Civilization

"Ian." - Nina

"Yea… I just read it. Everyone, go back to your respective positions. I'll send a scout if I need something." - Ian

"Understood, my lord." - Noah, Howard, Yor, Stellar, Gewari

The rest quickly leave, leaving just me and Nina to discuss the fourth event. However, before we could even talk about anything Gewari returns with a slightly stressed expression.

"What's wrong?" - Ian

"There is movement down to the south of Everbloom." - Gewari

"What do you mean? I thought you just left, how can there be something happening already?" - Ian

"I'm not sure as well, but upon leaving a goblin scout approached me gasping for breath. They had apparently come from the South of Everbloom, along the river, after following a group of 3 people. The 3 people looked well-equipped, wearing what seemed to be thick woven dry grass armor around their bodies and holding onto sharpened sticks. They aren't up to the same class as any of our people, but they are better than most other followers.

Following them, the goblin scout noticed that there was an approaching party of 5 coming from in front of them. Paying close attention to what will play out with the two parties meeting, the goblin scout watches from above, however, he wasn't expecting that the new party wasn't even human." - Gewari

"Not human? Since he mistook them for humans, maybe hobgoblins?" - Ian

Shaking her head, Gewari corrects me.

"Skeletons. 5 skeletons using either bone swords or spears appeared in front of them. From what the goblin scout saw, they were similar to the skeletons that once attacked HavenFall. Noticing this, he immediately retreated to tell us the news and has only just returned. I happened to intercept him as I was leaving, and knew you needed to know this information immediately." - Gewari

"Thank you, Gewari. And thank the goblin scout for me for his hard work and quick thinking. Give him 10 small low-quality Mana stones, and tell him to notify Stellar, Howard, Noah, and Yor as well as give him this message to relay to them. Make defensive preparations, and increase the patrols. The faster we find out any enemies approaching us the better." - Ian

"Understood, my lord. I will make haste." - Gewari

Disappearing into the night with my message, Gewari leaves us and I let out a sigh as the tension releases from my body.

"It's going to be difficult." - Nina

"I know. We only just got the message and there are already traces of the Reaper's army here. Is it not too soon? And how did they reach this area already? There should be several villages to the South of us between the Reaper's castle and this forest." - Ian

"I doubt it is anywhere close to the main force. If there is a party of 5 skeletons and all of them are melee, then we can assume they are just a scouting party. They have no purpose other than to gather information for the Reaper, and I'm sure he sent several parties in different directions to scout out where the most plausible direction for him to attack. However, this gives us a good chance." - Nina

"A chance?" - Ian

"Yes, the quest board we have is extremely basic with just the bare necessities. Now that we are sure that there are skeleton troops potentially approaching us, we can add something similar to that to the quest board. Get players to eliminate the immediate threats but also have quests for gathering information. It won't just be normal skeletons, there will eventually be skeleton mages, skeleton beasts and maybe even a Zabik or two, who knows but if we get the players to search for this, and report back to us, then we don't need to expend manpower for it. 

We can instead use our manpower to strengthen our defensive and offensive capabilities. It won't be long before we have a large supply of saddles for the Zivotinja and for the wolves, and once we do, we will be able to have a Calvary of our own. The goblin scouts will become goblin wolf riders, and information will be passed between villages faster, and reinforcement will arrive faster as well.

Attacking a location will be done at a faster pace as well, with the Zivotinjas allowing us to travel longer distances at a faster speed. Once we have all of that ready, we can plan an assault on one of the 4 Kings, or at least in the direction of their territory. I do want to avoid approaching the North and the West, and prefer to focus on the South or the East." - Nina

"I understand what you are saying. The North has too much competition, even if Devel is currently in an alliance with us. There is a chance he may also backstab us if we are all gathered at the North." - Ian

"It is not just that. According to the forum, the North is quite mountainous and hilly, with various pockets of forests scattered around and the Horde's army, consists of a lot of beasts and demi-humans. They will be able to traverse the terrain a lot quicker than we can, as well as, that area being their home ground. Meaning they know the terrain better than we do and can ambush us from places we never thought to look.

The East is made up of a lot of plains and while we know that Kronos will be up in the sky, there is still a chance that his fortress lands on the ground for a duration of time. To The South is the Reaper's army and while there are numerous monsters, most of them shouldn't be too hard to face. We have done it before for the whole of the last event and can easily achieve the same result this time." - Nina

"Ah! So, even with the players being weaker right now-" - Ian

"They can still defeat a couple of skeletons and reap the rewards." - Nina

"You're right. The skeletons won't be too hard to fight, and if they can't at the moment it won't be long before they can fight them. Their actions are simple, and their damage is low, so long as you are not hit in a critical location. Their drops might even be bone swords, spears and if they are lucky armor or shields, making their gear stronger, quickly." - Ian

"Exactly!" - Nina

"Then I'm happy to focus our attention mainly with the South, and defeat the Reaper once and for all, but there is something we can still achieve while we are in the Center." - Ian

"What's that?" - Nina

"Don't you remember? Mumei, said that there is an artifact in each territory. We should search for the one in the Center while bolstering our 'Player Army' with the weaker mobs around us. It will give us a bit of a breather in terms of fighting larger battles, as well as, give us a better understanding of the area beyond our current search radius. Plus, we can't fight the Reaper's Army without an army of our own. 

For a large scale war, we need ranged troops, melee, Calvary, and even siege weapons. We kind of have both ranged and melee, but most of our potential is all in a few selected individuals. The rest of our troops aren't even close to being strong enough to take on some monsters by themselves, so they need to become stronger. Of course, this is also speaking for the players. Calvary is on its way with the saddles, but siege weapons… I doubt we can get any significant siege weapons down South, especially though the Forest.

We need to find a specific route downwards that can accommodate siege weapons and a large army. Seek out a route with food and water that can be quickly obtained and most importantly a route that will not kill us as we are approaching the Reaper's Castle. Being ambushed along the way is not optimal and will lead to many unfortunate deaths, which can be potentially avoided." - Ian

"Hmm… Alright. I understand. So, how do you want to approach this? There is a lot to do both internally, with the new players, and externally with the objective of the event in mind." - Nina

"Sigh… It's going to be hard, but we should start off with the quests. We need to have a few focused on exploration and information gathering, as well as, have some focused on defeating monsters that can be part of the Reaper's army. After that, we need to find out the time frame for the saddles to be completed, and then push the construction of siege weapons. 

While they are being made, we should have a party search to the South, and enter the Reaper's territory. Figuring out the topography and the route will be key for this team, and only when we are sure of the route will we be proceeding with an invasion. How does that sound to you?" - Ian

"Sounds good. In that case, let's get Kingston to search North or East since he probably is already traveling in that direction." - Nina

"Yea, I spoke to him before, and he said while he doesn't know exactly where he is, he has been traversing through some rough mountains." - Ian

"Sounds like the North. Good! We can have him enjoy his little date with the Horde and Celine." - Nina

"Hahaha! True. So, very true." - Ian