us and set up.]

Sgt. Plum Replied [Roger, wilco]

I looked back down the hatch and saw screamers battering at the legs of the tower, but their feet were burning away and soon they fell into the water and became still. I started pulling stone up around the 3rd leg.

Jimni used chat [2 down on the log, but more armored fuckers are running out of da temple. Screamers dropping fast, but the armored guys are lasting much longer.]

Soon after he came on again [ Gate is failing, Screamers will take it the rest of the way, the armored guys are running out of the fountain radius.]

I had the 4th leg covered in stone, and dumped another barrel of water into the pool, it was nearly to the lip of the fountain wall. I reached out and used shape to reinforce the weld job I’d doen before. The gates were bulging and bent to hell, but should hold for a while.

I looked at the legs and pulled a small sliver of stone up through the floor where I could touch it and flipped the hatch shut again.

I pulled up the interface for the fountain. It had over 1200 Cp already. I dug through the menus. Increasing the Radius from 30’ to 40’ was 500. To 50’ was another 1200. I used Settlement Cp to make up the difference and upped the radius to 50’ despite the beyond geometric increase. I was starting to worry about us getting out alive.

Jimni called, “A bunch more of dem just caught on fire, HA! look at the fuckers dance!”.

I used chat [Fountain radius upped from 30’ to 50’, we probably can’t afford to do it again. I pulled a bit of stone up through the floor so we can bind or control from here. How many archers did we get?]

Thorbjorn replied [We got a lot of them, but the smart ones, including the archers just pulled back out of the radius, screamers are burning out about 2/3 of the way to the temple. We’ve been able to put out fire bolts on the front of the tower so far, but we may need a longer-term solution.]

We’ve been reacting, I need to make some quick long-term decisions, open up some more strategies.

[Granny, Orth, Things are getting hairy here, we need a few things. Break down the ballistas and gather some crossbows and ammo and put them in the shop. I want the fire bolts Fannon made especially. Anything else you can think of that’s good against undead, throw it in the store as well and an let us know. Add Plum to the store so he can pull gear out. Get Renee and Ramon up with Plums guys so we can add them to the raid. Rene’s a paladin, he’s got to have something good against undead, let him spend city points to get it if he has to. Have Olaf and the boys making more caltrops,once plum has his redoubt set up. Long term I want you on recruiting or training an alchemist and an herbalist and more farmers. We need to be able to make potions in house. We probably need another paladin too.]

I pulled ingots out of my inventory and tossed them on the roof then used shape to turn them into thin plate to make the roof proof from fire arrows, with a lip to hold it in place. After that I had to meditate.

We’d planned on these guys being dumb, and they weren’t. If we fall back they will just destroy the fountain and the tower. I need a plan to grind them down today. Otherwise we fall back and start from scratch.

[Sgt. Plum, If you think you can pull up and be safe, assault the archers from your side. I’d rather you be cautious, than throw men away.]

Sgt. Plumb’s Rock on rock voice came back on private chat, [Like I’d throw them away, even if you fucking told me to. Spend them yes, throw them away, fuck no. I’m on it.]

I replied to him [Good, I want you to use the water barrels to flood the area around you so you have some defense in depth. If you have to fall back to the fountain, or head to town, go ahead, just let me know, your ass is going to be hanging out.

Orth got on the horn [Sir Bill, Sgt . Plum, I had the kids gather up all the fallen twigs and leaves from the blessed oaks and bagging them up. We though they might be a better ground cover for Plum and his lads and lassies.]

Plum replied [ Orth, Corporal Agrabie is grabbing the rest of the guard and any militia he can find, and is bringing them to us. Give them anything you come up with too. I’d like you to give them any armor that’s left in the shop as well. His team isn’t as well equipped as Corpora Adebe’s here with me.]

Granny came back, [I sent Bart through the gate with Orth to Portbo, they are going to buy any mana and heal potions they can get and bring them back. Rene, if you can assist them, please do.]

Plum joined in [Ms. Gatlin, have them get some ropes, just one or two, tall enough for the cliff here. I’d appreciate it.]

[Understood Basil I’m on it. Call me Alibeth. Corporal Urima is healed up except for looks, want me to send him too? ] was Granny’s reply. Sounds like Granny Gatlin has a type. Danu If I’m right, that’s a full point to Bill!

[Affirmative Alibeth, gear him up first please. Then he gets the militia.]

As I watched Thor and Jimni put together the Ballista, I used shape and my own metal ingots, to reinforce the welding Job on the fence. I told Yamina and the two of them to be my eyes during any planning. Then I went over what we’d done so far. We’ve mobilized the reserves, pulled heavier weapons, added a 2nd flank, and expanded the heal field. I could bump the values a notch. The only thing left is to spend my saved-up CP. I’d been saving a while, focusing on working for skill ups instead of buying them. I wanted a Master class of epic proportions Also, once again, I felt like the indispensable man, I needed to fix that, bring more people up. I’d made up my mind.

I bound to the local fountain, up in the tower.

I turned to my team.