“Fighting in a siege sounds exciting and bloody. Players discovered quickly that the reality was anything but. Sieges are long, nasty, brutal and filled with corrosive tension. Most agree that waiting is the worst part. Hours and hours of standing around, dreading battle, interspersed with combat so furious that you would soil your undergarments if the game allowed it.”

  Taken from “Modern Games, Ancient Warfare” by Crastus

  Year 1, Month 1, Day 12, 23:00

  The night air in Miller’s Crossing dripped with thick tension and an undertone of fearful anticipation. The stillness weighed heavily on the people, disturbed by the sounds of rocks crashing against the walls as the monster army slowly strangled the town. Residences were shuttered tight and the only people wandering the streets were guardsmen or players on defense quests. A light haze of smoke obscured the stars. The hundreds of cookfires inside the monster encampments shrouded everything in a permanent haze.

  Torgon moved through the streets with his two companions. They traveled swiftly keeping stealth engaged as they searched for signs of anything amiss. The enemy forces spent the entire day reinforcing their positions and hurling rocks at the city defenses. The cautious behavior and intricate defensive construction of their foes seemed at odds with the commonly accepted understanding of their nature. Torgon suspected misdirection or some cunning trap. The monsters infiltrated the city once already with great success.

  The repair parties kept the walls in good shape at the cost of the supply of stone slowly dipping. The monster armies added new siege engines every couple of hours and the rate of incoming fire against the city grew. The itching on the back of Torgon’s neck wouldn’t go away. Instead of crafting or working on skills, he was out here, running around the city, looking for what? He didn’t know. He just knew that finding it could make the difference between winning or losing the siege.

  Torgon, Allestor and Hyperia paused in an open square near the walls. “Does this all feel off to you guys too?” Torgon asked.

  Allestor scratched his cheek and nodded, “I feel like we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. It’s too quiet and too measured.”

  Hyperia nodded sagely. “There’s a gambit in play.”

  Torgon turned his head to the sky, eyes straining to make out stars through the drifting smoke. He narrowed his eyes, as a star was obscured and then quickly reappeared. He spied a dark shape moving through the air. Reflexively, he pulled his bow out, nocked an arrow and fired. A cry of pain rang out from whatever his arrow hit.

  Allestor yelled, “Goblin gliders. They’re shooting the little runts over the walls.”

  Torgon swore loudly and immediately issued orders on the city defense channel, “The monsters are sending in goblin glider infiltration units. They’re firing them from siege engines and letting them sweep in under the cover of the night and smoke. Get extra lights on the walls, have the archers scan the skies to take out as many as they can. We need patrols out now to find them. They’re up to no good.”

  The trio raced off in the direction the wounded goblin spiraled down. They found him struggling to stand with a broken leg and quickly finished him off. Allestor checked his body, looting what he could and discovering that the goblin carried rags, oil and firemakers. In the distance, a fire blossomed in the city, followed by others. Shouts and cries and the ringing of bells shattered the stillness.

  Torgon fired off a message to his guild, “If we have any spare people, the city is being infiltrated by goblin arsonists using gliders. Fires are popping up and we need anyone who can help to deal with them.”

  The reply came from an unlikely source. Ivy, the leader of the faerie rangers responded in her musical voice, “I’ll grab as many faeries as I can. We can flit around the city and some of us have fire suppression magic. The rest can grab water and drop it onto the fires. We’ll use the dog cavalry for cover in case of fighting.”

  “Thanks Ivy,” Torgon replied. He caught sight of a tower nearby and led his group up the steps. Their eyes strained against the darkness, their low-light vision went to work, shifting the background darkness into gradients of gray. They picked up dark shapes flitting in the night and began pumping bolts and arrows into anything they could see. Occasionally one of the gliders would crash into a building and a fire would erupt at the site of the impact. Scared residents peered from windows, the sleep and quiet of the city had been thoroughly disrupted by the night attack.

  Ivy and her faeries attacked the fires like their most hated enemy. Faerie bucket brigades doused the scattered small fires, avoiding the larger conflagrations, while those with water magic used their spells to fight the largest fires directly. Guards hastened to battle the blazes and brave residents in nightclothes poured onto the streets help. Every city maintained a squad of water mages to deal with fires and their efforts proved decisive. Any time a fire sprang up, the teams would rally around the blaze to extinguish it.

  The gliders filtered over the walls sporadically for the next several hours, requiring constant vigilance from the defenders. Little damage was done but it was the first long night of the siege, and the loss of sleep and rest would compound over the coming days. Torgon and the others returned to the guild base at dawn, sinking down onto benches in the park and catching up on messages.

  Shortly after sunrise, an announcement arrived for all the players in Miller’s Crossing.

  “Regional Announcement, Baron Abernathy has opened the points exchange store for players who are contributing to the defense of Miller’s Crossing. Visit the exchange vendors in the central town square.”

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  Everyone perked up at the announcement. Points from their actions constantly accumulated, but without a store they had no reference for the relative value. The consensus expected the exchange store to open after the event ended and the announcement was a pleasant surprise. Torgon glanced down at his total, nearly 16,000 points, considerably higher than most thanks to his position as guild leader and the never-ending workload he endured. The average player in the guild had point totals just over 2,000.

  Allestor sat up from where he had prostrated himself on a bench. He started sniffing the air and casting furtive glances around. “I smell loot.”

  The other two laughed and dragged themselves up. Torgon said, “Let’s go check the store, see if we need to save for anything and buy whatever we find useful. This could make our lives so much easier.”

  The walls of the city changed the guard as daylight brought an end to the goblin glider attacks. Players returned to their regular routines, patrolling and repairing or gathering back at guild bases. The NPCs emerged from their nighttime shelters and could be seen out and about on the streets, pausing only to take shelter from the rare errant stone that cleared the walls to smash down in the city below. Fresh daily quests and the baron’s announcement perfectly countered the lower morale from the long night before.

  They passed through the portal to the town alongside a constant flow of players from the guild. A large crowd gathered in the square, eager to see what their hard work could earn them. The vendors were organized into groups, catering to those that had earned different point levels. Ovarrix and Dusty joined the three as they watched the throngs gathering to spend their points. Frantic messages began arriving in guild chat. If you had earned at least 2,000 points, you could spend 500 points at a time on player bound lair cores for upgrading personal houses. Almost half the players in Risk of Injury had already earned that many points. The demand for common wood and common stone far outstripped their current ability to supply it. Each house that they upgraded would alleviate part of the strain of this constant demand, but at the moment they had no regular access to common grade wood or stone.

  A wide variety of enchanted arms and armor could be found with the vendors. Uncommon grade gear started to be found on sale with 5,000 total points and rare gear with 10,000. Each of the leaders of Risk of Injury had already earned over 10,000 points but gear wasn’t what caught their eye. Torgon salivated, seeing that the common grade skill, ranged heal, could be purchased for 2,000 points. He spread that information around and the would-be healers of the guild began to hoard their points in anticipation.

  Each of the leaders dropped the 2,500 points required for their cores and then kept examining the offerings. The gear was better than what they had, but they would outgrow it in time. Skills and blueprints would stay relevant longer. Two vendors remained unapproached. They offered rewards to players that had earned at least 20,000 points and 50,000 points. Instead of blowing their points on the available options, each of them held their remaining points close, hoping to earn more as the siege heated up.

  Across the town of Miller’s Crossing, fresh influxes of players eager to earn points in the siege event arrived at every questing outlet. Guard patrols filled, repair parties had waiting lists and every node that could be gathered was harvested almost as soon as they respawned.

  Back at the guild base, Torgon sat down with a force of thirty players. A mix of experienced players and children from the project looked at their guild leader with anticipation. “The guild finds itself in dire need of common stone and common wood. We need to locate a grove of trees to farm and a quarry. The monster activity is lower to the west of the city and that’s where we already have our mine and a farm. We only have three control nodes so if we locate the others, we’ll drop the farm for now and travel to it from the mine we have control of. We’re going to teleport to the mine and start spreading out, working away from the monster armies to find what we need. We’ll secure the locations and begin upgrading the housing for everyone in the guild. Any questions?”

  Steve raised his hand and waited for Torgon to nod in his direction, “If we find some orcs or goblins, can we kill them?”

  “That’s actually a good question Steve,” Torgon acknowledged. "We should remain undetected as much as possible. Avoid larger groups of the monsters and only attack if you can kill them quickly and quietly. If you see patrols, warn the others over channels.”

  Torgon looked around and saw that there were no more questions. Everyone was focused and ready, eager to improve their living conditions. “We’ll split into groups of five. When you locate any stand of timber or quarries that have common grade nodes, we’ll take it immediately. We don’t need a large amount, just enough to start finishing the houses. It will snowball from there.”

  The groups headed towards the portal arches and traveled to the mine. They nodded at the players gathering the nodes there before making their way into the wilderness. Each player moved slowly and deliberately, letting their stealth skills guide them through the terrain. They fanned out in arcs, each group separated by a thirty-degree angle to maximize their search areas.

  The forest was emptier than normal with relatively few monster encounters. The group dispatched anything they came across quietly and efficiently. After barely an hour of searching, a large quarry that held 100 basic stone nodes and 10 common stone nodes belonged to the guild. The portal to the guild base was constructed and players began harvesting the nodes in the location along with the fresh nodes appearing at the guild base itself. A welcome announcement rang out in the guild chat.

  “Congratulations! Your guild has secured three control nodes. As a bonus, you have been awarded a fourth control node. Continue to expand your influence in the land at large but beware, there are those who may seek to take what you have for their own.”

  The teams continued further into the area before another message arrived, and their progress halted.

  “We found a large section of harvestable forest, but there are complications,” Frare messaged. Steve and Ed with two others crouched low, looking down at the mess they found. “It has 200 basic wood nodes and 25 common wood nodes. It even has 3 advanced wood nodes.”

  Torgon glanced at his group before replying, “What are the complications, just how bad is it?”

  Frare quickly responded, “The entire area is guarded by spiders. Outside the grove are swarms of level 1 through 5 spiders. Inside the grove, they’re all level 5, but they’re elites. The system tells me that elites are stronger versions of the base monster. I don’t know how many there are and given that there are spiders, there’s probably a spider queen or broodmother type boss. There are webs around the trees, mixed in with all the farming nodes.”

  “Alright Frare, pull your team back and we’ll all converge on your location.” Torgon sent everyone the location for the meetup. “When we arrive, we’ll start pushing into the area, I don’t think stealth will work with all the webs, we’ll pick a side, attack and see what happens.”