Scott climbed out of his capsule. The hairs on his neck were upright. He could not remember the last time he felt this furious for another person. He has experienced nerd rage before, but rage on this level were rare.

“I will make that Swaggernaught asshole eat a dick” He shouted in anger. Immediately he regretted his decision and looked to his room door. This was usually the time his mother or someone would stand there to hear him. It came to him, that he and Duncan were alone at the mansion. He punched his bed and uttered a few more curse words, these were done somewhat softer than his first outburst.

After about 30 seconds he started thinking clearly again. His first order of business was to let the world know how bad a person Swaggernaught was. He went to the most popular RR website to post his report. He typed about a page of how the incident occurred and what a bad person he was. Satisfied with his work he searched for the name Swaggernaught in the search engine.

According to the results there where over 5000 posts with that name in it. The first 20 results all had his name in the topic. He then added the word asshole and then pressed enter again. This time just under 4000 results. That confirmed that they were all talking about the same guy. He scanned the most prominent topics. It was no shock that nothing good was said about him.

The story seems to be the same. He would act like a good guy and then betray you. What came as a shock that many people speculated that he was really strong and skilled player, despite his other flaws of being a total dick. They also compared his skills and abilities similar to that of a spellsword but he was a shaman. That meant his melee fighting skills was on par with any good warrior and he had spells in reserve better then paladins.

His bright light was like a disable ability which he seemed to be his opening move off betrayal. Those that manage to track him down after the betrayal seem to have a problem of taking their revenge. One player said that he and his 3 friends managed to find Swaggernaught. They were all about the same level and the fight that in sued was normal as far as they could say. They clearly held the advantage but by using an assortment of spells and skill he managed to kill all 4 of them. They did not track him down after that again.

In his mind he just made Swaggernaught his nemesis and vowed that he will get his revenge someday. It may be soon in the future or months from now. He would not forget this day.

Now Scot had 24 hours before he could log back in again. In the next few days all the other friends and regulars were going to be logged back in as well. He would hear what all of them would want to do.

It was discovered by a group of three. The Norton kingdom was the new region. It was a regular to below average starting place for new players. The more seasoned players could test their metal. What made this a place of opportunity was because the strongest guilds still had the entire centre continent to explore and fight over. The only strong players that came to the south were those with bad experiences in centre or those looking to start something in the south and become big shots in the region. A lot of the strong players did not want to come since there were still many places to farm and level up in the centre of the continent where as the entire southern region had still to be explored. A lot of medium to high level players went south and started to explore in each direction.

The BoS chapel in the south was in the Aidern kingdom near it’s the borders in the south west. They did not move all the way to the capital. Instead they made a home in a large city near the border. It was not the most direct route from the capital to the Heaven kingdom but if you are willing to take a few days detour you can still get to where you want to go. Unless you wanted to go to the western regions then you will have to go through the city. Thus those from the south and west that wanted to head to the new Kingdom of Rosenheim, had to come through this city. Nobody wanted to go through the unexplored dessert and naval routes were not yet available.

Norton was a small kingdom compared to others. It had two large mountain ranges. The third was the border they shared with Thor kingdom. They were not an economical power house and just did a bit of everything. Norton could be divided into three provinces. The north part was controlled by the king. The south was the Snow’s and a small part in the middle was controlled by the Hemming’s.

The kings province was in the north. Bordering to Thor, Dale and Nest. The Hemming’s area of control spread from the sea all the way to Dale. Their seat of power was at the largest river mouth into the ocean in a city called Riften.

From the middle all the way to the south belonged the Snow’s. There were not many mines in the area and they only had the border with Dale. The rest around them was ocean and they did not really count the Hemming’s as enemies. The bulk of their farmland was to the north of the only mountain range in their territory. It stretched for leagues. Their seat of power was in a City to the West of the mountain Range.

There were no paths or trails over the mountains. If you wanted to go from the one side to the other, you would have to go all the way around to the west. There were not any boats to transport people around the East of the mountain range. The city also dubbed as a place to funnel all the beasts and monsters that want to leave the south and hurt the rest of the Norton kingdom.

The city name was Overwolf. The ruling lord Snow, with a few minor lords lived there. It had a huge thick white wall and battle towers facing south. The huge wall that stretched all the way from the sea to the mountains. Thousands of years ago the monsters became so bad they had killed and pushed all the way to the City. It is here the humans made their stand and defeated them. The years after that, people gradually started heading south and repopulated the area.

In other and normal kingdoms you can almost walk every time to the nearest town or city within minutes to hours. Most villages and towns in the south were spaced a day or days from each other. Each was well fortified but none had great giant walls like castles or forts. The average town here had a much larger population, than a person could expect in others places. The bulk of the region was wilderness with towns scattered all around. The people were hard as the land and the bulk of the NPC’s were soldiers, rangers, woodsman or shady merchants. According to information this region was in peace.

The only threat was those from monsters. Thus the soldiers and rangers had plenty to keep them busy with. The standing army of the region was 20 000 men. The rangers would serve in 4 month cycles and spend the rest of the year serving as archers, hunters and trackers in the towns and places they came from. The last estimates put them at about 7000. The 5000 infantry men were those NPC guards all around the region in the cities and villages that stood around all day and kept the peace. The bulk of the cavalry was serving at the borders of the Dale Kingdom, not the entire borders, just those that fell under the control of Lord Snow.

The kingdom was not at war with its neighbors but they believed in security and being prepared for the worse. Those cavalry on the borders numbered about 6000 while the other 2000 were close to the city of Overwolf. Lord Snow was neither the favorite lord nor the most hated by the king. He did not have family ties to the king nor had influence at the king’s court. He was just a loyal lord that ruled fairly and came to his king if summoned.

The Snow’s had ruled this region for as long as anybody could remember and boasted of a lineage as long as the king of Norton himself. Their territory was the largest in Norton. Not many other lords wanted to claim their grounds because it was wild and even the Snow’s could not have tamed it all. They found a way to thrive in the land. The current Lord Snow was well into his late forties and had a son and two daughters with a forth on the way. He was the eldest of 5 children himself and only had a brother and sister left. He lost a brother and sister to flu in one harsh winter when they were all still kids.

The Snow’s had a long tradition where the men of the family joined the military at age 18 and served in it for 7 years. Most of them had chosen to join the cavalry but the odd Snow had served as a ranger in the past. The current lord Snow served an additional 5 years and might have signed up for another 5 if his father was not ill. He became lord of the region at age 33 and finally got around to marriage and starting a family of his own. With all the recent changes in the world and these outlanders that came out of nowhere he was not pleased, but like always they would adapt and survive.

The Norton kingdom had barely been open for a day before three people left the city of Overwolf going south. They were the hunter Tibbs, Assassin Chuck and the Thief Fee. They generally headed south and stopped to survey areas and towns. They were not part of a guild and discovered more than a few dungeons in the center of the continent. After they had sold the location of their second dungeon and gained a reputation as reliable and could get more money. With the opening of the continent’s most southern region they went racing to the area. They decided not to look around the capital for dungeons, they had to cross the city of Overwolf to head to the south. The ideal would be looking for a big city on a major road.

From Overwolf to the unexplored towns they at least had second rate roads. It had something to do with having cavalry that needed good roads to get from place A to B. The journey started a bit shaky at the first town they entered. It seemed they were not the first players to discover the town. Things like this happened often in their line of work. They continued south to the next village. They were the first at that village and the others they discovered after that. The fame they earned was not a lot but it gave them an edge and made the journey easier. It also allowed them to talk to most of the villagers and ask questions of the surrounding areas.

They had a system of who to ask and what to ask. Most of the time it was easy. If you are the first in a town you should just ask every villager and one or two would have a quest to clear out a dungeon or to kill an amount of monsters in said dungeon. The mayor, captain of the guard and local healer were the first three people a person wanted to talk to. Sometimes things did not go as smooth and you first had to do other quests before they would give you the location or quest for the said dungeon you are looking for.

The first village had a quest to go kill huge centipedes in an enormous cave that was located inside a dense forest not an hour’s walk from the town. After they talked to every villager and declined every quest given, they concluded they could not get any more information and should move on.

First they would head to the cave and not enter it. Mark the location and write down how to get there. After that they would head south again to the next village. This continued for nearly 2 weeks until they reached the sea in the south.

There at a small fishing village that yielded no results they turned east down the coast. They would head to another fishing village and from there work their way back to the city of Overwolf. From there they would head east alone the south slope of the large mountain range till they reached the sea. From there they would head south till the corner of Norton. Then they would go back to Overwolf again. It was best to scout out locations and then sell the information before others found the same as you. Being 2 weeks on the road already was a bit risky but since this is a new area and most of the strong players that would pay or make use of the information were around the capital, Riften or in Overwolf.

There was always the chance that no strong player would buy their information but a weaker player or new guild would find the information very valuable for later use. On the way back they encountered 2 more villages that yielded no promising results. They were off the roads and tracking through the wild. Tibbs used his hunter skill to scout out any threats and could blend into the land at a moment’s notice. Chuck and Fee had similar skills to help them not get sighted or targeted. They wanted to travel across the plains because it was the most direct route back to the city of Overwolf.

Normal groups would waste a lot of time tracking through the wild. But since this group evaded fights with monsters they moved fast and did not die. They were a skilled bunch and could evade most threats. They nearly died as a pack of roaming Kodo beasts almost trampled them and they also nearly died when alligator type monsters ambushed them when they stopped for water.

Their best estimates put them about 5 days away for the city of Overwolf and 1 day west from the village called Nipton. They knew of the town called Nipton and chose to bypass it this time, because it would add a day to their journey at least. They came across a mountain and joked how it looked a lot like the Lonely mountain from Lord of the Rings. Around the mountain mostly open and lush plains were visible. Many roaming beasts were visible. They would walk right past the mountain on their way to Overwolf. There was also a lake a good distance away but the amount of Kodo beast packs hanging around it forced them to stick close to the mountain.

It was nearing night time so they pressed onwards into the night. They were well past the mountain sometime during the night before they had to log out. They were not big on camping in the wilds and would just log out and come back in if they were ready to move on. It did not matter for them, night or day they were skilled and could navigate almost any place during any time of day. When they were all logged back in, it was around midday and they wanted to continue onwards.

Tibbs used a hunter skill to survey the surrounding area which allowed him to spot distant moving targets. Nothing seemed out of place until he looked upon the mountain. At the top there was slight movement and what seemed to be a building of sorts. It was not big and could easily be missed because it seemed to be built into the rock and rather not on it.

From this angle a tower was visible that is how they could have missed it the first time they looked upon the mountain. The other times they looked at the mountains were during the night and whoever was up there did not light fires or use illuminate magic to provide light. It interested them and after they all agreed they double back to the mountain to investigate what was moving atop the mountain. As they came closer to the base of the mountain they could see a few paths leading up.

Only half of the mountain had paths or places where attempts could be made. The other half was rock and looked jagged and could not be climbed. They chose the nearest path and started upwards. The progress was fast, the paths up were not broad and seemed to cross each other and make new paths. Some were dead ends but most seemed to be paths upwards.

Near the top a lot of bones were visible around the paths. What made it more disturbing was that they seemed to be mostly humanoid bones. Near the top they saw the building they were looking for, but still no sign on what had moved up here. They decided to go closer because maybe they could see better if they stood on the bridge leading into the building. As they approached the earth shook a bit and then sounds could be heard. At first it sounded like sticks clicking together and that of weapons hitting stones.

The bones around them started to take shape and form into full blown skeletons. Some had few bones missing but most of them looked ready for action. The three tried to fight and manage to kill the first wave of skeletons, but skeletons like to overwhelm their enemies. In the end all three died. Chuck did well and manage to almost make it part way down the mountain before arrows killed him.

They awoke back at the town of Nipton. They did not die often but were use to it.

Exploring new places always had the risk of death. That is why they wore their second best gear and items. Thus when they died and could not go back to where their loot had dropped they could move on. When a person dies you drop a percentage of your gold and between 2 and 5 items. Off course these numbers were higher if a skilled enemy thief or merchant was in the party or close by when you died. According to Fee a master thief could also take a specific item from your equipped items or inventory when you died.

Only one thief can do this to a corpse, thus preventing an army of thieves picking a person clean. To their knowledge there were not many master thieves because it was a secret class. The three companions asked around in the village if anybody knew something about the building atop the mountain. They were about to give up when they received word that an old retired ranger might know something. They tracked him down to a small farm just outside the village. The old cripple man was not very talkative but a few gold coins changed his mind.

According to the man when he was young he and his fellow ranger buddies were crossing that region. Everybody knew of the mountain and lake. It was a good place to get your bearings and head into the right direction. The single tower was not that visible and they also only saw it by accident. They sent a couple of men up to scout. They assumed it was just an ancient outpost.

When the scouts did not return they all went up. The old man did not go with and stayed at the base of the mountain. He was bitten by a snake and needed to rest. The following day nobody returned from the mountain. It will take about an hour or less to reach the top and there was no reason why nobody would come back. Not wanting to get killed the old man made his way back to the village of Nipton. It took him few days of waiting and regaining his strength to report what had happened.

Another group of scouts were sent to investigate. When they did not return weeks later a third group of rangers were sent. After they did not return the orders came that no ranger should climb the mountain and should just move through that region as fast of possible. At the time there were battles with monsters and the threat of war with Dale was imminent. Thus extra men could not be spared to investigate and soon the outpost atop the mountain was forgotten.

On the road back to Overwolf they could discuss all that had happened. It had been a while since all three of them had died. Usually one of them would get away and live to mock the others. Before they left Nipton they made sure no group of players had arrived in the town. It seemed they were the only players to come south by this road. At the first town they had scouted, things were different.

Players were already in caves killing huge Centipedes. Thus the information they had on this town was near useless. The money they make will have to be from selling the information of places more to the south.

Each had his own theory about the outpost atop the mountain. Fee thought that it will not be worth it to attack and clear the outpost. It seemed small and with the amount of man power a person would have to commit to clear it, it would not be counted as worth it. Since the reward was unknown she would not advise against assaulting the place. Chuck was neutral about all of it. His thoughts were that there might be a chain quest connected to the place but it would not be an important one. Only Tibbs thought the place was a small gold mine.

Sure the outpost seemed small, but who knows how deep it goes into the mountain. The amount of dead skeletons was a good sign that whatever was inside needed a lot of security. When they reached the city they sold most of the information for good prices. There was a dungeon close to the sea which nobody wanted to buy information off, probably because it was so far out of the way. The other was that nobody wanted to pay the amount of gold they were asking for an ancient outpost whose exact size was unknown.

This was about the exact time the borders of the large Rosenheim kingdom opened to players. Their plan to explore more of the place close to the mountains went up in flames after that. Now they wanted to head to Rosenheim and start anew. The gold they made from Norton was not good compared to their previous findings.

They crossed Dale and just entered Aidern territory. In Dale they mostly went through small towns. Here however they were in a big city. They would ask around and try their luck, a person never knows what players would be interested in the information they had. They were on the verge of leaving and heading onward, when a man stopped them.

“Yo, heard you are the fellows that headed south in Norton as far as the sea and have information to sell.”

“Yes, We only have 2 key pieces left, the others all sold like hot cakes.”

“Alright let me hear your sales pitch.” He said grinning

“The first is a dungeon close to a sea fishing village a long way from here.”

“Ahh, I can see how nobody paid for that, it is far out of the way and no group would head out there now at least. So the other piece?”

Tibbs was doing the talking and had time to observe the person in front of him. He seemed to be a warrior with good armour. The only other defining trait was him wearing a black coat with a big silver sword and small golden scale on it. This person would most likely have the money to pay what they were asking for but he would have to give more information

“I can see you are a man that knows a lot. We have been telling others about an ancient outpost we found. Not big in size but exact size unknown since we could not scout it all without entering the outpost. Just for you I will add the additional information that there were a lot of skeletons guarding the place. That we a Hunter, Assassin and Thief of high skill got surprised by and could not escape.”

“Hmm, that is interesting. All right I want to know the location, 100 gold was it?”

“Nope, The price is 200.” He managed to say with a straight face.

“A business man. According to my friends you were asking others only 100 gold, but since I seem to be the only one interested the price has doubled.”

“Well yes, but you are the first to hear about the skeletons. If you pay the 200 gold as a bonus I will add more information to what you heard along with its coordinates.”

“What guarantee can you give me?”

“Only that the place is legit and that the skeletons are not easy prey.”

“Here is what we will do. I will give you an additional 50 gold if you tell me everything that had happened in detail along with any other relevant information about the location.”

This sounded too good to be true. Before he could agree the warrior spoke up again.

“Along with that I would also like you three fellows to show me your names. For in case you lied and it will help the bounty hunters we send after you to track you faster.”

Tibbs, Chuck and Fee talked it over in their private party chat window. “The gold we make from this will be massive. It alone is as much worth as all the other places we looked at these past weeks. We are honest gamers and I don’t think they will send people after us even if they find nothing there. So far we been honest and need to be moving soon. If they want our real names to spam us we can just mute them all to hell.”

“So be it, we will go through with this deal, it will be the fastest 250 gold we had ever made.”

“Alright, we accept if you show us your real name in return.”

“Works for me. Let us not do this in public and come with me to our chapel.”

The three were a bit confused but they followed the man none the less. They arrived at a building that was not a chapel but just a medium size house in a not so busy part of the city. It did not have banners or flags it did however have a small plaque that said Brotherhood of Steel South Chapel.

They entered the house and made their way over to the closest available table. There were not a lot of people but all of them wore the same black cape. It took them a while to notice that some black capes had a big golden scale with a small silver sword on it. The person sat at the head of the table and started to talk.

“Ok, my name is SolMonster and I run the chapel here down in Aidern. I am part of the Brotherhood of Steel based out of the Heaven Kingdom. Now first here is the 250 gold.” He put a bag on the table in front of him. “Which you guys get once you tell me more and show me your names.” They showed him their names and told him all they knew. From the location to a more detailed account from the battle. Tibbs added the part where before he died he noticed many skeletons coming from the outpost.

He also added the part where he theorised that all the skeletons at the outpost are that of humanoids from the major races a player could pick. They could tell SolMonster was intrigued. He thanked them and gave them the gold. They thanked the man and stood up to leave before he stopped them.

“I don’t know where you guys are going next but if you find more dungeons, come straight to me and I will most likely buy the location. We are looking for dungeons not close to major cities but not those obvious low level stuff you guys sold to the other people.

The trio left the guild house and made their way to Rosenheim.

SolMonster did not spend his own money but that of this chapter treasury. Major had sent a nice amount when they started here. They did not need it, they were making more money than spending it. But Major claimed it was needed for emergencies or for investments. Walter was the second highest earner for the guild with the rank of Graduate Scribe. He was also a merchant and close friends to Major and Gambit. Major taught him a lot and helped him out in the start. He was not nearly as rich as Major but it was safe to say he was second richest in the guild. He bought mines and invested in other projects to earn money.

For now they will send a scout to see if the outpost was there. For the next few days they are going to focus on a dungeon close to them. This will give enough time for others to finish up and make ready to head over to this outpost.

Solmonster scheduled the exploring of the ancient outpost for two weeks from now. They would leave in a week and a half time so that they could gather in Overwolf. The main thing was to wait for the people coming from Nest and one dwarf from Thor. They did not find any high level dungeons or secrets. Just a low to medium zone to level up and quest.

With the party assembled they left Overwolf heading south east. There was a bad road that kept the general direction south east. When the road ended a person could see the Lonely mountain. From so far away it seemed so tiny. They were warned about beasts in the area. The Kodo beast herds should avoid them. They where nearly a party of 30. These 30 here and the few that would catch up were considered the main force of the southern chapter house. They had additional members. Some were too far away, while most did not have the levels to come along.

In front of the mountain they had a near encounter with a herd of Kodo beasts. They came stampeding over the plains. Calmly they formed a small group with plate wearing players in front and the rest behind. Each warrior brought a pole arm which they equipped and pointed towards the upcoming beasts. The beasts may have been mindless but they knew trouble when they say it. They ran close by and made their way to the lake.

If the beasts had charged into them both sides would have struggled. No matter how thick your plate armour is, but if a massive Kodo beast that weighs half a ton runs full speed into you, there will be damage. Healers and mages would most likely die in the initial hit. That is why cavalry has a place on the battle field for flanking or creating an opening for others.

The alligators they were warned about lived in the water. Since they walked a small distance pass the lake they had nothing to fear. Tibbs who told them of the alligators was a bit vague on their full capabilities. Later they would discover that these alligators where more like fish and almost never left the water. The lake was huge and with Kodo beasts coming to the lake daily for drinks, they had no shortages of food.

They arrived at about 4 pm. That left them with about 3 hours of good light. It was decided they would continue and not wait till the following day. It took just less than an hour to walk all the way to the top. The paths were easy enough to follow. With weapons ready they slowly started to make their way towards the bridge. According to the explorer’s they had been attacked on approaching the bridge. With nothing happening they advanced forward. The range players where in the middle with all the melee classes in a circle around them.

The formation slowly moved forward. Nobody made a sound. All of them were expecting the skeletons by now and none of them came. With approximately 2 hours of light left they moved further. The bridge was narrow and only wide enough for a cart and one person beside it.

Solmonster was a bit worried. The bridge was a good choke point where a small force could stop a large force. Due to the angle one came from, only skilled archers will be able to fire into enemies making a stand on the bridge. Another potential danger was that enemies from the outpost can fire down with spells and archers into an attacking force.

Tactically it was bad to move out and advance, but if they did not go, nothing was going to happen. He ordered half of them to stay behind while the rest move to the entrance. Once there they will enter and access the situation. If they need reinforcements the others are a bridge walk away. Solmonster took point alongside the best tank they had in the south. They were about half way when the sounds of cracking bones started.

“Weapons ready! Cast combat buffs. Defensive formation.”

4 days later all of them were logged back in. Each and every one of them had died. Solmonster was one of the last to have died in the battle. He knew what to expect, but still they were killed. Thinking back to the moment there was not much he could have done different.

The enemies came from the front and rear. At the start they were not afraid. The range attacks easily killed the first wave. When the first skeleton warriors came in range of the defensive line they too were killed fast. It took about 10 minutes before they started to realize that even if you kill a skeleton, it comes back to life. Only much later in the fight did they realize that short from crushing bones, nothing else would stop the skeletons. Even if you managed to destroy half the bones, the bones would combine with a different fallen skeleton to form a new enemy that is ready to attack.

The only thing going in their favour was that a few skeletons were firing arrows from the outpost.

With the light fading the squad at the back started losing ground. When they divided the party the stronger half would go in first and the weaker group would be the backup. The weaker party was falling back wards on the bridge. By doing so the area from which skeletons could attack was reduced. The down side was, that their escape route was completely cut off.

Thanks to the narrow bridge the melee fighters could fight in shifts. This worked well till everybody was running low on mana, health and stamina. Even the bowman started to complain that arrows were in short supply. Nobody kept track of the time but they had fought nonstop till late at night.

The moon was high in the air. That and the occasional spell was the only source of light they had.

One by one they fell. He guessed nearly 8 hours had passed since the battle started. He fell down after he got impaled by a sword. His armour was broken, with his last seconds of life he thought how things could have gone so bad. They were of the strongest players in the area and they could not even reach the entrance…

Solmonster needed help. He would try and be online for the weekly Elder meeting to hear what the BoS have to say.

So here is the new chapter. so there may be some confusion so let me explain. The story follows Tinker until he died an log out. Then I tell a story that took place at about the same time of my previous 2-3 chapters. Thus next week the two stories are going to come togethar in the the next chap. Thinks of this chap as back round and setup for the next.

I find it helps if you have the RR map open when i explain the kingdom names, mountains and rivers. Its under my Important images folder along with a pic of how the outpost things looked when it was first found. Go check it out.

As always leave all comments and questions for me and I will try and get to them