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Chapter 4 by Speng Speng

What, exactly?

Bad News, but an Opportunity

Quickly scanning the clearing, you see... A Human. A female human, specifically; the rhythmic thumping sound is her splattering the Blobs that spawn here with her staff. It's a simple wooden affair topped with a crude wooden effigy of a crow that you recognize as the symbol of Ahtnamas, Goddess of Night, Magic, and Travelers, and one of the few deities revered by heroes and monsters alike-- Between that and the shapeless grey robe that conceals her figure, it's obvious that she's a low-level Cleric, even before your spying on her triggers your Perception:

Natalie Greenfield, Level 2 Cleric of Ahtnamas
Human, Hero, Active, Explicit
Time since creation: 1 hour
Time played: 0 hours

The summary gives you pause-- The Human is clearly much weaker than you, but Players were cruel and cunning, so there was no way of telling how she might turn the tables on you if you just attacked her. That she was already out here and farming blobs alone was also concerning; was she really new, and if so, how did she get here before everyone else? Luck? A dreaded 'smurf' who managed to get in early and made a new avatar to test all of the new content? Blobs were only level 1, but there were plenty of monsters around your level that she'd have had to have snuck around to get this far in.

Your reverie is interrupted when something unexpected happens, though; she moves to one side of the clearing and just stands there for a bit, brow creased and muttering something you can't hear to somebody you can't see. After a couple more moments of this, she goes stock still, and and her expression goes blank for a moment, eyes empty and hollow. When they clear up again, the crease in her brow is one of worry rather than of concentration, and your Perception confirms your suspicions:

Natalie Greenfield, Level 2 Cleric of Ahtnamas
Human, Hero, Inactive, Explicit
Time since creation: 1 hour
Time played: 1 hour
Feats
Meek – you gain more experience from others helping you, and positive spells you use on your allies are more effective.
Industrious – You gain more experience from crafting, and crafting tasks take less time.

It seems that something's pulled the Player away, leaving the Avatar to fend for herself. While Meek seems like a logical trait for a Player's cleric, especially one that the Player intends to power-level, it's a temperament that Avatars find... rather unsuitable for adventuring alone, and you take some measure of sadistic glee watching her whip her head around, shivering the ankle-deep water and clutching her staff to her apparently quite sizable bosom. Taking a good look at her, she's quite the catch: Her stature is short for a human, but her skin is fair, her now-watery eyes are a bright, brilliant blue, and her waist-length hair, dotted with errant leaves and twigs, is as black as the totem on her staff. She looks so sweet and... ****, and it lights a bit of a fire in you.

You consider how to exploit her, but you don't have to think long; it looks like her player farmed enough Blobs to trigger a Slime spawn before leaving, and the poor Avatar seems to be babbling to herself enough to be blissfully unaware of it creeping up on her as she rummages through her pack to take stock of her supplies.

How do you take advantage?

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