As it turned out, flying was a problem, immediately around the central rise: the wind made stable flight impossible.

Fortunately, Symphony’s mount was fine on the ground as well, padding along on four enormous paws. Saddles and bridles didn’t really work well on a tigragon: a huge tiger, bigger than donkey Toffee and nearly the size of Glitter or Wildfire, with dragon wings shading from black at the front to orange at the back. So Symphony rode bareback, but her Dexterity score was high enough to dramatically reduce the chances of falling.

Symphony and Autumn led, all senses alert for trouble. She needed to say something to her watching audience, and knew it, but had no idea what to tell them. Everything in her head was spinning, and yet, she felt strangely clear and focused. Everything was out in the open. Blight was probably not coming back, but that was a relief, in a way, even if it left her apprehensive about her future. Could she rebuild her subscriber base while offering something completely different? People had, but it wasn’t guaranteed.

It didn’t matter right now. She had one current goal: reach the Temple. Her erstwhile companions were probably going to be an unintended obstacle on the way, but probably not an impossible one.

Speaking of whom... she heard voices ahead. She stopped Autumn and slipped off his back, creeping into the shadows of the forest on bare clawed feet. She had enough cover that she didn’t bother invoking her [Hide in Shadows] ability; she just stalked closer, careful of where she set her feet down and what she brushed against, and when she was almost there, she dropped to all fours. Hidden in the brush, they should be completely unable to see her, but just in case, she did [Hide in Shadows] now to watch them. Even if they looked right at her, the odds were strongly in her favour.

Apexecutioner and Uxium_Ixium had managed to reunite with Battlerage. Not much of a surprise. Neither were the names they were calling her, while they griped about this whole game session. There was a lot of “I knew there was something wrong...” and commiseration about the consequences of giving someone the benefit of the doubt, which she knew was completely fabricated: all three had sought Blight out, asked to join the Guild, had done the requisite quest eagerly and been thrilled to be accepted.

They weren’t talking much about plans, but then, their position made their intentions clear: they were somewhat farther ahead than Symphony’s party, and had stopped just off the road for a meal and for any last-minute crafting or prep they each felt they needed to do.

Jessamine was a cleric of the Dusk and Dawn cult, and just might have some way of disabling them all, if she had the time to do it without interruption.

Symphony grinned to herself and wriggled backwards until she felt she was far enough away, then got back to her feet and hastened to Autumn’s side.

The others weren’t far behind.

Jessamine listened thoughtfully.

“Oh, I have multiple ways to incapacitate them. Two fighters and a wizard, right? Has the wizard put much into magic resistance?”

“I doubt it. His approach is more to hit hard and fast before anything has time to hit him.”

“A bit of karma, then?” She fished into the pouch at her belt and produced a liberal handful of colourful pebbles; she sorted through them, picking out three that were all orange. “These are really powerful, they take a while to enchant so I don’t use them all that often, but I think they’ll work well under the current circumstances. But let’s layer this, just to keep them thoroughly busy and out of our way. You probably have the best Dex, Symphony. These need to actually strike the target.”

Symphony grinned. “All over it. I was just practically right on top of them and they didn’t know.”

“I’d rather we were closer,” Neon said. “Just in case something goes wrong, so you aren’t up against one or more alone.”

“Follow the road until you see an absolutely enormous old oak tree—massive thing, branches spreading all over the place. You can’t miss it. I’ll leave Autumn there. Stop there, and you’ll be close enough to get involved in a hurry.”

“Got it.”

“Be careful,” Elavetha said.

“I plan to,” Symphony said.

“Once you do that,” Jessamine said, “call and I’ll come add more, to make sure they’re not underfoot. I think they’ve done enough for today.” She grinned. “I don’t have any way to injure or kill but boy, can I ever mess up someone’s day if they’re pissing me off. And bigots piss me off.”

Symphony saluted playfully, wheeled Autumn, and loped back along the trail until she saw the oak. Leaving Autumn there, she slunk back into the underbrush, the three orange pebbles griped tightly in one hand. Probably she should have asked what exactly they would do, but right now, she was willing to trust Jessamine to know her own magic and have the same goals.

Near the makeshift camp, she climbed a tree, edged out onto a branch, and made sure she was secure. From here, she had an unobstructed line of sight on all three.

Apexecutioner worried her the most. He was the highest level, the most calculating, and the one likeliest to react quickly and effectively against a sudden threat. So she threw the first one at him.

Success. The orange pebble thudded against his back.

She didn’t wait to see what happened, just oriented on Uxium. Battlerage had no ranged abilities to speak of, so he could wait until the end.

The second orange pebble thunked into Uxium’s chest.

By that point, Apex was bellowing and fighting a web of steadily-growing orange tendrils that were snaking around him and constricting, limiting his range of motion more by the second.

Battlerage leapt to his feet, or what passed for it in all that armour, and started looking around wildly, sword drawn. “Who’s there?” he shouted.

He kept spinning around so erratically that it was hard to get a clear shot at him.

[You okay?] Neon asked, a whisper in party chat. [That’s a lot of noise.]

[Just need one to stay still for two seconds. Two are done. Nice spell. How long does it last, Jess?]

[At least fifteen minutes,] Jessamine said. [Potentially up to an hour, depending.]

[Wow. Um, I’m really sorry for ever thinking you might not be able to look after yourself.]

[No worries.]

Battlerage backed up against his warhorse, which had apparently gotten over its earlier shock. That slowed him just enough for Symphony to hit him with the final pebble. With immense satisfaction, she watched the orange tendrils begin to envelop him.

[Got it!] she sang out. [Follow Autumn!]

[Will do,] Elavetha said.

Symphony whistled, and climbed down the tree, which was less easy than up considering the way her claws curved but still better than she was sure most races could do.

Autumn reached her first, of course, nuzzling against her shoulder so she’d pet him. Neon on Wildfire, Elavetha on Titania, and Jessamine on Glitter, Toffee dutifully trailing behind, joined them a moment later.

Neon laughed merrily. “Oh, I so want to stay on your good side, Jess. That is just sweet. And they’re conscious and all, even. Hi, there. You started this fight, not us. Remember that. What else are you going to do to them?”

“A gag comes to mind,” Elavetha said. “That language is completely unnecessary. Symphony? You’ll have the video footage of their attacks on you and of the things they’re saying now, right? Anterra has stated repeatedly that they have no tolerance for griefing or hate-based behaviour. I vote we report them.”

Symphony nodded. “I’ll have to find the right sections and clip them out once I log out, but absolutely. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve warned them about behaviour and language that would get my streaming account or our game accounts suspended.”

“Sweet,” Neon said, as Apexecutioner and Uxium both fell sharply silent. Battlerage kept ranting. “Hey, you, shut it. How old are you with some of what’s spewing out of your mouth, thirteen?”

“Seventeen,” Symphony said. “I bent a Guild rule about no one under eighteen, because he kept begging me so much and made such a point of demonstrating that he could keep up.”

“That explains a few things,” Neon said.

“Disarm them,” Elavetha said. “Done this before. Just strip their weapons. We can take them along and dump them somewhere. They can chose whether to lose their favourite gear by chasing after us or try to find it and leave us alone.”

Jessamine, meanwhile, was riding in a tight circle around the trio, largely unnoticed. Warhorse and wardrake were on the outside of the circle.

Apexecutioner glared at Symphony as she stole his bow, owl-feathered arrows, and axe.

“You were fine with leaving Neon and I tied up in a hole, bleeding,” Symphony said. “Am I supposed to feel bad for you?” She pretended he hadn’t just called her what he’d just called her, and met up with Elavetha and Neon at Toffee, where the ranger piled Uxium’s staff and dagger and crown, Rage’s sword and his helmet for good measure, and Apex’s bow, quiver, and axe, all onto the patient donkey.

“I’m going to kill all of you,” Apex said quietly. “Repeatedly, and nastily.”

“Thanks for making that unequivocally clear for the folks in charge,” Elavetha said. “Idiot.” She glanced in Jessamine’s direction, then strode over towards the two mounts.

She must have invoked a ranger ability, because normally, clapping one’s hands in the direction of two war-mounts and hissing, “Scat,” didn’t cause them to both take off running.

Jessamine rejoined them, with Elavetha. “All set?” the cleric said. “They’re not going anywhere for a bit.”

“Ta-ta,” Neon said brightly. “Don’t let the local predators bite.”

Back at the oak tree, they regrouped. Neon’s nightmare was the fastest on the ground, and flight was out, so they handed the various weapons to Neon. She and Wildfire raced back the way they’d come, along the trail, to scatter the stolen goods in multiple locations.

“What was up with walking around them?” Symphony asked Jessamine.

Jessamine chuckled. “I’ll get a notification when the binding spell is about to break. At that point, I’ll finish activating the barrier spell I just set up. Normally I use it to protect a campsite so we can rest and eat in peace, but it can be flipped so that it’s impassable in the other direction. They can hammer on that for a while, until I get out of range.”

“And their mounts will refuse to return for a full half-hour,” Elavetha laughed. “Longer if they’ve been treated badly. By the time they escape, figure out where their gear is, get their mounts back, and come after us, we’ll be at the Temple.”

“And we didn’t inflict a single point of damage,” Jessamine said, reaching back to give Pixie a scritch behind her ears. “I’m sure they’re outraged that we didn’t just face them in a direct fight or something, but none of us really have characters intended for that except maybe Neon. Plus I really dislike combat. There’s always something more interesting to do.” She patted Glitter’s neck. “It’s a shame more people don’t realize how many ways there are to play this game that don’t involve combat. There are tons of quests that don’t, you just have to be more observant and they might require more thought to complete. Lots of races and classes that would work for a non-aggressive character. I’m quite sure that Ela and I haven’t found more than a fraction. But I almost refused to play because I thought it was all fighting.” She raised an eyebrow as she looked in Symphony’s direction. “Maybe the world could use a streamer who explores that aspect, instead of stomping around looking for things to bash with a club. You seem to have a very sincere appreciation for the advantages of multiple classes and races, from the bit I’ve seen and heard. Gender-specific aspects like the Death Goddess’ preference for women exist but it’s not all that common, and only half of those are male-only. You know better than almost anyone that it’s a huge map with a lot to see.” Jessamine laughed. “Ela can even give you Cooking lessons.”

“That,” Symphony said slowly, “would involve a massive degree of rebranding and all, in a whole new direction. I don’t know whether there’s a market for it. But it might be worth a try. And it sounds a lot more fun.”

“Dump that abominable Guild,” Elavetha said, “start a new one that’s about actually experiencing all the myriad aspects of the game that too many people race through, and we’ll be right there to join, despite a previous policy of refusing to have anything to do with Guilds. You actually have the time and skills for that, unlike Jess or I.”

“I, um... I’ll look into that. Anybody watching, tell me what you think, please?” She glanced back, hearing hoofbeats, and saw Wildfire galloping in their direction, Neon hunched over his neck and urging him full-out. “Right now, time for me to scout ahead.”