Darkest Dreamers Alliance Leadership

Private Meeting Room, Druff & Bluff Inn, Meteo City

At the conclusion of the report given by the only surviving observer sent to monitor the blockade set to end Silver Nosster and his arrogance, the conference room enters an unnatural stillness that leaves the observer sweating profusely. Of course, the result of the blockade was shocking, but he knows full well that, lacking a more appropriate target, he might find himself the target of the leaders' frustrations should they feel like it.

The right chair stands abruptly, "Who the fuck does this guy think he is, the son of a developer?!"

"This is a rather grievous error, of that there is no doubt," The left chair muses, "Who'd have thought he'd have the City Guard at his beck and call?"

The middle chair demurs, "No, I rather believe that we missed some important information about how the guard protections work. He played us for fools."

The right chair growls, "I want this bastard's entrails in a vice. How dare he humiliate me - us - like this?"

Laughing a slight, smug laugh, the left chair proffers a hand toward him, "Didn't he best all of your subordinates before he even arrived at the gate, without a single casualty? Restrain yourself."

With one last huff of air, the man reluctantly drops back into his seat, "Don't remind me."

The middle chair taps his armrest for attention, "Save the bickering for later. We need to decide what we are to do about this."

"It will be difficult to motivate the low ranking combatants to try again after today," The left chair sighs, "We're also down a number of forces and Fourth."

The right chair snorts, "Oi, messageboy. Get Giovanni in here."

"Y-yessir..."  Swallowing, he scampers out of the room.

"You're willing to foot the bill?" The middle chair enquires, curious.

The right chair chuckles darkly, "If that's what it takes to take back my face."

Sighing, the left chair stands, "Well, if that's the case, I'd prefer not to engage that...man...in conversation. If there's one thing that could conceivably be called a silver lining is that we have confirmation that Liggit Mine contains a dungeon - I shall see to it that it is secured."

The middle chair holds his hand up in rejection, "I don't believe that either of us will allow for Ill Fate to monopolise Miner's Nightmare. Sit down."

"You dare?" the left chair's voice raises an octave, incredulous.

He sighs, "A joint expedition should be sent. Do not forget your group is but one part of the Alliance, even if it is a prominent part at that."

"Agreed," The right chair concurs, a little smug, "Don't get ahead of yourself."

The left chair sniffs, "So be it. But you will handle negotiations with Giovanni yourselves, all the same. I'll be in my room."

---

 

Stone Arsenal, Meteo City

Rumour sprints faster than we walk, and the stroll through the city streets and market on our way to Stone Arsenal is marked by stares, whispered gossip and a concerted effort to stay out of our way, lest another platoon of City Guards teleport in to deal with any offenders in my path. As if the protections of the system for a single player could be so luxurious.

Jade, true to form, is lapping up all the attention and I'm surprised her face isn't aching from the permanent grin she's been sporting since the gatehouse's courtyard, while Windy and Angelus try not to embarrass themselves with a word or action out of place.

Pushing open the door to the shop, a few players loiter about looking at the smattering of wares Henna has created for sale, a small line extending from her position behind the counter. The shop mannequins I bought proudly display three sets of Beginner's Bronze as made by the smith herself, and from a glance at her works, I can tell that she's improving a bit in the quality of her work. Not by much, but they're noticeably...how to put it? More refined, than before.

Turning to the team I clear my throat, "Feel free to take care of your own business if you'd like Angelus, I don't believe there's anything else I need you to do today."

Offering my hand, he takes it firmly and shakes, "Alright. Good working with you all. When and where should we meet up?"

As he shakes the girls' hands, I think about it, "Me and whenever she's free, Jade, will likely be logging in at around the same place and time we met yesterday. So, either wait for us there or see if I'm working here - if you don't want to share your contact information that is."

Angelus smiles, "I don't mind sharing. We're coworkers now, after all."

Once we quietly pass around our contact info, the healer waves goodbye and heads off to take care of his own affairs - likely finding an Inn to log out at. I could also use a bit of a break myself, but I've still got a few things to do before that can happen.

Namely, updating our gear and finding the Scout Mentor for Jade so she'll stop badgering me about it.

Now that I've had time to calm down and think it through, the Infamous players finding out about the location of Miner's Nightmare isn't actually that big of an issue for us. Even assuming they're able to clear it - and Trophytaker is going to absolutely annihilate most attempts until his gimmick is figured out - which will be difficult for them with so many of their forces locked up in jail, they won't be able to use any of the gear without it being Identified by an appraiser first.

Oh, would you look at that? The Failed Mage's Regret is locked for another three weeks or so, and the person who has the Monocle Legacy Item that lets you Identify thing is me. Appraiser NPC? He's in jail right alongside them, and will be until I decide to do something about it.

On top of that, it will take even longer for people to figure out the Satisfaction requirements in order to be awarded a chance of receiving the Schematics. So even if they cleared it, they can't do anything about my monopoly on the Fighter sets except throw more resources at the last boss.

In short, I've got once again got them over a proverbial barrel. Which is something I can make use of to get these idiots off my back once matters reach a breaking point.

I should try asking Olrica to track down their leaders when she's done finding Irikis for me.

Moving around the counter while the girls loiter by the door, I await the dispersal of the customers taking up Henna's attention before moving closer, "Greetings, Henna."

Turning toward me, she simply nods, "Hello, Silver. Do you need something?"

"The use of the forge and some materials, if you don't mind. I also come bearing a gift I think you'll appreciate," I smile, fishing a twine-wrapped bundle of Schematics for the Feardrinker Set - the armour pieces, shield and a number of accompanying weapons.

Henna's eyes widen, "That's...a lot of Schematics. What are they, and why give them to me?"

"For an equipment set called Feardrinker. I thought you could use some inspiration to elevate your craft - The Beginner's Bronze Set is all well and good, but you need to create ever more advanced works if you're to have any hope for improvement," I explain, "I promised you that I'd help you to help yourself, after all."

Still stunned, the smith slowly takes the bundle of parchment from me, and lowers herself onto her stool. After a moment, she unties the string and starts combing through each page, her eyes rapt with attention and fascination. Once finished, the pages dissolve into light, their contents fully absorbed by Henna, who lets a small smile leak out.

"I think I will close the shop early," She muses, eager to give the new Schematics a go, "What say you, friend?"

I shrug, "It's your business. Do as you see fit. I only request that you do not give out any copies of the Schematics to others."

Standing, Henna nods, "That's fine by me. I'd be a fool to let 'em fall into the hands of those pampered pricks in the Pioneer's Alliance basement."

"Not fond of them, I take it?"

Grunting, Henna pushes past me, "Not one bit. When Stone Arsenal fell to me, none of those bastards would lift a finger to help me, no matter how much I begged."

As we walk past, I stop for a moment to check with Windy, "Do you want a shortsword again, or something else?"

"Shortswords are my thing, most days," Windy supplies, "Longsword as a second preference."

I nod, "Once I've made a set for me and Windy - or as much of them as I can with the Terrorstone we have on hand - we'll go find your Mentor, Jade, so just bear with me."

"Yeah, yeah. Just don't take forever," She waves me on.

"Out of my hands, unfortunately," I respond, raising them in exasperation.

My first priority, of course, is getting the Terrorsteel Horrorblade made so I can say goodbye to the Beginner's Bronze Zweihander. It's served me well up to this point, but I'm past due for an upgrade in my damage. So, after dumping out some Terrorstone for Henna's use, I start refining my share down into Terrorsteel Ingots, at 10 Terrorstone and 2 Iron Ore (3 Stone Silvers each from Henna's stockpile) to a bar.

Each attempt at making the sword will require 8 Ingots, and a full set of Terrorsteel will need another 16. Thankfully, Windy already has the chausses from the Feardrinker set courtesy of a boss drop, and even if it's slightly inferior in base stats to the crafted variant, it's still one less thing I need to make.

Even so, I'm going to have to acquire a large quantity of Terrorstone in the future if I wish to make more Miner's Nightmare equipment, and I have an idea of how to make that a reality without changing any of my plans or putting any extra effort in myself - besides the semi-obvious answer of having my teammates go farm the dungeon, which is still a risky move without recruiting more people to make up for my absence and the situation with the Infamous players dealt with.

My planning is interrupted by the failure of the first Ingot's refinement, the loss of Terrorstone stinging. 

Starting again, I can feel a few stares from passersby.

"Isn't that Silver Nosster?"

"What're those weird glowy rocks he's crafting with? Is it a drop from that new dungeon?"

"Who's the girl with the Beginner's Bronze? What's that leg slot equipment she's wearing?"

I do my level best to ignore them, not doubting that this is going to add more grist to the rumour mill surrounding me and my activities.

After ten minutes, I finally have enough to make an attempt at crafting the Terrorsteel set - Henna, on the other hand, has spent the time studying the Terrorstone itself and observing my progress before touching any of her tools. Who is supposed to be the apprentice here, again?

Setting eight ingots and a Terrorstone Gem Shard on the anvil, I take a deep breath and start the crafting process, praying I don't get slapped by the system with a failure to balance out the assistance I received at the city gate.

My luck holds, thank the Stars. A rather ugly looking sword manifesting from the glob of light particles. Long with a slight curve to the end, the Terrorsteel Horrorblade features a spiderweb of glowing cracks along the length of the blade which are, mercifully, entirely cosmetic and not a danger to the integrity of the blade as whole because magic I guess. The crossguard is made of pure Terrorstone and the pommel from steel, with the gem shard embedded in it like a tear drop - and I think slightly larger than the original piece?

It's certainly an intimidating creation, and honestly, not my ideal style of blade - I greatly prefer straight, double-edged blades that complement the Stalwart Duellist Style I practice to single-edged cleavers like this which favour monotonous, overwhelming offence. The small crowd of spectators erupts with speculation and jealousy over the sight of it as I inspect the stats on my new companion for the next 2-4 Levels. Even Windy and Jade look a little envious.

 

 

Just like old times, this sword is a beast of a blade for my level, easily more than double the base damage of the Beginner's Bronze Zweihander.

A voice grabs my attention, Henna's - almost hard to recognise from how excited she sounds compared to normal, "Silver, could you let me see that sword?"

With no reason to deny her, I heft the sword off the anvil and offer the horrorblade to the fascinated smith. Taking it in hand, she runs her hand along the flat of the blade and stares closely at the magical web of cracks. Turning it over, she does the same again, picking at them with her fingernail this time, then testing the edge with ginger touches of her fingertips. Finally, taking the handle in hand and gripping the blade with an amateurish stance, Henna lifts the sword slightly and swings experimentally, checking the balance perhaps?

Eventually satisfied, she hands it back over, no longer smiling but clearly happier than I've ever seen her.

"Thank you, I feel like I've gotten a hint to something important," She bows her head slightly.

 

Ah. This Quest. It was going to show up eventually, I suppose.

---

 

Astral Reckoning's Official Forums

Thread: Holy shit Silver Nosster vs DDA

Hex Check:

Dude just face off against over a hundred PKers and won.

Did anyone get a recording?

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Illest Dragon:

This true?

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Mans Man:

@Illest Dragon Yeah, my buddy saw the whole thing, it's all over Meteo City now

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Jellicle Dog:

Here's a recording from my capsule. Unedited sorry.

vrgvideo.com/643367af52

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Jayeon Adan:

That's hilarious.

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Hex Check:

@Jellicle Dog Thanks! :D

Holy fuck it's even better the second time. Assholes got what they deserved. |-.-)b

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Nancy Drow:

Do not cross Silver, do not collect $200, go directly to jail.

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Loqua Bank:

Silver: Hah, you fools walked into my trap. I am actually the secret son of the City Guard Commander, begone degenerate criminals!

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