Champion of the Goddess Pt. 01

He nodded, "We, the party, get full credit for destroying this quest objective?"

She nodded, "Yes. You all will wake at level four from this. Now, will you tell me what I did wrong with it?!"

He smiled, "Waypoints have traffic coming from both directions. We could have expected more bodies in the inn. Someone occupying the other common room. Even if it was some of the miners acting like travelers. The mine was a dead giveaway.

A collapsed mine that is inactive. Sure. One that is not even there but has a secret underground entrance but nothing visible from the checkpoint even better. First failure. The innkeeper was too creepy, the second failure. From checking out Anna to dropping into our room. Then asking us if we wanted to work his mine, that was the third failure. He would want to feed us and collect his money. Not hire us for a 'one-man' mining operation.

No signs along the way of explosions where a shipment or 2 wandered off the road or blew a hole in it. Fourth failure. Then the change in the menu. We did not eat the night before and he was the only one there and yet half the pot was empty already. WHO was he cooking for? He would never have that much food ready to go. If for some reason he did; last night's dinner is the next morning thicker breakfast. Fifth failure.

Too many resources in the waypoint in the form of poison; smaller quantity. Sixth failure. Has more of it but not in the inn. Waypoints are also small general stores with higher prices. Arrows, a few weapons, cooking gear, hell even some minor trapping or mining gear. It did not have that. Where was the storeroom? Where did he sleep? The seventh-ninth failures.

Where was his help for the stables? The tenth failure. Sometimes the quest needs to let a party pass. If they are that suspicious the horse should not be taken until after the party has been taken. Eleventh failure. I understand the desire to drive the party in a given direction by giving them no option.

Really there was no reason to make it like that. If the other changes had been in place, we would have been captured with a rogue who had hidden lockpicks in invisible gloves as you had planned."

He heard clapping from Mother from somewhere and her voice, "Been a long time since I have seen a quest that thoroughly undermined. There are others like this one on other worlds. Your interview and feedback will be used to help several of the worlds provide a more authentic or holistic feel to them. I particularly liked your use of the explosives and the weather as an effective means of interrogation.

I also loved the skis you built for your wagon big, and sturdy. Attached with magic by using a cantrip! That quest should have taken you to the cusp of level five. You are right sometimes like a player it is best not to try and force the players into a given course of action. You fed the Fire Drakes to get around that encounter. You capture the slavers and got the slaves released."

Myssara still looked annoyed and she asked, "Why did you leave the slavers?"

He smiled, "They are happy we kept our word and while true we did not kill them, they are trapped by the weather without horses. An inn that is burnt to the ground that shows all of the tunnels out of the rock. Big warning sign to other travelers. Not that there will be many.

The people who run the Quarry, the Countess and whoever rules the city at our next inn will want to know about this mine. Hell, what they learn from the prisoners may make them think about reopening or exploring the possibility of opening a legitimate mine. Both rulers have a threat to commerce and we have a detailed map and the numbers they have. They are boxed in by the weather. They are in a prison with no guards.

Commerce would slow to nothing on a road like that during the winter months. They are well stocked to ride out the winter. The shape of the inn is not something they will be able to fix until spring.

With memories restored the players will learn so the details have to start being a focus for the goddesses. My job is to teach them to avoid the obvious pitfall. Not send them into them. Like the whole raid concept last life being a bad idea. You wanted me to sell it. I told you it was a bad idea and you still wanted me to sell it.

Then you expected me to just accept it as I 'sold the idea' even though I told you the idea sucked. We had to accept the terms you set for it knowing that I already told you it was a bad idea. I was not about to repeat that mistake with you again. I am training leaders; not sheep to go to the slaughter.

Flar was already on edge, every female was creeped out. Make the owners a human couple. Something that does not scream 'Hey we like dwarven explosives and know how to use them.' You heard Jonni. She wanted more information so I helped her to get more information using the resources you provided."

He yelled out to Mother, "You wanted to see what I could do with some that had fewer mistakes. They are easier to work with because they are not as disheartened. Especially with only 2 new souls. Myssara, after that encounter, prying the others away will be next to impossible as they all want to get to level 20.

Flar and Anna will be difficult to persuade given free will. You made it next to impossible to convince them that another group would be better. The only method I could think of is to have 2 groups of 4 with two different quests forcing us to divide. But it has to be done with the carrot and not the stick."

Myssara asked, "What if I just wanted to move the two dwarves?"

He looked at her, "Appeal to the character and not the player. If you cannot convince the characters and you are forced to appeal to the players then know you have failed as a Game Master for this quest arc. This goes back to my earlier comment about getting Jonni and Pine working with Anna instead of joining us if you wanted them working the dwarven explosives.

Set them up with an all dwarven party going on a call to arms. Things to take care of a threat against the dwarven people inside of dwarven only lands. Try to give the quest to Anna it has to be other players though so have more than one group there so they could scavenge dwarves from other parties.

She will see right through NPC's. She spotted the two obvious ones you tried to sneak into that last inn, Just as I did! Last life! I stopped from killing them as Marshal listened and refused to accept them. We proved we could spot your persona NPC's and that threat is real on NPC's in the main party.

You could not really do that at the next inn as your bigger locations for forming such parties is the third inn. At least with the new structure. Now if you have another 4 headed out, 2 elves and 2 dwarves who are headed to the same location it would be different.

But you would have to plan to split at the third inn because they are headed to two different 'race only' quests, elves and dwarves then that is another option. Definitely less idealistic. If you are planning on an 'elven race only' line of quests for my next life let me know sooner.

That way I can let the ladies know. Mary and I are already planning on going elven in the next life. Just some thoughts. I would bring Anna into your question box and ask her what would drive her to take Flar and herself into forming another party.

She uses expressions like a crowbar or dwarven explosives not being able to separate us then you know you are in trouble. That leaves one option short of killing them."

Mother asked, "What would that be?"

He looked at her, "One of the last things you want in-game but a race war. Dwarves at war with the humans in the lands we are headed toward. Dwarves heading to be with their countryman to find out what set it off. That splits a party along racial lines. That is a big modification to your game dynamics. Dwarves are looked at with less respect than half-elves."

Mother laughed and Myssara rolled her eyes. "I know how you feel about half-elves. I will talk to Anna. Thank you for the insight, my love."

He smiled, "You only have one 'appeal to the player option' that I know would work with Anna. I know it as do you; you use it and you will prove my point that you failed this quest arc. As always it is a pleasure, my love. For spells frigid touch, armor lock, raven flight, and ricochet shot."

She smiled and he jarred awake. He looked around and studied while Rhonda prayed. She looked at Raven, "Did you end up in an interview room?"

He nodded, "Don't say anything to the others. Let them give their own opinions."

Rhonda nodded, "She was NOT happy. Not at us but what went wrong and how to fix it for the future. I got that impression as it went on."

He got saddled up. "Raven scout road."

He found Jonni, "Ok lover two up. Two need to go to bed."

She laughed and headed back to the wagon with Anna. The weather was a constant pain in the ass but other than that it is not an eventful day. The skis for the wagon worked well enough to get them down the mountainous road.

The rescued prisoners were fattening up and taking turns riding. The next morning, they got to the bottom and out of the snow. Jonni looked at Raven, "What now?"

He grabbed his hand ax and the hammer and split the skis one at a time. Trimming any excess leftover. Jonni looked at him and shook her head, "You are something else."

He smiled, "No waste as it is hickory. We can use it for smoking meat."

She laughed as he threw it into the back of the wagon. He looked around, "Which way to the quarry?"

One of the prisoners pointed, "That way. The town is a couple of hours beyond that."

He looked at everyone and they headed for the quarry. They encounter a patrol who seemed surprised to see them. Raven stayed back and let Jonni handle the exchange.

The patrol took the lead and brought them to the quarry and sent someone ahead to the town. Rhonda and Raven joined Jonni. The guy in charge of the quarry walked over. "What do you need?"

Jonni looked at him, "We are here to make a delivery of explosives." He went toward the wagon and Raven looked at him, "The explosives are not in the wagon. Where do you want them?"

He looked at Raven, "You guys are not trained to move it from the wagon."

Raven nodded, "I agree. But it is not in the wagon. We are carrying them in extradimensional spaces. Three of them. 9 barrels in each. The question is where do you want us to put these; we will layout one. As soon as we recover the portable hole from that one, we will layout the other two. Then we will leave before you unload the other two. One of them is for us.

The other two, we were told to leave with you by the Countess. She was not happy with this being in her town."

He looked down at the bottom of the quarry. "Down there will work."

Raven rode down. He laid out the portable hole and rode back up. He looked at him, "I'll wait up here. Rhonda handed him the other two. Some dwarves came out and moved the barrels away.

He watched where they went. He picked up the one hole and laid out the other two. He got back up to the top and one of the dwarves followed him up top and handed a note the quarry foreman. He read the note, "Told us to use those in the future and to keep it away from her fucking town. Said you were to keep one if you delivered 27 barrels."

Jonni looked at him, "You have 27 barrels and there is more."

Raven rode away from the ruckus and let her do her job. 10 minutes later and they were underway again. Jonni looked at Raven, "Nice work on getting us to this first inn."

He looked at her, "You are leading this quest. You gave him the information on the mine. You will have to talk to the local ruler. Did he or the guards you encounter give you a name?"

She looked at Raven, "Yes a Duke Reinhardt. Apparently, he was recently raised after his father's death."

Raven chuckled and thought, "The Duke is dead. Long live the Duke. Nice of you to send us to a familiar second inn love. I can report to my alternate ego when I hit level 15 how the reforms are not going."

He heard laughter, "They are going. Your character would not know this."

He thought, "I know that. It does not mean my player is not interested to see if changes are actually occurring. Curious to see what you think meaningful changes mean. I will know it if I see it."

She laughed. He thought, "We having another fuck party?"

She laughed, "Not this time. Not with you. I cannot afford to expose you if you got me pregnant down there. I will be giving the ladies their gift boxes. I did talk with Anna and we came to an agreement. She will be picking up a new party. She doesn't know how to tell you."

He thought, "What was the agreement?"

She chuckled at me, "Confidential. She would tell you the same thing if you asked her or Flar for that matter."

He smiled, "You appealed to the player instead of the character. I said you would fail this arc if you went that route. I can think of one thing that would take her away. It is not character related, but player related. Letting her raise a child with Flar."

She was quiet.

He smiled, "Good deal for her to make. She deserves that chance."

She came back finally, "I never said that was the case."

He smiled, "If she were going to a quest there would be no reason to make it confidential. You could not appeal to the character so you appealed to the player I told you that is what would happen as you boxed yourself into a corner.

You had a long delay in your response. I knew that was one thing she really wanted when Gardner became such a shit. She went through that hell with him twice because they had no memory of the first attempt. Until I came along."

He rode over to Anna and cut her off. She looked at him as he reached over, pulled her out of the saddle, and hugged her, "I know you are leaving with Flar. I suspect it has something to do with a child you might be carrying. I do not blame you. Whatever the deal you made with her I understand. I know you cannot confirm. If I do not see you in-game for a while, I will understand."

She hugged him back and Flar looked at him. He nodded to him and smiled. She was nearly crying and he continued to hug her, "Do not feel sad, you are not letting me down. She wants me to take on 2 more new players. Maybe 3. You are a leader, I know this. I knew this from our first run and said so to the Goddess. Kickass at whatever you do. You, big blonde barbarian babe.

I may get you on the altar again in another future life. At least you got one great sex memory that a lot of women do not have. I will always love you. Flar I can tolerate in small doses as he is a dwarf. You are both good people."

She hugged him tighter, "Thank you. I wish I could tell you more but we cannot. Part of the terms of our deal."

He smiled, "I know she told me it was confidential. It does not mean I do not suspect the answer. I even told her she would fail if she had to appeal to the player instead of the character. I knew the character would never leave. The player would have to have a strong desire being granted to her, she can say confidential but I am not a fool."

She smiled and he let her down. She took her horse to the stable. He rode up to Flar, "You got the bag of holding and we got the portable hole. I know you two are leaving. I have a good idea of why but you cannot confirm it. I will leave that alone. Regardless. No ill will. You two are great people. We will likely need the wagon unless we get an infusion of cash to buy another."

He laughed, "Will let you know when we know."

He nodded and head back up to Jonni who was talking with the guards. Tawny approached, "What was that all about?"

He looked at her, "We are losing them at this inn. The goddess struck a deal with them. She wants us to pick up two or three new players to train."

She nodded, "Makes sense. I was surprised to see them."

He smiled, "Me too. I was surprised to see you as well. You are a hell of a leader. You should be heading up your own group. You would have gotten to level 15 if not for that last battle cluster-fuck with Brenda refusing to listen to us.

I like having you with us, don't get me wrong. I just know your talent is underutilized. Better get all the gear we took from the dozen guys and we can figure out what is worth keeping. What we will need to sell. Get with Flar. We should have some gold coming to us not counting food stores. Here is the hole to put the stuff into."

She looked at him, "We have it stored but you are our wizard so you will have to identify it all when you get back."

He smiled, "Rhonda has detect magic. That will do a lot of the low-level stuff. Anything she cannot figure out set aside."

She nodded, "Alright."

He got to Jonni, "Where are we at?"

She looked at him, "I am going to try this one alone."

He smiled, "We will be losing Flar and Anna here."

She nodded, "I know she talked with me a couple of days ago."

He smiled, "I am the last to know it seems."

She shook her head, "No. Pine and your ladies do not know that I know of. She asked me not to tell anyone. She wanted to do it."

He smiled, "I had a direct chat with a Goddess so I beat her to it. Good luck with the Duke. We need to figure out what we have and how we will divide things."

She nodded. He rode back to the stable and got his horse stabled with the others.

Mary looked at him, "I thought you were going with Jonni?"

He smiled, "She wanted to handle this one on her own."

They headed inside and Flar walked up to Raven and shook his hand, "Thanks for what you told Anna. She was worried about how to tell you."

He smiled, "I never lied to her. She is a leader. I knew the Goddess wanted you two to divide off. I was pleasantly surprised to see you guys and sorry to see you go. We need to go over what we have."

He nodded, "Anna will know more soon. Your room is already paid for. Mary and Rhonda just went up. The first room on the right."

Raven nodded and headed upstairs. Those 2 had just started stripping when they saw him walk in and Mary jumped him. He kissed her and put her down, "We are losing Anna and Flar."

She looked at Raven, "Why?"

He smiled, "Because together we are devastating. Anna should have been leading her own party. She should have in this life and the last. I told the Goddess as much. I told her they made it too easy giving us only two new bodies. Tawney is in the same boat; she should have been leading her own party as well. We will find two or three more here. Go and wish them well just in case.

I have my theories about how Myssara got them to do it base on their own free will. Anna was fretting over how to tell me so I told her. We need to get through the gear we picked up because we will have to do a division of assets."

She nodded, "It is all on the table we will go and see them. Does Tawny know?"

He nodded, "Just before I came in. Everyone understands but that does not mean they like it. Anna is a leader. Tawny is a leader and Jonni is on her way to being a good leader. Anna should have that role for several lives. Flar is devoted to her.

It makes sense. The reason they were with us at the beginning was very simple. The explosives. We demolished her mine quest hook. I told her what was wrong and how to improve it. I did my job."

She nodded and the two of them put a modicum of clothing on. They headed back downstairs with melee weapons. Raven sat down and went through everything. Most of it was low-level stuff. A lot of it. Two items stuck out. A ring and a necklace. A ring of curing and a hand of stone. The hand was worth selling. The ring should go to Rhonda. Anna came in with Rhonda. He gave them a weak smile, "There was some plain jewelry worth some gold.