World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (45 page)

Heimdall holds his
tongue in check. The fifty-something father of two believes in
punctuality; however, now is not the time or place to press the
issue. “Nice of you to join us,” the stern, bald man says quietly
as he taps his massive knuckles on the table lightly.

“Some of us are on
different continents,” the French church leader notes pointedly in
rebuke.

“We all have lives
outside of the game of course,” the magic user asserts himself into
the conversation. The retired college professor glances at the man
seated at the head of the table. “Can we start the meeting now?”

The King’s
representative nods. “Thank you for coming, my friends,” Wesley
says. “Today’s agenda is the upcoming One Hundred Man Tournament
between players representing Virtuous Gaming Co. and Eternia
Development & Entertainment, Inc. The event will take place a
little over two weeks from today.”

SLAM! Heimdall slams
his fist on the table in disgust at the bombshell. “Hold on a
minute! Why will the event field only a hundred players? I was
planning to order my entire guild to enter the tournament!”

“We’re going to
have a lot of angry players when they find out,” Berchen adds
quietly in obvious disapproval.

Fistaklius shakes his
head in disagreement with the two colleagues. “Whether the event
includes ten players, one hundred players, a thousand players or
more, it doesn’t really matter. The important part is having both
sides come in at even strength to ensure a fair and open competition.
After all, if we lose our game servers may get shut down eventually,
and nobody wants that.”

The elderly man tries
to offer a positive spin on the situation. “Look on the bright
side-we can easily bring in fifty top players into this event. The
same may not hold true for the other side.”

“How will EDE decide
which players get to participate?” Lemoine asks.

“The company
officials haven’t figured out that part yet,” Wesley shrugs. “The
challenge from Virtuous Gaming came out of left field, and I don’t
think Richard really thought through the logistics. There’s so much
up in the air right now,” he sighs.

“Why did you call
this meeting?” Berchen asks, trying to get the meeting moving
along. Unfortunately, he need to finish drafting a contract for a
client and took the work home with him in order to attend this
meeting.

“I asked for this
Players Council for two primary reasons,” Wesley answers. “First,
as a liaison between players and the company I wanted to keep you
apprised of the status of this event. Since this is such a unique
situation, without precedent, we, the players, also have the ability
to offer our input and influence the rules of engagement for this
tournament. Second, I want you to formulate a plan to defend the
portal connecting the We Tang Kingdom to Eternia. How would you set
up a fifty-man defense?”

“Wait. I thought
we’re defending Starter Town?” Berchen notes in confusion as he
rubs his eyes.
When did the
parameters of the event change so drastically?

“Apparently not,”
Wesley answers with a shrug. “Again, the situation involving the
inter-company event is very dynamic and fluid right now. Originally
EDE wanted to set it up as a thousand man event. However, our virtual
reality equipment uses a lot of bandwidth and the company officials
decided to scale down the event as a result,” he explains.

“It does get laggy
sometimes at Starter Town,” Berchen notes in support of the
decision to limit the field of entrants.

“Yes, I could see EDE
wanting to avoid connectivity issues with the server, especially
since combat is MOBA based,” Heimdall concedes as well.
There
goes the chance for my Fighter Guild to claim all the glory for
winning!
“In terms of the most desirable and ideal
composition of a defensive force, it really depends on what
environment our defenders will be placed in. Heck, we could even bury
the portal under a pile of rocks for that matter,” he suggests.

“I don’t think VG
will allow that to happen,” Fistaklius replies. “I’m sure there
will be some sort of restriction in the area around the portal to
prevent this sort of tampering.”

“What about the
environment surrounding the portal? Can you tell us about it in
detail, Wesley?” Lemoine asks.

“Well, the portal was
placed in the middle of a mountain, with a carved path leading up to
it. If the game developers decide to recycle this setting for the
tournament, then we may actually have an advantage,” Wesley
replies.

“How wide is the
path?” Heimdall asks as he tries to draw a mental image of the
site.

“I would say it’s
big enough for two horse carriages to pass through. The path extends
forward and also straight up, as if a buzz saw carved into the
granite rock. There are also two guard posts in front of the path,”
the knight suddenly remembers. “In the game, these stations are
manned by members of the We Tang Kingdom. However, I think the game
developer will give us access to them for the tournament.”

“So it would be
possible for enemy fliers to drop down from the sky and reach the
portal then?” Berchen asks.

“Yes indeed,”
Wesley confirms the merchant’s fear.

“This means we need
to guard against a two front assault—from the front and from
above,” Heimdall says, as the defensive strategy begins to
crystallize in his mind. “We could set up defenders to barricade
the path physically. The sky would require air mages guarding the sky
above the portal to intercept enemy fliers, and either archers or
catapults to shoot them down,” he suggests.

“In other words, our
fifty-man defense will lean heavily on fighters?” Fistaklius asks.

“I don’t think we
can answer that question right now. What do we know of the enemy’s
forces and capabilities?” Lemoine asks.

“Nothing, I’m
afraid,” Wesley replies. “This is where the problem lies, in my
view. Our defense must be flexible enough to handle any type of
threat from the invaders. Would they have access to magic or
technology not yet introduced to the World of Eternia? That is
another great unknown.”

“What about defensive
structures? Do we have anything pre-built or will we have to put
barriers up before the invaders arrive in our area?” Berchen asks.

Wesley shakes his head.
“My contact in EDE hasn’t said anything about that. I think we
need to proceed on the assumption that we have to put up barriers
ourselves once we arrive on location.”

“In that case, we
have a number of ways to handle that. You could spread oil on the
ground, light a match, and create an instant fire barrier. If there’s
time we could even dig up pits. Behind the fire barrier we could put
up physical barriers. As long as every man brings something with him
when we enter the instance, we should be able to surround the
mountain with a fence of some sort,” Berchen suggests.

“That’s along my
line of thinking too,” Wesley nods in agreement.

“Do we have access to
divine sphere of magic?” Fistaklius looks at Lemoine.

“That is a tentative
‘yes,’” the head of the Eternian Church replies. “I have been
pushing Count Zeensoon, an NPC, for hints on getting the Divine
Lodestone artifact built faster. Assuming that the item becomes
available in time for the tournament, we could then place it next to
the portal to ensure that our defenders will be able to cast divine
spells.”

“I have asked Vergil
and other enchanters in the Magic Guild to focus on creating magic
items that could be used for the tournament,” Fistaklius adds.

“I’m glad to hear
it. We could especially use weapons and armors with enhanced
properties, whether it means doing a little extra damage or reducing
damage. Every bit adds up fast in a moba,” Heimdall says.

“Is resurrection
allowed in the tournament?” Lemoine asks.

“I have no idea, to
be honest,” Wesley admits. “It has not come up in my discussions
yet. But let’s proceed with the assumption that we won’t be
allowed to resurrect fallen Eternians on the battlefield. In that
case, we might want to bring spell casters with the ability to bring
in minions.”

“If ‘minions’
mean elementals, that’s fine with the Church. However, we don’t
want to bring the dead back to life as that is against the tenets of
the Gods of Eternia,” Lemoine warns. “If we employ Necromancers,
the Church will risk incurring the wrath of the Gods.”

“I don’t know any
Necromancers,” Wesley assures the Pope.

“What about mounts?”
Berchen asks.

“That’s a tricky
question,” Heimdall replies. “Let’s say we request horses. The
other side could bring in different kinds of beasts not available to
Eternians.”

“That is true,”
Fistaklius ponders the issue. “They could bring in gigantic birds,
for example, or worms to burrow the ground beneath our location.”

“On the other hand,
if we have access to horses we could set up lancers to charge the
attack lines and disrupt the land-locked invaders,” Heimdall argues
back. “Chargers can conduct quick lightning strikes and retreat
before reinforcements can arrive. I’m not suggesting that every
player gets a horse for the tournament. But we could use a small
number of them, let’s say ten horses.”

“And if Virtuous
players respond with ten yellow big birds, what are we going to do
then?” Fistaklius retorts.

“We will have spell
casters to bring them down,” Heimdall replies.

“Mana is going to be
an issue though,” the Arch mage points out. “Once the action gets
hot, our spell casters will use up their mana much faster than the
mana can regenerate.”

“We could have
priests transfer mana via Succor spell, or use mana potions to
replenish,” the Pope replies. “I for one prefer to attack and
dictate the battle, rather than wait for the invaders to come to us.”

“Let’s put this to
a vote then,” Heimdall requests. “All in favor of requesting
mounts?” He raises his hand and sees Pope Lemoine join him.

“Anyone opposed?”
Fistaklius raises his hand.

After a moment of
hesitation, Berchen raises his hand as well.

The four leaders turn
their eyes toward the cavalier. He will cast the deciding vote.

“Let’s bring ten
horses,” Wesley decides quickly.

Fistaklius stares at
Wesley for a moment. “I hope we made the right decision,” he says
grudgingly.

“I believe the
benefits far outweigh the risk of playing into the other side’s
hands,” the cavalier replies.

“Let’s move on,”
Berchen urges impatiently.

Charles Winter drums
his fingers on the conference room table until all the invitees
arrive. After Priscilla Lombardi takes her usual seat next to him,
the CEO of Virtuous Gaming starts the meeting. “Thank you for
coming this morning. Please note that this meeting is off the record
and the discussions must be kept confidential,” he demands. He
slowly turns his head from left to right, getting affirming nods to
an oath of secrecy. Finally, he turns the meeting over to Lisa
Huffman. “Please give us an update of the situation,” he
requests.

“As many of you are
aware, I have been meeting with my counterpart over at EDE to figure
out how to integrate our work-in-progress MMORPG into the World of
Eternia’s Oriental Expansion,” Lisa begins. “Due to bandwidth
considerations and EDE’s insistence on incorporating their virtual
reality equipment into the tournament, we basically settled on a
hundred man event. In addition, EDE is implying that they will look
the other way if we end up poaching some of their WoE players for
this event.”

“Are you sure that
would be wise? What if these recruits decide to throw the match in
EDE’s favor? How can we be assured of their allegiance to us?”
Peter Raymond Hutchinson, the security officer, points out.

Charles chuckles at the
questions. “Has any of you ever been kicked out? Let’s say from a
store or restaurant, or an online forum?” the CEO asks as he looks
around the room.

“Sure,” Peter
raises his hand and admits it. He once got kicked of a movie theater
for smuggling in drinks from outside.

“I won’t pry into
the matter since the details aren’t important for this discussion,
but afterwards didn’t you feel angry and humiliated?” Charles
continues.

“Yeah,” the officer
nods.

“Human emotions are
powerful things. Being angry can cause us to lash out, do terrible
things, and even kill. What Virtuous Gaming needs to do is to find
players who have an axe to grind with either Richard himself, his
company, or his game. Perhaps some players were unfairly banned by
WoE game masters. Or there were issues involving player accounts,
such as billing matters, which were not resolved to the satisfaction
of former players. I am one hundred percent certain that there are
people out there who want to see the game shut down and EDE out of
business altogether,” Richard says. “One of our priorities now is
to find fifty such players, who wouldn’t necessarily offer
allegiance to Virtuous Gaming per se but rather want to see WoE and
EDE go down in flames. Thus, we need allies working toward a common
goal.”

The CEO turns to his
left. “Priscilla, I want you to take the lead in this. Create a
wanted advertisement in WoE forums to find fifty players. As Lisa
indicated, EDE will allow us to solicit players in their forums. In
your advertisement you may offer cash bounty for each WoE champion
taken down during the tournament, plus bonuses for winning the
event,” he orders.

“Yes sir,” the
secretary replies.

“While we’re at it,
I want you to drum up interest in this tournament. Create a publicity
campaign with a website, banner links, social media, and give me an
estimate of the cost in your report. Since this is an e-sport event,
I want the whole nine yards—with live commentators,” Richard
continues. “Make it entertaining for the viewers at home,” he
grins.