“We’ve got them!” Jen announced to Sam as she and Tamako came into the room.

When Sam looked over in their direction, Tamako asked, “Why are you drooling?”

Sam replied with closed eyes, a restrained voice, and a breath of ecstasy as he said, “You both smell so delicious! I want to take a bite out of you SO bad right now. Just hold on a second.”

Jen watched as Sam took a second before visibly calming down and then wiping the drool from his face, and she asked, “Was your troll sense of smell active?”

Sam replied, “Yea, if it’s active I can smell the movements of everyone in the building. As long as the door was shut, I could mostly keep my craving to eat humans under control, but when you two opened the door, well…I had to toggle it off before I tried to make Jen and Tamako soup of the two of you. Anyway, you got the gnome anonymity masks?”

Tamako pulled what looked like a theatre mask out of her ring and handed it to Sam, as she said, “Melvin got them for us at a cost of 120 gold each, and said he couldn’t find anymore, so don’t break it trying to figure it out. The ones in The Shop are 200 gold each.”

Sam was already turning the mask every which way analyzing the enchantments, and replied, “We could have just purchased one of these. I’m sure I can figure out these enchantments, now that I can see them with my gnome vision.”

Jen replied, “Yea, I don’t think so. I don’t want to wait around for weeks while you work through the enchantment code on all your other projects… and then someday get to these masks. They work just like the anonymous mask in the arena that Tamako used, but of course, these work anywhere. They won’t stop an elf from tracking you, but even an elf won’t know what you actually look like.”

Sam shrugged acknowledging the truth of her words, and said, “True, my focus right now is figuring out this ring I purchased in the gnome district back in Bot City. At least this mask will make it a lot easier for me to anonymously buy any materials that I need.”

Tamako replied, “Well, you can’t buy too much more and still be able to work in this little room. We need more space!”

Jen sighed, and said, “Hopefully, this Oracle quest will kick off soon and a lot of these people will be leaving. There are some pretty strict rules here. I mean every vagrant has their own dedicated spot for begging and sleeping, but with all the rules comes a lot of freedom. We’ve actually seen kids walking around by themselves. If anyone is hungry, there is free food offered by the City cooks in every quadrant.”

Tamako cringed when Jen referred to the free food, and said, “I’m not sure if I would call that food!”

“O.K. point taken, the food is terrible tasting, but it’s clean, healthy, and no one goes hungry. Also, no one has to worry about being bullied or strong-armed by a guild or someone stronger than themselves.”

Tamako replied, “I agree it’s definitely the…”

Before she could finish her sentence, they heard a siren “Nee-Naw, Nee-Naw, Nee-Naw, Nee-Naw…”

They all looked at each other in confusion, and could also hear shouts of confusion from people in other rooms. They put everything in their storage rings, but before going outside they each put on their anonymity masks.

Sam reviewed the options that popped up in his vision and selected a pre-designed generic description, and then looked at the two average-looking blondes that were standing next to him, and said, “It’s going to take a little time getting used to the way you both look.”

Tamako replied with impatience, “Access the mask options again. Go to ‘shared access’ and select it.”

A few seconds later, Sam replied, “Done. Now what?” Sam then noticed the two blondes, that were Jen and Tamako touching their noses together, then Jen grabbed him and pulled him in close until all their faces were touching.

Jen said, “Just a second while I select the ‘linking’ option, and…..done,” and then they could all see through the illusions created by each other’s mask.

“Holy cow! This is some serious enchanting work,” exclaimed Sam.

Tamako chuckled, and said, “Oh Sam…, did you already forget all the gold we spent to buy these.”

Jen interrupted, and said, “O.K., I’ve been listening in to everyone. This is what’s up. A goblin horde is heading from the North. Numbers are estimated in the twenty thousand range. Lady Domino is going to send out…”Jen was herself interrupted by a City-wide quest announcement appearing in her and everyone’s vision as the sirens stopped blaring.

Domino City Gambling Quest

Option A: Quick Reaction Force - Assist the 200 City Guards currently Defending the wall at the Northern Pass from the goblin horde. The wall is 130 miles from the City, and you must arrive by sundown. Free use of City fast lanes for 30 days and 10 gold.

Option B: Assist the City Guards in preparing the defense of the City against goblins, and assist in the care of refugee farmers from the surrounding area. Must report to City Defense officials within the next 2 hours for non-combat assignments. Free use of City fast lanes for 30 days.

Option C: Do nothing. Lose access to City fast lanes for next 30 days. Interference with City preparations or unauthorized use of City fast lane will result in the loss of 2 ability points paid to The System.

Tamako’s eyes raised in surprise as she looked around, and said, “Wow, almost everyone is just heading back into their rooms and going on as if nothing happened.”

Jen was clearly using her psych skill to intercept messages, and responded, “They’re all here for the Oracle Quest, and most don’t care what happens to the farmers and their farms. Inside the gates, many of the citizens are answering the call to assist the defense of the City and to help the farmer refugees. Some of the visiting nobles are also going out with their guards to help the fleeing farmers.”

Sam could see Jen had already made up her mind, so he tried to make her next orders easy on her by saying, “So, who are we going to help? The farmers or the guards stationed in the pass?” Sam was hoping she would pick fighting the goblins. He felt woefully inadequate at dealing with the emotional tragedies refugees from war suffered.

Tamako was trying to keep her face emotionless, while internally begging, “PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE pick fighting the goblins!”

System Gambling Quest

Make it to the pass by sunset and prevent the main Goblin horde from getting past the wall for 24 hours, or until Lady Domino’s main defense force arrives, whichever occurs first.

Chances of Death 20%

Reward for success: 50% of the total experience needed for your current level.

Failure: Loss of 2 random ability points.

Accept/Reject?

Jen’s AI let her know that both Sam and Tamako had received similar gambling quests. Jen snorted internally that Sam’s gambling quest offered 25% more experience points than either hers or Tamako’s, but realized she needed to get over her jealousy of his luck stat, and asked them, “We’re just outside the South gate right now, do you think we can make it to the pass in time?”

“Yes,” and “Absolutely,” came the immediate replies from Sam and Tamako. Jen thought to herself, “O.K., they both clearly would rather fight than help the refugees.” She then said, “Let’s get running then.”

Sam accepted the City Quest and the System Gambling Quest, and as he started following Jen, he asked, “Do you know if Slim is going to come with us?”

Jen replied, “I’ve pinged him with my psych skill, and he’ll know we’re going. I don’t know if he’ll decide to go with us or not.”

At that moment, Slim messaged them, and said, “There’s no way I’m going to let you go off and get killed pureheart. I’m just ahead of you scouting for possible trouble.”

Jen replied, “Slim, will it be faster to go through the City or around it to get to the North side?”

“Through the city. Anyone that has accepted the City Defense Quest is allowed to use the carriage lanes in the streets.”

Sam asked, “How will they know if we’ve accepted the quest.”

Somehow Slim managed to message them all a snort of exasperation at Sam’s question, and then Jen explained, “It was part of the City’s Mandatory Quest. Anyone that chose to do nothing will lose two ability points for interfering with the City’s defense.”

Sam replied, “Interesting! Yea, I didn’t read the part about doing nothing. That City Quest must have cost Lady Domino a fortune!”

Tamako commented, "Maybe not as much as you think, anyone that interferes with the City preparations will lose 2 ability points paid TO the System."

"Oh! Interesting! I bet that did keep the cost down." replied Sam.

****

As they neared the Southern City gate, the party could see the ordinary line for people waiting to enter and another ‘not-line’ where people were entering and leaving in a hurry in furtherance of the City Quest, but only a very, very few were moving at a top speed like themselves, and Jen commented, “I guess the quick reaction force (QRF) heading north is going to be relatively small.”

Tamako replied, “Most of these non-combat types will be supplying and assisting the main force that will probably be moving out tonight.”

As the carriage lanes were even becoming overcrowded, Jen said, “We’re not slowing down! We may need to split up a little to Zig and zag through this crowd. We’ll regroup if needed at the North Gate.”

*******

“Captain! Something is heading this way,” Corporal Sticky Fingers said from atop the Wall, next to the City's North Gate.

Captain Wager turned to find out what the corporal was talking about, and was surprised to find Sticky was not pointing outside the gate, but pointing towards the main road leading from the South Gate. The corporal couldn’t make out the three people racing through the crowd in the carriage lane, but the Captain’s overclock ability allowed him to see the three people. “Damn! Their wearing anonymity masks, but by The Seven Decks they are moving fast!” he said to no one in particular. Then Captain Wager made a call on his soundwave, “This is Captain Wager. I have Deck Dropper activity. They’re moving through the carriage lanes extremely fast. They must be trying to reinforce the Wall at the pass before sundown sir!”

“Can you identify them?” replied the Spy Chief.

“No sir. They're wearing anonymity masks,” replied Captain Wager.

The Spy Chief ordered, “Hold a minute.” He then made several calls checking with his contacts. All of the deck droppers that rainbowed down to the City for the Oracle Quest were kept under surveillance, and according to his contacts, none of them were lifting a finger to help with the goblin horde. That was expected, however, he couldn’t understand why these particular droppers would keep their entrance into the city hidden, or why they would help the City, he knew the reward just wasn’t big enough for their type. “Maybe they aren’t Deck Droppers?” He thought to himself. But again, with stats high enough to travel that quickly through the busy carriage lane, he couldn’t understand why they would accept the City Quest. The spy chief then said to Captain Wager, “Captain, are you fast enough to follow them?”

“No sir., but we know they are heading to the pass if they are using the carriage lane,” replied Captain Wager.

“My sources tell me that you are very fast, is that correct?”

“Yes sir., compared to most.”

“If you leave now, could you make it to the pass by sundown?” asked the Spy Chief.

“Close, but probably not, and I would be completely drained of mana. (pause) Sir… what are you wanting me to do exactly?”

The spy chief breathed a heavy sigh of concern, before answering, “I don’t know why they would take the City Quest. It simply doesn’t pay enough. I’m worried they were willing to take the loss of 2 ability points to appear to be on our side, in exchange for taking a System Quest offering much more if they sabotage our wall at the pass, or sabotage some other component of our defense. So… I want them followed, our men at the wall warned, and then for you to return to warn the main force if they are backstabbing us.”

“Sir, I would need you to authorize two mana potions, the speed shoes from the armory, and I might as well take a couple of health potions for the guards on the wall. But you should know, the distance to the wall will burn out the remaining enchantment on the shoes,” replied Captain Wager.

The Spy Chief hesitated as he considered the resources he would need to authorize for something that may turn out to be nothing, then said, “Do it.” The spy chief was worried that Lady Domino would be upset with his decision. He wasn’t afraid that she would punish him in anyway, he was just worried that his decision might disappoint her. He, as most every citizens of Domino Hill, was intensely loyal to Lady Domino. She put the City’s needs in front of her own time and time again, and the citizens were grateful for her leadership and loyalty to their well-being.

Captain Wager replied, “Yes sir!” as he ended the soundwave call. He hoped to make it back to the North Gate before the trio of Deck Droppers arrived. Captain Wager was fortunate to have one of the largest storage rings available, so he dumped out everything but his few coins and a water skin, and quickly placed his armor in his ring. He commanded corporal Sticky, “Take care of all my junk on the ground,” and then leaped off the 30-foot wall landing in a sprint heading for the armory. The running reminded him of his younger days when he was the fastest courier in the guard… He smiled to himself with pride as he thought, “I’m still the fastest, just not a courier anymore.”

****

“Corporal Sticky, have they left yet?” called Captain Wager from his location at the bottom of the wall near the gate.

“No sir., Captain Wager. I can’t see them for sure, but I think they’re about three blocks away.”

Captain Wager Knew it would only be seconds, so he ran over the open lane at the gate, stuck out his arm giving the signal to stop, and yelled, “Please wait a moment!”

Slim ignored the man standing in the middle of the open lane and ran right past him, but Jen, Tamako, and Sam clearly understood the man wanted something from them.

Sam messaged Jen, “Up to you boss,” and a split second later she received the same message from Tamako.

Jen thought about running past the guard, but the annoying part of her tried to respect authority when she could, so she signaled everyone to stop, and said, “You know why we’re in a hurry, please make it quick.”

“I’m Captain Wager with the City Guard, may I travel with you to the pass?” He didn’t think they would try to kill him with the steady flow of refugees coming down the road from the pass as potential witnessess, and he figured it was less likely they would try to do something while he was watching. Of course, that would only be true if he was fast enough.

Jen didn’t receive a comment from Tamako or Sam, and figured a City guard captain could clear up any questions they might run into in their trip. She didn’t provide their names or make any polite introductions, but simply said, “Yes, but you’ll have to keep up. We’ll not slow down for you.” Jen then took off at a run out the gate and down the open road.

As they left the City, Jen messaged Sam and Tamako, and in private said, “I picked up some information while we ran through the city. Apparently, the goblins attack the farmlands around Domino Hill every three or four years. When the goblins attack, the farmers head to the City for safety. ‘People’ say that the goblins attack when the goblins become overpopulated.”

Tamako replied, “That sounds about right. Goblins are known to breed at insane rates. There is usually a chief, a shaman, a few cooks, and 50 to 100 strong guards that protect the chief. The rest are just the breeders, cannon fodder, and slaves for whatever the tribe leaders want.”

Sam also commented, “Let me guess the tribe leaders push all their weak and starving cannon fodder towards the farms, knowing the humans will kill all the weak cannon fodder, while they use the distraction to steal from the farms and kill any humans that weren’t able to escape for some reason.”

Jen replied, “That’s the short of it. Except, if the goblins can be kept from breaching the wall at the pass for long enough, reinforcements can arrive protecting the majority of the farms from destruction. That’s where we come into the show, stopping the goblins at the pass.”

Tamako asked, “So what’s the rest of it?”

“There are only about 200 guards stationed on the wall at the pass at any one time. If you are a guard on the wall during a goblin attack, there is a very low survival rate. We may have screwed up this time, if we need to retreat, we’re going to lose those ability points,” finished Jen.

Sam shrugged, and said, “The die is cast. Let’s go fuck up some goblins!”

Tamako laughed, and then commented, “I second Sam’s motion to kill some goblins!”

Jen was feeling glum about leading them into a quest where they were likely to lose ability points, but instead of being angry at her, Sam’s and Tamako’s words were encouraging. Their messaging then turned to idle chat regarding the farms or the landscape they were running through.

****

Captain Wager was pushing himself, and the enchantment on the shoes to the limit, just keeping up with the trio. He could tell they had more power to go faster, but at their pace, they were sure to make it to the pass before sunset. He didn’t have any extra breath to try and chat with the trio, but he was surprised they were completely quiet and didn’t talk to each other at all.

When they were about half way to the wall, Captain Wager noticed the taller blonde woman point to a giant Mohegan Sun flying in the sky. He knew them to be vicious birds of prey, but he wasn’t worried about one of them attacking a group of 4 people with the strength to run as fast as they were. Captain Wager blinked in surprise when the bird started diving right towards the tall woman. He started to warn everyone, even though they were all obviously watching the bird, but the bird pulled out of its dive, and circled low near the ground, just above their heads. As the Captain watched the bird, he noticed the bird’s face and eyes looked blank. He wasn’t really sure, since bird’s always have a sort of emotionless look to them, but then he watched the tall blonde woman look up and stare very intently at the bird for just a second, then the bird took off flying ahead of them, and in the direction they were running. “What the hell was that!” he thought to himself, but didn’t have the energy to think on it too much, as he kept his focus on trying to keep up with the trio.

There had been a steady stream of farming refugees heading the other direction towards the city, but when they were about 30 miles from the pass, they saw a large caravan of around 40 injured farmers and guards. Wager was expecting to run on past them when the tall blonde called out, “Take a break!”

Wager bent over catching his breath, with his hands on his knees. He checked the enchantment on his shoes and realized they wouldn’t last another 5 miles. As he was contemplating what to do, he heard the tall blonde woman yell out to the caravan of injured refugees and ask them, “My name is Jenasta, She’s Make-it Take-it, he’s Slam Dunk, and that man over there is Captain Wager from Domino Hill. To confirm, you all are the last to come through the wall before they closed the gate at the pass correct?”

The least injured guard escorting the refugees to the City had started to challenge the woman for demanding they stop, but then she recognized Captain Wager as he was bent over heaving for air, and said to Captain Wager, “Sir?”

Wager was red in the face from exertion, but lifted one arm up signaling for the young guard to answer Jenasta’s question.

The young guard said, “Yes Mistress, and you are the first reinforcements from the City that we’ve seen.”

Jenasta replied, “We passed a few reinforcements on our run here, but they won’t make it to the wall before sunset. How heavy is the fighting at the wall?”

The guard replied, “None yet, the goblins that attacked this group pulled back after we engaged with them and brought these farmers past the wall and into safety.”

Captain Wager could see several of the refugees were in bad shape, and while stable, probably would not make it the whole way back to the City, and he said, “Mistress Jenasta, the speed enchantment on my shoes is about to burn out, and I have a couple healing potions I will administer to some of the refugees here. I will hopefully catch up with you in a few hours at the wall. Thank you for letting me tag along this far.”

Wager was confused as he heard Jenasta say, “Nonsense!”, and Slam order, “Give me your shoes!”

Wager replied with “Uhh?” Then Jenasta looked at Slam before continuing, “Captain Wager, while I deal with the wounded, you go see Slam for help with your shoes. Make-It, will you please keep watch.”

Wager replied, “Yes Mistress, thank you for whatever help you can provide, but…”

Wager was interrupted by Jenasta, as she said, “We’re in a hurry, if you don’t like the result, we’ll see you at the wall.”

Wager looked confused, but Slam was waving him over as he pulled a small work table out of a storage ring and placed it on the road, and said, “Give me your shoes! You said you haven’t completely burned out the enchantment?”

Wager was watching out of the corner of his eye as Jenasta ordered all the wounded to pack themselves as closely around her as possible, and he replied, “Correct Master Slam, but they will only last a few more miles,” as he handed his shoes to the strange man.

“Good, these bullshit cheap enchantments have a termination rune to destroy the enchantment after a certain level of mana has passed through the runes, but if you adjust…”

Wager flinched when Master Slam claimed the enchantment on the shoes were cheap. Those shoes would resize to fit almost anyone’s feet, they increased your speed by 20%!, and could be used for 500 miles before the enchantment ran out. The City guard had been using them for emergencies for years!” Wager heard Master Slam go on about how any decent enchantments would have this and that, and then he started talking about the proper equations for calculating the repair… Then Master Slam, right there on the side of the road, pulled out some type of crazy spinning carving weapon and ignited a mana torch.

The brightness of the torch prevented him from seeing what Master Slam was doing, and he couldn’t understand what the man was talking about, so he turned to see what Mistress Jenasta was doing just as she announced, “I don’t have the time or the mana to spare, to make this comfortable for you. This is going to cause some of you intense pain. Suck it up and deal with it until I’m finished.”

“What are you going to do to us?” hollered out a farmer with a large goblin bite mark on his thigh.

“Heal you! Now be still or continue to suffer your injuries.”

A few seconds later, the refugees started to scream in pain, some more than others. However, they could all see their injuries being healed in real-time, and didn’t dare move. A chance to be healed for free by someone with this level of power was never heard of on The Second Deck.

After the first 60 seconds, most of the screaming died down, but there were still some moans and cries of unexpected pain over the next 10 minutes.

Wager noticed Jenasta appeared to be in pain herself when she finally finished, but just then Slam said, “Here’s your shoes. I charged them enough to get you going. Also, take these bracelets and put them on. They will help you gather enough mana to charge the shoes as we finish our run. You can keep the shoes, but I want those bracelets back when we get to the wall.” Master Slam then called over to Jenasta, and asked, “You O.K.?”

She replied, “Fine, just burns like a mother. I’ll be topped up by the time we get to the wall. Did you get Captain Wager’s shoes fixed?”

Slam replied, “Yep, he should be ready to go.”

The refugees were mobbing Mistress Jenasta with appreciation, and she said, “Happy to help. Good luck. You understand we’ve got to go NOW!” and they continued to thank her, but they also quickly got out of her way.

The young guard asked Captain Wager, “Should we go back to the wall or help the farmers?”

Captain Wager was putting on his shoes, and simply replied, “Figure it out corporal. I’ve got to run.”

He couldn’t believe his eyes. When he inspected the shoes, The System identified them as rechargeable! He’d heard Master Slam mention recharging them, but he didn’t realize he meant the shoes were now actually infinitely rechargeable by any user! Last, he reviewed his status, and muttered, "By The Seven Decks! These bracelets almost double my mana regeneration!” Wager then did a double-take as he swore to himself in surprise again, "And where in The Seven Decks did that big fat black and white cat come from that Make-It was petting? The Spy Chief isn't going to believe any of this! Crap, got to move." Then he took off running to keep up with the trio.