81. Appointments

It wasn’t a complicated quest.  I pushed it to all of my associated quest givers, removed any reputation requirements, and generally made it as simple as possible.  The only requirement was that the Traveler have the [Black Rosary], which was apparently the name of the item low level bandits had gotten for participating in the battleground instead of being marked with [Brand of Sin].  And to complete the quest, they simply turned it in to the Temple of Thedum in Ebbyvale for a bit of gold and quite a bit of Reputation with my faction.

It was probably not enough to undo all of the damage they’d done to their reputation by opposing me in the battleground, but it would go quite a long way to allowing them to access some of the quests in the town and surrounding zones, if they were so inclined.  My Traveler friends all thought it was a great idea, and they helped me put the word out on the forums about the quest’s existence.

Considering that the alternative use for the [Black Rosary] was to take it to a temple of the Adversary and get marked with the [Brand of Sin] once the traveler had reached level eighty, I was actually very optimistic that this quest would be popular.  Hopefully, at least a few bandits would have second thoughts about turning to the dark side and take advantage of the opportunity I’d created for them.  If not, well, it only took me a few minutes of playing around with my new quest writing interface.

“So,” I said nervously.  “Aside from having bandits all over the place, how’s the rest of the fallout from last night settling?”

Tarisha snorted.  “It’s a clusterfuck, Hail.  But you knew that without asking.  Thousands of high level Travelers used the opportunity to gain a [Brand of Sin], although fortunately they’ve already turned their attention to the frontier lands rather than hanging around in Yuikon.  In fact, that might be for the best, since those players were already looking for a way to move over to the dark side, and this gets them out of the way.  The real problem, however, is that you are now the number one topic of conversation, the most sought after Native, and in general the hottest commodity within this world.  If we weren’t in our own instance, this room would be literally overflowing with the avatars of Travelers trying to get closer to you.”

“We’ve had twenty-nine thousand applications to <Nethersong Mavericks>,” Dimple pointed out.  “We don’t even have the personnel to help screen that many people.  Some of them are literally offering bribes to get in.  We’ve had to announce that we’re freezing recruitment for the foreseeable future.”

“<Peasant’s Revenge> is much the same, although we’ve always been much more strict on our minimum requirements,” Tarisha agreed.  “Having the guild quest may help matters somewhat.  Unfortunately, Hail, I’m sorry to inform you that the leadership of <Ragtag Muffin> has taken a stance to try to distance themselves from you.  They have gone so far as to request that you revoke their allied status and return them to being neutral with you.”

“What?” I asked.  “Why?”

“It’s too much pressure for them, Hail,” Dimple explained.  “They’re not saying that you can’t be friends with Sophia or their other guild members, but they also got a rush of applicants after the battleground when it was revealed that their members got bonus reputation with you.  A lot of the applications were Travelers who had no business applying to a kids only guild, and even though they should know better, a lot of the applicants are being … well, assholes.  It’s a big strain on their moderators.  Everyone knows you were just trying to do something nice for your friends, so nobody is mad at you, but they do want you to change their status back.”

“If it makes you feel any better, Hail, I’m pretty sure that the kids are all looking forward to completing the guild quest to earn an alliance the hard way,” Thena pointed out.  “By the time they accomplish that, other guilds will have an alliance as well, so it won’t be so much pressure on their moderators.”

I sighed in frustration, but I quickly navigated my menu and reverted <Ragtag Muffin> from Allied to neutral.  “Okay, it’s done.  Is there anything else I should know?”

“Yeah.  The contribution rewards for taking part in the battleground are teh sexy,” Phil called out.  “Or at least they are if you got a few kills.  A lot of feeders are complaining that they got shafted, but those who managed to get a decent kill streak going are reporting customized bee eye ess items.  A lot of people are really, really happy about that.”

“It’s true,” Tarisha agreed.  “My personal reward was a weapon better than the one I’ve been using for the last six months.  I wasn’t expecting to upgrade a green raid weapon at a pee vee pee event, but I’m certainly not complaining.”

“Yeah, in general everyone is really happy with the rewards, whichever team they fought for,” Thena agreed.  “Even though the bandits lost, they don’t seem to think they were shafted by the reward algorithm.”

“Um, exactly how have people been getting their rewards?” I asked.  “I just got a message saying it would arrive in twenty four hours.”

“Check your mailbox,” Phil advised me, and I made a note to do so at the first opportunity.

“Are you going to do another battleground anytime soon?” Laurant inquired.  “If you are, it would probably be best if we could announce it in advance, so that people could prepare for it.  While everyone who participated is very happy, there are a lot of people who are annoyed that they missed out.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to, but I’m not sure I should.  First of all, I’m still cursed.  If I die in a battleground, I go back to level one,” I pointed out.  “Second, it’s expensive.  Last night’s battle cost me a you-know-what, and I’m not actually certain that it was mine to spend in the first place.  Grandfather’s shade said that they legally belong to me, but I was always planning on giving them to the kingdom eventually.  It’s not like using them the other way; when I create a battleground, the core gets destroyed.  I can’t reclaim it or farm the resulting dungeon for more.”

“What’s he talking about?” Stan stage whispered.  “What’s a ‘you-know-what?’”

Someone elbowed him, and I ignored him.  “Aside from that, Thomas brought it to my attention that, um, I sort of made my situation quite a bit worse by triggering the battleground.  I don’t just mean that everyone is paying attention to me now.  I sort of panicked when I used [Summon Karmic Warrior] and we were still outnumbered, but I wasn’t thinking.  I should have just let you handle it, Tarisha.  You guys would have wiped the floor with those scrubs.”

“Yes, we would have,” Tarisha agreed.  “But don’t be too hard on yourself.  This isn’t a terrible outcome either.”

“Yeah,” I said, and I scratched my head.  “So, I’m not going to plan on using another battleground unless I’m seriously backed into a corner.  I’m going to try something now, and I’m not certain that it’s going to work.  Phil, you said that you wanted to be the constable, right?”

“Huh?  Wait, what?” Phil asked.

I was already on the menu which allowed me to make appointments.  The position of head constable was vacant, after I fired Montague the day before, but there were four constables whose status was ‘pending review.’  I typed in Phil’s name into the vacancy which Montague had left.  I wasn’t really expecting it to work, but its status changed to ‘pending.’

And Phil let out a high-pitched scream of excitement.  Then a lower-pitched exclamation that was probably meant to make us forget about the first one.

“Holy shit guys.  Holy shit.  It’s not a quest!  It’s a contract! It’s the contract!  If I sign this, then I’m freaking canon!” he exclaimed.

I had to cover my ears as the room exploded into cheers and celebration.  I glanced over at Tarisha, who was one of the few who was not celebrating.  She had a concerned expression, contemplative.

“I don’t get it.  What did I do?” I asked.

“You gave Phil an opportunity to become a canon character,” she explained.  “He’ll be more than just a faceless Traveler.  He’ll be able to lead Natives and interact with them on another level compared to what is normally possible, and his actions will contribute directly to the story.  Just like Gideon Lachlann once did.”

“Oh,” I said.

“It’s a large responsibility,” She said.  “Does the contract have minimum play time requirements, Phil?”

“Hold up, I’m still reading it,” he said.  “I haven’t gotten that far yet.  I’ve got to think about it and figure out if I can do this and college at the same time.  I’d love to just sign it and say to hell with school, but real life comes first, you know?”

“Very responsible,” Tarisha agreed.  And she sounded … disappointed?  Jealous?  Oh.

“Tarisha, that was just a test.  I wasn’t sure what would happen,” I told her.  “I was planning on giving you an official position as well, but I wasn’t certain if you’d rather be my captain of the guard, or the leaderof my armed forces, or even my steward.  I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up until I knew whether or not I even could appoint a Traveler to a position like that.”

Tarisha smiled, and to my surprise it was tinged with a bit of melancholy.  “Sorry, I don’t mean to dampen the occasion.  I’m just distracted by some errant thoughts of the future.  I believe the best fit for me, for now, would be to become the captain of your guard, Lord Hail.  I should be more than capable of serving you in such a capacity for a few years, at least.”

“Is there something wrong?” I asked.

“Everything is wonderful, Lord Hail.  This is a dream come true,” she said, and she did sound more cheerful.  “I am truly looking forward to serving you in a more official capacity.”

“Right,” I said, and so I entered her name as my captain of the guard, a position which had been vacant before.  Or, not actually vacant, but rather Montague had been serving as both constable and captain of the guard, so when I’d fired him it had created three openings.  Head constable, captain of the guard, and the captain of my non-existent army.  Since Tarisha wanted the guard, I swiftly typed her name into that opening, and she smiled as she began reading her own contract.

Which brought me to the decision I had been putting off for some time.  I needed a steward I could trust.  I had a good candidate in mind.  A great candidate, actually.  One who had gone out of his way repeatedly to help me, despite the fact that I had often treated him with suspicion.  I’m not really certain whyI’d gotten off on the wrong foot with Daemon, but by this point I had to admit that he had always done right by me.  It was time to offer him a reward for all of his hard work.

“Daemon, would you like the position as my steward?” I inquired.

I was half expecting him to accept immediately.  He didn’t.  He turned serious, rubbing his mustache calmly as he contemplated the proposition.

“That sounds like it will be a lot of work, Hail,” Daemon said eventually.  “While I’m honored, I’m not certain that I have the time to be both your steward and an officer of this guild.  Seeing as I’ve already committed myself to being an officer, I wouldn’t feel right in abandoning that position for – owch!”

The other officers all took turns punching him and calling him an idiot.

“Hey Peotre, you’re taking over Daemon’s position as officer,” Klarisha announced.

“Ah fuck, do I have to?” Peotre whined.

“Yes, you lazy prick,” she declared.  “Hail, you totally need Daemon more than I do.  He’ll make a great steward, so give him the contract before he comes up with an excuse to get out of it.”

“Um, yes ma’am,” I said, and I typed in Daemon’s name into the vacant steward position.  “Um, but, Daemon, if you really don’t want it, it’s okay.”

Daemon sighed, although he actually looked very pleased.  I think he was just acting put upon, but was secretly thrilled to have the offer.  “Let me read the contract first, before I actually agree to anything.  Perhaps this will be an interesting change of pace for me.”

Yup.  He was secretly very excited.  I could tell.

“There!  Done and signed!  I am officially the new sheriff of North Shire,” Phil declared proudly.

“Um, no you’re not,” I said.  “Technically, I’m the sheriff, and you’re my head constable.  But Earl is a higher rank than Sheriff, so--”

“Either way, there’s a new Sheriff in town!” Phil said, and he struck a pose.  I think I was missing something, judging by the way everyone else in the throne room groaned.