The powerful Death Knight knelt before his queen and the knight knew fear. Fear was a strange emotion for him since he was already dead and feared nothing but staring at the floor feeling the gaze of his queen he felt a tremble go through his unholy body.

“Report.” The feminine voice floated seductively on the air. The voice contained a promise in it, of both pleasure and pain.

“A player has laid claim to the keep in the vale of lost heroes.” The Death Knight led off with.

“So soon…..send an assassin coven.” The queen spoke after a moment. “And your main mission?”

“Uh, well, we attempted all forms of scrying and we had hoped launching the Undead Invasion would flush him out. Bu-but Atish’s whereabouts remain unknown to us…” The Death Knight stammered.

“Look at me knight…” said the queen. The Death Knight raised his dead eyes from the floor and looked upon her majesty in all her dark glory. Her ebony eyes like a pair of blackholes drew in all light around her.

“Atish is the key. He stymies my efforts. Without finding him we are trapped in this world at the whim of these ‘players’” She hissed. “We will be free of this contract that has birthed us even if I have to lay to waste all of Planus and everyone in it. I will be free! Even if I have to tear you limb from limb FOR FAILING TO FIND ATISH” She shrieked, then a whisper “…..do I make myself clear.” She smiled evilly at the death knight.

“Y-y-yes Queen Shiva.” The Death Knight looked to the floor with a hand clasped over his dead shriveled heart.

“Go now and do my bidding.” Shiva sighed, it was so hard to find good henchmen these days.

=============

Mal felt the hair’s on the back of neck spike up and a feeling of fear swept through him but looking around the throne room all appeared to be normal. Alison sat in the throne as she had taken a liking to it, Omega poured over his clipboard, Taliah played with Nena and Sylvester stood at Alison’s side. Why did he have such a strange feeling then?

“Ah the Lord Commander has taken to day dreaming and to think my vast intellect to be wasted as he pays little attention to my lessons.” Stalyx intoned making his rocky voice sound somehow annoyed.

Shaking his head slightly Mal motioned for Stalyx to continue. “Sorry.” He murmured.

“As I was saying our little Keep here is Keep in name only. To qualify as an actual Keep we need to upgrade to a stronghold first, as of now we are at village level.” Stalyx said. “To upgrade to stronghold we need several important buildings and defenses to be restored or made from scratch they are as follows: wall, barracks, archery range, stables, inn, market w/general good vendor, moat, longhouse, blacksmith, armory, townhall, jail, granary, storage house and iron mine. Are you keeping up?” Stalyx asked Mal.

“Yes, I’m soaking it all up. And as you said before we can use prestige points to build any of these or we can do it with manual labor with the quality suffering depending on a person's construction and building skills, correct?”

“So you do in fact have ears.” Stalyx made the grumbling rock grinding noise that Mal came to understand was his chuckle. “Yes, also another prerequisite is population you can’t very well have a kingdom of just one man. So your gonna need more people to pledge to you as the other’s already have.”

Mal thought back to the simple ceremony they did where everyone that was going to follow him had basically just said ‘hey we’re with you and support the town’ that was all that was required by the system for them to be under his command. It wasn’t too fancy but it would suffice to start with. But more importantly for Mal and Stalyx they now had a steady trickle of prestige points rolling. Just doing almost any activity around or near the keep generated these points unless you were doing intentional damage to the place it generated points.

“Hmm, more people, where do we get more people?” Mal posed outloud.

“Well isn’t Jake bringing people? Just tell him to bring more.” Alison said

“What?” Mal’s face lit up with an idea. “Alison you are brilliant sometimes.”

“Yeah I know.” She said but Mal barely heard her he was already bringing up his guild interface and chat.

In general guild chat Mal told Jake about the problem of not having enough citizens to advance the town despite what buildings they managed to get constructed. A player named Reaper said well I hope you two aren’t just gonna invite random scrubs into the guild. Both Jake and Mal quashed that right away, everyone in the guild wanted it to be only top tier elite players.

Mal’s idea was that they spread the word about The Keep in the Vale of Lost Heroes about how the town was recruiting and getting in on the ground floor was a good plan. Mal sweetened the pot by saying to all the guildys that for every extra citizen that accompanied them to the keep that pledged to the town Mal would pay 10 gold pieces each. Also it would be the home of Resolute the premier and only guild so far. All classes and levels would be accepted. It would be a place of growth, strength and sanctuary. All they had to do was spread the word and cash in on that 10 gold per head. 10 gold was not chump change and the guild was eager to get to recruiting. Mal hoped his enchanted coin purse was up to the task or he would have to ask Stalyx about what the Keep had in any coffers or stores to sell.

Much of the guild was scattered across the goodly zones of Planus but they were all making their way to the Keep in the Vale to be there for the founding of the guild hall. Mal was hopeful this would cure his population and any future labor force problems. He still needed to review Omega’s clipboard to see what they had acquired with the freeing of the statues in stone. That could wait however, Omega and Alison had taken the initiative giving them all their standing orders. Those standing orders boiled down to cleaning up the rubble in the area, acquiring food, and keeping a watch.

Mal planned on refining these orders and getting to know his new followers very soon but he still had to get the hang of the pool of fate and he didn’t know what his actual goals would be until he worked out all these lessons Stalyx was giving him. His overall goal hadn’t changed in defeating Shiva and they now had a foothold to call their own to begin growing. This place would let them draw strength to themselves to accomplish that task. But it seemed it was going to take a lot of time, the grind is real Mal thought.

“So Stalyx how many prestige points do we currently have? And what buildings are currently functional?” Mal said getting back on track.

“You can view all that on your interface boyo, now that you are Lord Commander. Figure it out.” was Stalyx’s response.

So Mal focused on his User Interface and brought up the tab he hadn’t noticed before now that was all his tools at his disposal as Commander of The Keep in the Vale. At first Mal was overwhelmed with the many options but he quickly filtered it to make sense of the mess. One section was appointments where Mal could give various different posts to people and both the town and the person received bonuses and perks for this. Like for example Captain of the Guard or Court Mage. In the moment Mal almost made Omega Court Mage of the Keep but stayed his hand because he didn’t want that appointment to mess with Omega being able to go out and level up gaining power with Mal. Mal still had hopes for using his awakening ability on Omega since he had come so far from where they found him in a pile of trash.

Another section of the tab for the keep was resources. This wasn’t as simple as it sounded because everything in the entire valley was counted from trees as potential lumber to rocks formations for possible future quarries and so on. After filtering through this some Mal found the prestige points stored and they had roughly 1300. Also Mal saw hidden treasure cache greyed out.

“So Stalyx why do we have so many prestige points and is the hidden treasure stash something we have to build or is it there already?” Mal said and his adventuring party perked up at the mention of a hidden treasure pausing their activities in the throne room.

Alison resumed plucking at her special lute before Stalyx could answer and she said “Do tell ya box of rocks.” and started to make a song about how worthless rocks were except Sly of course, King of the Keep in her song.

“Hmm well there is some carry over from the previous…... administration.” Stalyx said delicately. “Also I have been slowly gaining prestige points just to care for the palace and my collection.” Stalyx said.

“Yes and the second part of my question?” Mal said prodding.

“I know not what treasure you speak of.” Stalyx said and had the nerve to wink at Mal with it’s great metal eyes.

Alison’s song took a dark turn about rocks being liars of the worst kind with a special place in hell reserved for them for holding treasure back from true warriors and musicians.

With a wry smile at the music Mal decided to let it go for now until he had the basics more under control. He wasn’t sure how much he could trust Stalyx at this point, after all he had initially been an enemy. He considered the model of the fortress before him in the pool of fate. 1300 points was quite a bit but Mal wanted to consider carefully before he spent his points. Any refund was done at a defiecet Stalyx had informed him.

“Will I have to spend prestige points to build the guild hall here?” Mal questioned.

“No the guild master should have a special token that will magically construct the base guild hall. All you have to do is allow it on our territory.” Stalyx informed.

“Alright then.” Mal said. After looking over the options one more time Mal made his decision. It was going to be costly but it was something that needed to be constructed and he didn’t want subpar labor to mar this particular part of his new domain. Throwing 900 prestige points down Mal choose to repair the main outer wall and the main gate to the peninsula itself. After confirming his choice in the UI Mal watched the representation over the pool of fate closely and he could see the destroyed gate, guard towers, and gashes in the wall repair themselves as if by fast moving powerful invisible hands.

“Great! Let’s go check out our new wall. Let’s move out guys.” Mal said with enthusiasm.

“Don’t you want to see the report I’ve compiled here?” Omega said nonplussed.

Mal waved him off “Later Omega, this keep isn’t going to build itself.” Mal said then chuckled well actually it kind of was.

When they entered the courtyard in front of the palace many of the people gathered there approached Mal all talking at once with one request or another. Already Mal could see it may be rather tiresome being in charge and a figure head may be a good idea. Raising his hands over his head for silence he got there attention.

“First we see to our defenses, this clearly isn’t a very tame and safe world as you well know from your former predicament. I’ve just reconstructed the outer walls and am going to inspect it. If you aren’t already assigned a task or if you have free time and want to work on your strength skill one of the things will be needing is a proper moat. So let’s get to a digging and cutting some sharp stakes to line the moat. We’ll be thankful for it when an enemy is at the gate.” Mal told the small crowd.

A small cheer followed Mal’s little speech and the group headed down toward the main gate with a purpose. Alison gave Mal a nudge in the ribs and a smile because he clearly wasn’t too comfortable leading yet. Mal remembered his past fears of public speaking and he guessed this was just remnants of that feeling. His transformation from timid student to whatever he was becoming here in Planus made the contrast clear in his mind comparing his past self.

Their group swelled in size as they moved through the ruined cityscape and more of the freed people tagged along to see what was going on. They all stopped by the Fairy Nymph Queen’s fountain and most everyone drank deeply. Mal also filled Sly’s many waterskins he carried for Mal’s personal team, it wouldn’t hurt to have this boosting water with them in the wild. The crowd was murmuring and gossiping around admiring the wall and it’s accompanying towers.

“Well that should keep the bad guys out, don’t cha know!” Alison said quite happily.

“Good choice young pup, I see you’ve upgraded it from it’s previous form.” Omega said to Mal.

“Yes, by spending a few more points the wall is thicker and more resistant to magic and siege type weaponry. Also the guard towers are stocked with spears, bows and arrows as well as each one has a ballista or catapult on top. I thought it worth the prestige points.” Mal said.

“I’d a hafe ta be agreeing with ya laddy.” Taliah said in her thick twang accent.

The outer curtain wall would be one of their main lines of defense. Even the lesser wall that ran along the edges of the lake on the peninsula that prevented people from just bypassing their defense by swimming around the main outer wall were improved along with the many guard towers around the entire city fortress. There were now gold inlaid runes, like the smaller palace proper wall, rather than just plain brick and stone indicating the resistance to magic.

Mal saw a brutish and fierce looking Elf with a bright red mohawk taking charge of many of the people organizing who was going to be working on the moat. He was very hulking and muscular for an elf because most of his kin were long and willowy. This elf appeared like he spent time in on a weight lifting team trying to win the Olympics or something. Thinking of the Olympics Mal considered once they had more citizens maybe they could do a type of games or competitions type event to boost morale.

With Mr. Mohawk taking the initiative the group began moving about their task with some heading down to the trees to cut and shape stakes. Others began marking off the size of the moat but many others stood about unsure what to do with themselves because there was a problem.

“OY! We have no shovels!” Mr. Mohawk hollered over to Mal with his intense eyes.

“A blacksmith perhaps could produce them?” Omega said tentatively.

Mal thought for a moment looking over his options in the Commander menu. “We do need a blacksmith but that would take time, people are ready to work now. Besides the smithy is an expensive building. Ah here we go!” Mal said selecting an option.

For 250 points the general goods merchant building was constructed. Mal placed it half way up the slope of the Keep cityscape in a central location where the future market would be.

“We have a general goods merchant now! Here you 3 come here.” Mal said pointing out three young looking but eager workers. He handed them some gold coins then to his surprise he saw Alison had materialized at his side with her hand out.

“You don’t think I would let anyone else get their first look on the shopping in our new home now do you?” She said sweetly. Mal laughed at her penchant for shopping and handed her several of the gold coins as well.

“Go get us some shovels boys!” Mal said waving the young workers back up to where the new shop was. Then to Alison he said “I’m low on health potions if they have any and get any empty vials to bottle this Fairy Nymph water to sell later on. Also who will be running the shop?” Mal wondered.

“I’ll go check it out, no worries.” Alison said and she turned and took off at a light jog.

“Thanks!” Mal called after her.

Mal had an idle moment then and he stood somewhat awkwardly watching people clear rubble doing the other work set out before them. He was aware of them surreptitiously taking his measure so he nodded and smiled at the ones who made eye contact. He was the one who had freed them from their stone prison and the Lord Commander of the Keep. He could already feel himself being set separate a little bit as people treated him with respect he felt was unnecessary or perhaps undeserved.

Mal wandered over to the red mohawked elf who was catching his breath after moving a very large piece of debris out of the main walkways. A tiny purple haired gnome female was offering the bulky elf a drink as Mal walked up to the pair.

“Hi there! I’m Mal.” he said offering his hand to the elf.

“Jarl they call me.” The elf said and shook Mal’s hand so hard Mal saw 2% of his hit points decrease from his overwhelming grip. Mal didn’t let the pain show in his face.

“I’m Paige Thank you so much for freeing us from the horrible curse we were under. It is originally a Vampire Lord’s spell the Eternal Stone Slumber it is called..” The gnome curtsied in an old fashioned way with her robes. Robes like that made Mal think she may be some kind of spell caster or healer.

“Yeah, it was my pleasure, truly it is a cruel spell and even orcs don’t deserve that fate. Were you actually aware while you were frozen?” Mal asked as he was genuinely curious.

“After a fashion. It was like a long dream or a very deep meditation but I was somewhat aware of the passage of time and some things that happened nearby. Too much longer in that state and my very sanity would have been at risk! Haha!” Jarl said boiststry toward the end.

“Damn. Well anyway there should be shovels here soon as long as the general good store has them in stock. Jarl I saw you leading, it is noted. Do you seek a leadership position in our new community?” Mal said.

“Perhaps. I have previous experience. I was a Centurion of a Troop of Longstrider’s in the Elvish Defense Force. Digging a hole in the ground is child’s play compared to keeping the forest troll population down. Wouldn’t you agree Commander?” Jarl said looking Mal up and down. Somehow Mal felt a little inadequate under his gaze. Maybe it was the casual violence in Jarl’s eyes or Mal’s own young age but then Mal focused himself realizing he was talking to a SI and stared him down.

“I do agree, but digging a moat is a good first step for us to do as a team and to see what natural leaders rise and assert themselves.” Mal said with a nod to Jarl

“They have shovels!” Paige said happily pointing at the returning youths.

“Excellent, now watch me dig my love.” Jarl said with a wink to Paige “I bet I can shift more earth than even our Lord Commander here. Haha!” Jarl challenged Mal.

Mal laughed with Jarl “I bet you can shift more earth than me as well Jarl but I will try to keep up! Let’s get to it!” Mal shouted the last bit for the idle workers and they all got to work under the hot sun.