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Eternyte

Part 6: LFG

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Will spent some time wiping the water out of his face and shaking it out of his hair with vigorous rubbing from his fingers. It wasn't that he was particularly worried about being wet and it certainly didn't bother him but it was a lot better to have something to focus on while Matt got situated, submerging his 'private bits' beneath the water when he did. Only then did Will try to start relaxing again. Despite the interruption, however, Will was able to take it in stride. It was, after all, Matt Blackpaw.

Matt was an Ursuran, one of a tribe of bear people who were introduced to Eternyte in the third expansion. Everything about them had a rough-and-tumble feel with a wild side to the aesthetic of their village and their equipment. Although they weren't available as a player character race, some of their equipment could be obtained by doing quests for them and many players at the time had taken to the 'feral barbarian' look. The high energy Matt showed was a perfect example of what Will had always thought the Ursurans to be about. Then again, that was precisely the right mindset for his class too.

Monk in Eternyte was a tank class; they were designed to take a lot of enemy attacks and their skills were all about getting foes to focus on them rather than their allies. Since Monks used Stamina rather than Grit or Mana, their skill activations were often done in bursts-- Stamina recharged fairly quickly, but it wouldn't start increasing for five seconds after the last skill was used so proper game mechanics encouraged Stamina users to blow through their whole pool, then wait until it was full to start button mashing. Somehow the thought of Matt joining the group with a Wave Crash almost screamed 'Stamina Class'.

His sister Pat Greenpaw was also a Stamina class, though she was a healer. Druids, from what Will had gathered after grouping with enough of them, relied on starting combat off with prospective spells and healing over time enchantments targeting one party member after another. A skillful druid could keep the party's health near full long enough for their Stamina to recharge before starting the cycle all over again. The flurry of activity followed by a hurry-up-and-wait mentality got the class the nickname of "loitering healers".

That thought on his mind, Will glanced to the bamboo wall separating the hot spring yard into two. He raised his voice. "Hello, Pat!"

A voice very similar to Matt's, though maintaining a hint of femininity roared back. "HELLO LORD ETHERBORN!"

The men in the bath with Will each responded similarly; Matt rolled his eyes while Durmel let out a soft chuckle. Minotaurus just snorted. Rather than let them bring down his mood, Will called out "I'm glad to hear you and your brother--"

His statement trailed off as a small green sprout rose up from the ground before blossoming into a large white flower. After he fell silent, Pat called out. "I'm glad you're back with us, Lord Etherborn!"

Although game lore had all sorts of remarks about Druids having control over plants and animals, there wasn't any specific skill or spell that Will knew of that could create the growth of a flower except for Rejuvenating Rain, but that was accompanied by a heal-over-time buff for all characters in the area of effect-- that, and a downpour of healing water. Staring at the flower, Will had to ask. "How did you do that?"

Pat's response from the other side of the wall wasn't so much a girly titter as it was a full-on, respectable belly laugh. Eventually, however, she did grace him with an answer. "The same way I always do it, Lord Etherborn... it's not like this is the first time I've grown a flower for you!"

He realized right away that she was correct; he'd indicated several times in his-- he stopped his thoughts immediately so as not to risk getting 'that item' summoned to his hand and possibly waterlogged. Instead, he simply remembered that, per his writings, she had indeed worked with plants on multiple occasions. She was even the Eternal Hall's unofficial gardener, and had been such ever since Will had first recruited her and her brother way back during the third expansion.

"The Northern Expanse", Eternyte's third expansion included more than the usual increase to the character level cap, it also, for the first time, opened up additional follower slots for Adepts. The additional followers weren't so much an active decision by the game maker as they were a side-effect of Adepts getting a larger pool of skills upon which to draw, making it not only feasible, but even reasonable to put together an adventuring group without even needing to bother with other players.

By the time Will had ventured into the newly opened hilly zone of Artara Will had gained six of his ten new levels, and that included the ability to add two new followers, which brought his total up to six. On that particular night he was traveling without any other PCs in his party-- just an NPC DPS class (Minotaurus), and one of his other followers, an NPC Paladin. The fact Will's followers at that point consisted of two DPS, one Tank and one Healer was probably the main reason he elected to go out on a limb and try to recruit two Ursuans at once: one would convert into a Tank, and the other a Healer, rounding out his numbers nicely.

The abilities used by the different classes to recruit followers were all channel abilities and there were three main things to remember. First, the abilities could only be used on NPCs the same level or one lower; second, it took a PC 10 seconds of uninterrupted 'casting' to complete the effect; finally, and probably most important: no skill activations other than recruiting could be done during the channeling of a recruitment ability. Oddly enough, Adepts had an 'interesting' work around to that last rule. Will learned that day that he could, in fact, recruit two NPCs at the same time by using two different recruitment abilities, which were not blocked by their individual channeling bars.

Matt and Pat were recruited as a pair that very night. While most players would normally isolate the NPC they wanted to recruit and kill any other mobs around their chosen recruit, Will purposefully selected both of them specifically because he already had it on his mind that they would be brother and sister. In addition, the two mobs were the Urusuran Bear Claw and the Ursuran Vine Weaver, which would convert into a Monk and a Druid respectively, meaning that Will would have a second tank and a second healer-- it was almost like the game was handing him what he needed on a platter so there was no way he could resist!

After that point, Will always selected both of them as a pair. Whenever he took Pat along for heals then Matt came along to assist as a tank. If Matt was selected for tanking duty, then any group Will was joined with also got Pat as a healer or, usually, a backup healer. Having them together ended up becoming second-nature to Will, such that his every keyboard button press or mouse click became so fundamentally hardwired into his brain that he considered them a single component to his group, utilizing his commands to them seamlessly, especially when he began exploring how to use macros.

His musings were interrupted by the sound of noise from the bath building. Glancing around at the pool and those with him, Will realized that nobody had left. With no idea as to what he should expect, the Human asked his question plainly. "What's that?"

Matt, finally having settled down, had taken up a spot just within arm's reach of Will. The Ursuran looked toward him with a toothy grin on his broad muzzle. "I let everyone know that you're back-- they're probably all coming to join us!"

There were a total of eleven NPCs followers in the Eternal Hall; Will had enough skills that he could recruit twelve, but he'd never bothered finding anyone to add to his collection since he'd recruited Durmel. When Matt said 'everyone', Will's brain began to work overtime. "What do you mean 'everyone'? As in... 'everyone' everyone? Everybody in the Eternal Hall? Who else is here?"

Durmel interjected. "Well... everyone but Lok, Gral, Luna and Vladamere. You took them with you to Vartyn. To be honest, Will, I was surprised that they weren't with you when you returned."

That group was a solid choice for handling the high level area, and Will remembered choosing them specifically because they would round out the party perfectly. He had given up on finding PCs when looking for a group, mostly beacause the few who were available were either jerks, or incompetent. Granted, most PCs were better than NPCs if they played their class right but, as time went on, Will was staring to see that the 'if' ended up being a major factor. Ultimately, he preferred the predictability of his followers to the chaotic friction created by playing with others.

Lok Boarman was the second recruit that Will had ever recruited, and had done so as his second NPC choice way back before any expansions came out. As with Minotaurus, Lok got a very simple name and it was based on the fact that his race was 'Boarman' and his NPC label was a "Boarman Shield Lock". As such, Will's first tank was named after his npc classification and became Lok Boarman the Paladin.

Despite many players using Paladins as if they were tanks, the truth of the matter was that Paladins were very hard to kill healers. Being a Healer with Grit meant that they were naturally on the front line since the Grit pool was only restored by striking enemies or being hit by them. Most skilled Paladins were at their best on the front line, often serving as joint off-tank and back-up heals.

The fact of the matter was that most classes with a Grit pool were effective as off-tanks, but, considering most of a Paladin's heal spells were instant-cast their survivability equaled (or sometimes even exceeded) that of the Knight, which was considered the penultimate tank class by most. When Will had recruited Lok and grouped him with Minotaurus, the young man had two very stalwart companions who could take a hit and dish it out or heal it up; the combination had worked well for quite some time.

Despite Lok's survivability, when Will went to Vartyn he'd elected to bring an actual tank, and that was indeed his Knight follower, Gral Sabretooth, to whom he'd granted the title 'Shield of the Etherborn'. Ever since Will had recruited him during the 4th expansion just about a year after the two Urusuran twins, the young man utilized the Tigren as the go-to meat shield whenever he didn't have the services of a PC tank.

The tiger-like knight was also a Grit class and, being designed to tank, he excelled at survivability with some back up skills to increase his health total, pull agro off of allies, and even some emergency self-heals. Tigren, who were introduced in the fourth expansion were not a player character race, but were well-respected among players because their racial bonus gave them a bleed effect. Whenever the damage over time effect ticked on a target not only did it increase his hold on the enemy's attention, but it also provided him a small burst of Grit, making him very good at what he did.

Minotaurus interrupted Will's thoughts, inching a little closer. "Are they still serving you in Vartyn, My Lord Eternyte, or is there some other reason they did not return with you? I was concerned when I saw you arrive at Cragglecrawl alone."

The entrance to the bathhouse erupted in a cacophony of spindly scaled limbs flailing wildly and doglike lizard barks of euphoric exclamations of "CRAGGLECRAWL!" as a half dozen Kobolds poured out into the hot springs. Of the six, only one bothered wearing a towel, but, rather than having it wrapped around the little humanoid's waist it was, instead, folded turban-like around its horns. All of them were perfectly smooth 'down there' so nothing unseemly stuck out, but the entire scene was beyond awkward if for no reason other than watching them skitter all over one another in an attempt to be the first into the hot springs.

It took a moment for the pool to calm down as the Kobolds cascaded into the bath but, as they all came floating up to the surface, heads poking above the surface with limbs dangling down beneath the water as if they were caimans did Will realize that he recognized one of them. That in and of itself was quite a feat, especially since, according to game lore, few non-kobolds could tell them apart, but the Human knew immediately who the towel-wearing one was. "Pip? What are YOU doing here?"

The lead Kobold wriggled in the water, his happy tail-wagging propelling him forward until he almost slammed face-first into the lip of the bath. Bouncing off of it by shielding himself with his arms, he announced fervently "Oh, the great and generous Master speaks to me! Truly, I am blessed!"

Will had to try and keep from smiling; Pip's reaction reminded him in a way of a spastic Chihuahua happy to see its person after a long day apart. In the end he managed to maintain an even expression by repeating his question. "What are you doing here?"

Rather than Pip answering, it was Durmel who spoke up, which was fortunate because two other Kobolds had seized the opportunity to ambush Pip from below, pulling him under water as they began their roughhousing. Minotaurus, thankfully, extended an arm and, with a single motion, disturbed the water enough to create a current to pull the writhing mass of scaled bodies away from the discussion. Only then did the Orc speak. "They came to drop off their tithe, Will... it IS Sevensday, after all."

Will paused at that. "Oh... tithing from Cragglecrawl?"

The Kobold rough housing paused long enough for all of them to reverently shout "CRAGGLECRAWL" (more than one burbled due to partially-submerged snouts before the tribute to their village was once again replaced by water-bound wrestling.

Durmel waited patiently to have a moment to speak before nodding. "Of course. The kobolds from--" the Orc paused, avoiding the proper name of the village "...there, along with the Wolfwere from Gurgrowl and, most recently, Humans from Blackfield. They all continue to faithfully pay tribute to the Eternal Hall and to you, Lord Etherborn."

One of the things Will had enjoyed about Eternyte was how the economy of Mytholm felt complex and yet how simple it was. Once a player had obtained their holding they received income in the form of 'tribute'. In the beginning the game never really went into great detail about where the money came from but, after a few expansions, there were little story snippets in quests and during level up story segments that indicated that surrounding cities paid homage to PC holdings since the Eternal PCs were considered heralds of the gods, or angels, or something of the sort.

Looking at things from the viewpoint of a player but INSIDE Mytholm at the same time, Durmel's explanation only made sense. In Will's head canon he'd determined that the Eternal Hall were perched on the mountain range overlooking Cragglecrawl so in-person deliveries of any kind of tribute would obviously come from there directly. The village of Gurgrowl, similarly, was another location that Will had created in his story writing; it was part of the origin story of Luna Bonebow, and her home prior to joining him at the Eternal Hall. Years later he often looked back and winced at the name he'd given the village, but, regardless, she was still a great follower.

She had been his fourth recruit, and the first one he'd picked up in the second expansion. Ever since the base game, the follower limit had been set to three but when the second expansion started all players were given the opportunity to recruit a bodyguard, increasing the number of follower slots by one for everyone; Will had seized the chance to recruit her since he really wanted a ranged DPS class. When he took her as a follower he was overjoyed to see that she was not only a range-specialist rogue, but she was also able to have a beast, increasing her utility several fold.

By the time he'd recruited the wolf-like humanoid, Will had been in his mid teens and his creativity had blossomed, meaning Luna was the first follower who had a half-way decent name, and he wove quite a story about the Bonebow clan being the leaders among their tribe. Her people felt betrayed that she left home to join Will, but, as with most of his followers, Luna was both Loyal and Devoted, and so she gave up everything to accompany him on his quests. At that point, Will's mind slid into the next obvious thought: he was also receiving tribute from Blackfield... and that was where he'd recruited Vlad.

The seventh expansion, "Dark Tidings", was the second one produced by MIM Entertainment, and branched the game out into a direction that encouraged engagement-- specifically, benefits for logging into the game on a daily basis. After completing a quest in Blackfield, this took the form of tithes from the city wherein the PC saves the town from a pack of vampires threatening to drain the populace dry. Every real world day a player logged in the tithe increased until they received the max amount every seven in-game days. It just so happened that the story quest involving vampires was where Will got his 10th recruit.

Vladamere Nightsong, nicknamed The Blade of the Etherborn was one of the five Vampires that a player was required to defeat; in Will's case, that defeat resulted in recruiting him. The NPC was original called a Vampire Crimson Dancer, and, upon recruiting him, the young man had obtained a high level Rogue. Most players didn't like recruiting undead, and especially not Vampires because they couldn't take the "Loyal" trait thus, to that end, Vlad was the only one of Will's followers who was only "Devoted" and not both.

Only once his brain followed that train of thought to the end of its tracks did he finally start to relax again. By that point the Kobolds had all calmed down and were floating like a half dozen content pieces of driftwood; their snouts, horns (and in one case a sopping wet towel turban) the only parts of them above the surface of the pool. Invariably, however, Will's brain found a new path. Turning to Matt, he asked "What about everyone else? Where are Raphael, Proudmane, and--" he hesitated before saying the final name, "--Hunny Sugar?"

Pat's voice called from the other side of the divider, indicating that he'd been talking louder than he thought. "They died defending the Hall against the Nether Demons, Master Etherborn. Matt and me woulda too, if not for Durmel's healing."

As he thought about it, Will began to consider the attack. If he truly was in the pre-expansion world of Mytholm then there was entirely too much out of order. There was no way he'd have so many followers; he couldn't have been over level 40 (let alone have multiple classes) and not only would Nether Demons not have existed yet, but he wouldn't even have HAD a holding. There were too many inconsistencies for it to be a cut-and-dry simple answer as to what he was experiencing... as if there could have been.

Taking a breath, he pushed the frantic lack of understanding into the back of his mind before turning to Durmel. "You couldn't save them all?"

The Orc Priest shook his head, expression a mix of sad and discontent. "Alas, I could not. By the time I had helped Matt and Pat my reserves were exhausted. Raphael had already died and Proudmane would not let me help him until I had seen to the twins. We found Hunni Sugar, but by then it was too late."

It was almost otherworldly how calmly and collectedly the Orc could say the Mage's silly name without so much as a smirk or snort. Will had taken her as a follower using his Bard ability follower slot as the final of his three followers way back in the pre-expansion days. He had been thirteen and his overabundance of developing hormones compelled him to select the buxom, over-sexualized succubus as his final companion. She was his first DPS companion, and, aside from being eye-candy, she was a very accomplished Mage. As for the name, well, she was another casualty of his lack of creativity earlier in life.

Even as Will fell silent, Durmel continued, offering a tusky, encouraging smile. "The attack didn't get to the Soul Chamber, Will. When you are ready we can bring the fallen back to life. I have total faith that she will not hold her death against you... any of us would die for the Eternal Hall."

The Orc was entirely right; Will had written countless pages of details about her in his-- he paused when his wet hands failed to hold onto his character diary and it went -plunk- right into the bath. Sighing, the young man summoned it again and he was relieved to see that it was perfectly dry; one less thing to worry about. Setting the diary onto the edge of the bath, Will recalled that, during the numerous pages he'd written about her, Hunny Sugar was an egocentric, narcissistic sociopath with a flair for the dramatic and greater-than-a-reasonable-dose of sadism but, in addition to being "Loyal" and "Devoted", she also had the "In Love" trait, meaning that she was hopelessly smitten with him.

He'd gotten quite a ways into his mind-canon with Hunni Sugar but he'd never quite gone 'that far', meaning that there was a certain line their relationship hadn't crossed. Suddenly faced with the prospect of facing her for real, his apprehension level stopped just short of 'heart attack' thanks to the knowledge that there was some degree of 'professionalism' to their relationship... or lack thereof.

Matt's statement followed up Durmel's after a long pause, speaking in a neutral tone before adding the final part of his statement with a mirthful smirk. "I am sure that Raphael and Proudmane will be glad to see you again too... and probably a lot less spiteful toward those of us who survived."

Of all of his followers, Will presumed that Proudmane would probably be the least spiteful of anyone for any reason. As a Warden, the lion-like Savanite was a tank class, meaning he was used to 'taking one for the team'. Being one of the Mana using classes also implied that he was careful and strategic in personality, much like how a class with a mana pool meticulously and pointedly applied their skills, relying on a consistent recharge of mana to allow them to function to greatest effect.

Proudmane had been recruited during the fifth expansion called "Wildcrest" after Will decided that he wanted to round-out his offering of tanks The Savanite turned out to be a good addition to his followers because of his ability to maintain threat for an extended time so long as the DPS in the party didn't burn a large number of heavy damage abilities at the start of the fight; Wardens were great about holding enemy attention over long periods, but they had few abilities that would rapidly pull 'agro'. Will often paired him with Raphael, so it made sense that the two had died together.

Raphael, or 'Raph' for short was an addition to Will's followers that the young man had never expected to get; Raphael was a bard. Up until MIM had taken over Eternyte, Bard abilities did not stack with other Support buffs so it made no sense for him to ever bother with one since it was Will's primary focus. After the 6th expansion, "Murmurs of Discontent", the game rules changed and buffs could stack as long as they weren't from the same Support class; considering Will never bothered with Bard abilities it seemed like an obvious choice at that point.

Ratkin like Raph had been introduced in the Wildcrest expansion but at that point Will had already recruited Proudmane, so when another follower slot opened up to the player he decided then and there to get a Ratkin Bard, and so Raphael was recruited. Like Vladamere, who Will recruited one expansion later, Raph wasn't both "Loyal" and "Devoted", but that was only because Bard followers couldn't be "Devoted". He therefore became the mirror image in that regard to the Vampire, and Will often liked to joke with himself that the two couldn't stand one another. he ardently hoped that wouldn't cause problems now that he'd be meeting the two of them in a much more 'real' sense than in a game.

The movement of water around him and the sound of water dripping beside him pulled Will out of his musings just in time to turn and get a full view of Matt's furry rump as the Ursuran Monk climbed up out of the bath. Only once he was fully exposed did Matt reach down to collect his towel from the ground and wrap it back around his waist. "I think I've soaked long enough... any longer and my fur will start growing moss."

A shout from the other side of the divider from the women's bath dripped with accusation. "And what's THAT supposed to mean?"

Matt glanced back at everyone in the bath, shooting them a glance that all but screamed "Sisters, am I right?" before he shouted back at her "Moss is fine for a DRUID, but I'm a monk, Pat!"

Her response was no less fiery. "And don't you forget it either, or I'll Gale Wind you off of Kardur Peak!"

Druids didn't have many offensive spells that players used on any occasion, but 'Gale Wind' was a favorite, especially for PvP because it could force an opponent back-- ideally off of somewhere very high, causing them to take falling damage. The statement seemed somehow entirely appropriate. Amidst the laughter, Minotaurus evently stood and waded up and out of the pool, pausing only once he was fully emerged before looking back over his shoulder. "Will you be done soon, My Master? If so, I can wait for you."

Rather than answer directly, the young first looked to Durmel. The Priest gave him a dismissive wave. "Don't worry about me, Will... the bath does me good, and, besides, my mana pool was near exhausted... I may just as well be here through dinner."

As if to accentuate the humor of the situation the Orc gave a loud laugh; Minotaurus joined in, but only for half as long before letting out a derisive snort. "I could not imagine wielding mana... to be exhausted before a battle is over..."

Durmel winked at Will before looking to the Minotaur, offering diplomatically "It takes many years to learn how to show enough restraint to avoid exhaustion when casting spells, Minotaurus. I'm just as impressed at how long you can swing an axe without getting tired."

It was a very fair assessment, and entirely what Will would have expected from the Orc. Slowly rising off of his stone seat in the water, the human moved a hand to grip his towel and make sure it didn't drop as he waded off after Minotaurus. The bull man waited, even extending a hand to help Will up; although it wasn't needed, the young man accepted it nevertheless. The two headed off to the changing room together, Minotaurus walking in slow, short steps so Will wouldn't have to jog to keep up.

Matt was already dressed by the time they joined him, and he began an immediate and engaging conversation with Minotaurus the very moment he spotted the two of them. Will was thankful for the distraction, taking the opportunity to quickly change back into his adventuring gear which, he noticed, was surprisingly clean and fresh. Looking back, he saw that Minotaurus had only just taken his towel off, and, red faced, the young man quickly about-faced and waited. Eventually, after what felt like forever, Matt called to him. "Everything okay, Lord Etherborn?"

Will kept facing away. "Fine. Everything's fine. Just waiting for you two to finish getting ready."

Minotaurus' tone was, as usual, calm and neutral. "We are ready at any time, My Lord. Do you have need of us?"

Slowly turning around, Will was relieved to see that both of his companions were properly equipped. Nodding, he gestured toward the exit, finally feeling confident enough to provide direction to his followers. "Yes. We're going to the Soul Chamber. I have some followers to resurrect, and could use the help."