Phantasm

“We want a [Party Leader],” Koenig said, as blunt as ever.

“Why, Guildmaster,” I deadpanned, “You want me to lead this group into a dungeon? I thought your adventuring days were over?”

I was in another meeting, this time in the Adventurer’s Guild offices with Martin Koenig and his assistant Nadine Lagacé. There was an apprentice there as well, taking notes. Altogether, we would have made for an interestingly balanced party.

“Don’t be obtuse, I’m talking about a [Profession],” Koenig replied, rolling his eyes. “We want it to be available at a low level, and for it to include [Leadership].”

“Oh… that was a bit of a sore spot with the old King, wasn’t it?” I speculated. [Leadership] was something of a cheat skill, a way to get levels quickly and without necessarily putting in much effort. It was mostly confined to [Professions] that required either a noble title or a high rank in the King’s service. There were some unaffiliated professions that had it, but they had very high level requirements.

As the leader of Talnier— a fuzzily specified designation that was determined by the System— I had the ability to create [Professions] that were available to citizens of the town. Nobles had the ability to do this for their own domains, and the King could make [Professions] available for the entire Kingdom. But they didn’t know about it, and the Guild was very keen on keeping them from learning. They felt, not without reason, that the nobles would use the ability to further entrench themselves into power.

How this had remained a secret was beyond me. Just two words in the right ear would be all it took to break it. Perhaps that was why the Guild had gotten so antsy when they learned that I knew those two words. I’d agreed to consult with them before I made any further modifications to [Professions], and I guess this was the discussion we were having now. I’d thought it was to discuss new dungeon developments, but maybe we’d have that later.

“You might say that,” he agreed. “We’re not sure if it was a deliberate attempt to keep the common folk down, but King Nestor felt strongly about keeping leadership limited to the upper social order.”

King Nestor had once held some strong feelings about many things, notably the unsuitability of his heirs. He had left the secret of [Territory Status] with the Guild, and they had not passed it on.

“You don’t think it would give the game away to the nobles?” I asked sipping my tea. The Guild might get most of its income from selling alcohol to adventurers, but they also served excellent tea. Just as well, as I wouldn’t want to be having this discussion drunk.

You already did that, with your [Talnier Official],” Nadine said. I looked pointedly over at the apprentice. Given that she could read and write, I’d bet gold that she had that profession. Nadine had the decency to blush. “Not that making [Scribe] more widely available was wrong, but the secret is out now.”

“Is it?” I asked. “I haven’t heard anything about it outside of you two. It could be that [Scribe] is beneath their notice. I doubt [Leadership] is.”

“Maybe not,” Koenig admitted, “But I’m confident, now, that you’re not going to give up the secret if they come looking. I think we can trust you.”

“How gratifying,” I said sourly. “And me, not even geased.”

Koenig shrugged, uncomfortably. That had been a bit of a sore point. The Guild put an enchantment on their higher levelled members, to keep this, and other secrets, safe. Which reminded me of another topic that I should bring up. But first…

“I’m not sure that giving it to adventuring parties is the best plan, though,” I said. “You’re not really getting the full benefit with only four followers.”

The average size of a party was five people. [Leadership] wasn’t a one-way street, the followers did get a bonus to one skill that the leader had. An adventuring party, though, was comprised of people with diverse skills.

“If your [Party Leader] is a swordsman, he’s going to want to give a boost to [Weapon Mastery: Blades]. That’s not going to do much for the wizard, the healer, or the rogue. Or even another fighter, if he’s wielding an axe. Now if the [Party Leader] was a mage… an entire team of mages would be interesting.”

“They could get a type of magic, or they could get [Mana Development],” Nadine pointed out, spoiling my fun. “Either way, they wouldn’t be able to cast spells.”

“Good point,” I allowed. “Anyway, it's a bit of an ask to donate your experience to someone if you don’t get anything useful back.”

“I suppose,” Koenig muttered. “Do you have a suggestion?”

“What about a [Milita Captain]?” I asked. “We could give it a requisite of [Weapon Mastery: Spear], bonuses to the same… maybe [Bureacracy].”

“Do you want to give that to all the professions in Talnier?” Nadine asked curiously.

“Not all of them,” I replied, equivocating a bit. There wasn’t a need to, when I could start [Teaching] it. “I do think though, that it's one of the missing elements that holds this society back.”

“How so?” Koenig asked.

“Well, between social combat, and actual violence, it’s hard, here, to have organisations that stand up to any sort of pressure. [Bureaucracy] lets you make institutions up of lower-levelled people without having to worry that some level six is going to sweep them away.”

“That’s why the Guild uses it,” Koenig agreed. “But is there really a need for more permanent organisations?”

I looked at him blankly. “Let’s just say, yes,” I said. “Give me a second to price up a [Militia Captain].”

It didn’t take long. While I hadn’t actually made any new [Professions] I’d been playing with the interface in my spare time.

Profession Name: [Militia Leader]

Profession Description: [ Band together to save the town! ]

Pre-requisites: [Level 2] [CHR 4] [Weapon Mastery: Spear] [None]

Skill Unlocks: [ Leadership ] [ Bureaucracy ] [ Tactics ] [ Scribe ] [+] [-]

Skill Bonus: [ Weapon Mastery: Spear +2 ] [ Leadership ] [ Tactics ] [+] [-]

Special: [+]

Territory Point Cost: 0

Development Point Cost: 5

“Why [Scribe]?” Nadine asked, once I’d read out the result.

“Captains have to write reports, at least they do if they’re in any sort of decent organisation,” I replied.

“Just how much paperwork are you going to burden these folks with?” Koenig asked. “And there’s not much use for spears in a dungeon. Too cramped.”

“It’s not for adventurers,” I said, gazing thoughtfully at the blue box that only I could see. “It's for people who are willing to defend the town. You want spears on a wall, I’m told.”

“Any kind of mass combat,” Nadine agreed. “And that is the arena where [Leadership] shines.”

I nodded. I wasn’t sure exactly how [Leadership] worked, but it seemed obvious that the more troops you commanded, the better the experience gain. There also seemed to be some benefit from layering [Leadership] skills, having leaders following other leaders in a hierarchy. I wasn’t sure what the benefit was though, people with [Leadership] tended to be nobles, and were closed-mouthed about it.

“Hmmph,” Koenig snorted. “It’s easy enough to qualify for, but do we need the spear requisite?”

“It keeps the costs down,” I told him. “One for being a requisite, and it also reduces the cost of the bonus. Without those cost savings, I’d have to pay Territory Points to create it, and I want to save those.”

New [Professions] were all very well, but the real value of Territory Points was buying [Customisations]. Unfortunately, the good ones were really expensive. I’d gained a few Territory points, but nowhere near enough.

[Territory Name]: Talnier

[Territory Type]: Free City

Population: 2306

[Territory Points]: 4

[Roles]

[Customisation]

Liege: Kingdom of Latorra

Vassals: None

Threats: Hector Rodakis, Duchy of Arryen, Duchy of Bargougne

[Infrastucture]

[Defenses]

[Treasury]

Not that I’d started obsessively checking to see if my points had gone up. Part of the problem was that the really good [Customisations], the ones that applied bonuses to your entire population, increased in cost as your population went up. Since population increase was one of my main sources of Territory Points, ever affording one of those bonuses might be forever out of my reach.

“I suppose it’s an easy enough skill to get,” Koenig allowed. “Very well, I’ll accept it.”

I raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. I’d agreed to consult, not defer to them. Still, if this satisfied them, then I could move on to other topics.

“So about Reynard,” I said. “Has there been any word from Dorsay?”

Reynard was supposed to be sequestered away somewhere, getting punished or re-educated, whatever it was that the Guild did with misbehaving officials. They weren’t supposed to be able to misbehave, what with the geas and their contracts and so on, but Reynard had managed it.

Now he’d managed to escape their custody. What had happened to him had been an idle curiosity when I’d seen him in Dorsay, but he’d jumped up several places on my priority list when I’d seen him wandering the streets of Talnier.

“Ah. Him,” Koenig said, looking embarrassed. “He’s not responding to his geas.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

He scowled. “I shouldn’t even be telling you that he has a geas— and I wouldn’t be if you hadn’t already figured it out.”

“Ifs, buts, candied nuts,” I said, not bothering to work out if the rhyme translated. “I do know, so spill. Is he a criminal now? Can I have the guard arrest him?”

“No, is the short answer,” Koenig replied. “As for… escaping custody shouldn’t have been something he could do under the geas. He must have been free of it when he was interacting with you.”

Yes, my little secret of what I’d been up to in Oakway was out. The King had passed it on to his Guildmaster, who’d passed it down to at least this minion.

“Is that a surprise?” I asked. “Isn’t the geas supposed to stop him from secretly profiting from a dungeon’s expansion?”

“Well… there are loopholes,” Koenig admitted. “We’re still not sure exactly what he was up to, but he may have been able to work around the geas. Escaping though… and there are other functions that aren’t working. The link has been broken.”

“But you said no arrest… don’t you hunt down rogue Guild members?”

“It’s not normally necessary,” he said. “In this case… well, you reported that he was working for Countess Rankin.”

“Yeah…”

“As her vassal, she has extended her protection over him. That wouldn’t have meant much a few months ago, but since the… incident in the capital, Lady Rankin is high in the King’s regard.”

“So you can’t touch him. Don’t you want to know how he broke your geas?”

“We do. There are some ways to do it. A [Theurge], dungeon items. The Countess presumably has access to one of them.”

“So you’re just going to leave it at that?” I asked.

“We can’t do anything overtly, and Reynard is a careful man. He’ll be on the lookout for any kind of… less overt activity. It will take time to arrange. I’d advise against just arresting him as well. You don’t want the Countess taking action against Talnier.”

“I’m not going to arrest him if he hasn’t committed a crime!” I protested, ignoring the fact that I had just proposed that. Abandoning the Guild might actually have been a crime, but I couldn’t consider it as one.

“Even then, I’d advise against it. Not that you’d be able to, Sir Hector is probably all too aware of the man’s special status.”

“Hector Rodakis commands the soldiers on the wall,” I said frostily. “He doesn’t get to decide who gets arrested or not.”

Koenig raised an eyebrow. “Is that really true?” he asked. “In that case, I have to wonder what he’s been doing on the streets.”