Deal with the Fame bullshit first

It didn’t matter where you tried to get rock from first, it was going to take time and effort. You might as well get your overabundance of fame working for you before you started swinging pointy metal things at hard rock things.

Before you could even open up the Fame tab, you noticed your Character Sheet had some changes. Some wonderful changes.

Level 5 Bugbear Exile
Monster, Microboss, Bugbear, Explicit
Experience to level up – 500
Attributes
| Strength 20 | Dexterity 25 | Endurance 20 |
| Charisma 32 | Manipulation 32 | Appearance 32 |
| Perception 30 | Intelligence 27 | Wits 28 |
Skills
Brawling 15
Athleticism 15
Presence 25
Lore 25
Occult 30
Stealth 13
Dodge 13
Crafting (Stoneworking) 5
Crafting (Carpentry) 5
Feats
Arcane Blood –
Bugbear Dominance –
Invite – You can invite other creatures to take up residence in your lair as mooks. Doing so successfully grants you experience, and you will gain a small amount of all the experience your mooks gain. Having sleeping quarters, food and water already available will increase your chances of a successful invite.
Micro-Boss – When you are defeated in battle, lose accumulated progress to your next level rather than all gained experience. Spend Fame on unique bonuses to your lair, your mooks and yourself.
Monstrous Appearance –
Sorcerer Tier I –
* Fixate
* Purify Food and Drink
* Thunderclap
Wisdom of the Ages –

It all seemed like good news. Invite meant you could get some minions, though you weren’t sure where you were going to find those. More importantly, Micro-Boss meant you wouldn’t get fucking reset back to start the next time you got killed.

Now all you had to do was figure out how to gain your levels back. Ugh.

Fame: 1459
Recent Activity:
Your quest was met with failure! + 24 (Expanded)
Four Hero TPK! +12
Four Hero TPK! +12
A Quest has been issued! + 15 (Expanded)
Quest Accepted + 2 (5-3 (Escort Quest))
Quest Accepted + 6 (10-4 (Scout Quest))
Quest Accepted + 7 (10-3 (Scout Quest))
A Player Made Solo Quest Continues! + 62 (Expanded)
Quest Accepted 62 times! + 62 (Expand)
A Player Made Quest Continues! + 34 (Expanded)
Quest Accepted 34 times! +34 (Expand)
Fame Options:
Evolve Form: 500 fame; Prerequisite: Level 10
Arcane Liegelord 0/10 (Class Ability): 10 fame
Goblinoid Liegelord 0/10 (Race Ability): 10 fame
????
????

What the fuck were Scout Quests? And how were Adventurers dying on escort quests when you never even saw any of them? Most importantly, 134 Adventurers were now hunting you, because 34 had signed up to kill you in the last two hours while you were scampering back home.

No more options had been revealed on the menu, but while Evolve was still greyed out, your two Liegelord options were now a bright white. Ready for selection.

Fuck goblins, you thought. The little assholes were stupid, conniving dickheads that would turn on your in an instant.

Arcane Liegelord 1/10 (Class Ability): 20 Fame
The influence of your arcane blood has started to sway the local monster population to your banner. Each day, there is a small chance that local creatures will spontaneously convert to your side and ask to join you. You may also receive gifts from monsters seeking to stave off your wrath or gain your favour.

Well, that sounded nice. Tribute, like Adrianne’s gifts, was always appreciated. Not needing to leave the cave, and therefore not exposing yourself to your hunters, to go and try and find minions to recruit also sounded pretty good.

You selected the Arcane Liegelord again, raising it to level 2. Then again, and again. Fuck it, let’s just do this…

Arcane Liegelord 7/10 (Class Ability): 1280 Fame
The influence of your arcane blood is whispered about among the regional monster population in awe. Many monsters flock to your banner, or fear your influence. Each day, there is a chance that local creatures will spontaneously convert to your side and ask to join you, seek your protection or gain your favour. You will also receive tribute from monsters and other factions to stave off your wrath and seek alliances.

It cost you most of your Fame, but the wording of the ability seemed a lot more generous now. And what else were you going to spend it all on?

Fame: 189
Recent Activity:
A Player Made Solo Quest Continues! + 1 (Expanded)
Quest Accepted 1 time! + 1 (Expand)

Fame Options:
Evolve Form: 500 Fame; Prerequisite: Level 10
Arcane Liegelord 7/10 (Class Ability): 1280 Fame
Goblinoid Liegelord 0/10 (Race Ability): 10 Fame
Manifest Worker 0/Lvl (5): 100 fame
Quicker Construction Time: 250 Fame
????
????

Oh, damn it. Well, maybe not damn it, but if you’d saved that last 640 fame you spent on Arcane Liegelord 7 you could have afforded Quicker Construction and all five of your possible Workers.

Hopefully that 7th level would prove worth it.

You spent 100 fame on the Manifest Worker, leaving you at 89 remaining, and watched the entrance to your cave. Nothing happened.

“Bzzap dga choozaglez zeorch.”

You spun, facing the creature that had just appeared behind you, in the center of your home. It was like a human, but squat and thick with dark grey skin, wiry black hair wreathing it’s head and hanging in a thick, unkempt beard. The most standout feature of the dark dwarf was it’s blood red eyes, just slightly luminescent in the dark of the cave.

Dark dwarves weren’t something you had ever seen before, as far as you could recall from your previous lives, but you knew they usually lived deep underground in their own cities. They had been added in an update years ago, but still you had never seen one before. They also, if you what you knew was true, had an affinity for some specific spells and working with arcane metals.

“Gzza go dga mizzkalez?”

You also had no fucking clue what it was saying.

“Um, here,” you said, pulling the pick out of your inventory and handing it to the dark dwarf. “Go hit that wall.”

The dark dwarf took the pick, frowned and nodded his head, then went over to the wall. He looked back at you a little confused, then turned and hit the wall with the pick.

No progress bar.

He hit it again. Still no progress bar.

“OK, never mind that. New plan.”

The dark dwarf came back.

“If you go up the path outside and take a left at the main trail, you’ll go up the mountain. Head to the left again when you get passed the top of the cliff and there’s a bunch of rocks up there you can harvest. Go do that until sunset then come back.”

The dark dwarf seemed to nod along, following your directions with a finger in the air. Yes, left, then left again. Perfect. He finally nodded, hefted the pick on his shoulder and headed for the cave entrance…

And stopped right in the threshold. Then looked back at you.

“Yeah, go. Go one. Go harvest stone.”

It shuffled forward about an inch, then stopped and looked back at you again.

“Gods damn it all, an you not go outside?”

It shook it’s head.

“Fucking. Gaaah! Alright, come back over here and give me the pick.”

He did, and dutifully waited as you put the pick back in your inventory.

Alright, you were going to need to be the one who went out and harvested stone obviously. What could you get the dwarf to work on while you were at it?

You opened your inventory, then opened up the little tab marked ‘Stockpile.’ OK, good, you thought. I didn’t just lose all my wood and stuff.

You selected the wood and a small popup asked if you wanted to construct wooden items. You focused on it, then a bigger popup appeared. There were… an overwhelming amount of options, and also the ability to filter them. You filtered by available resources, and the number quickly dwindled.

First up was a worktable - it would help you, or your worker, with making more tools which sounded like an excellent first step. Then you also selected a big wooden chair, which also took up your single goat fur for a lining and four of your five bones for decorative elements, and then you set up three regular sized chairs. Lastly you picked out a half dozen crates to store stuff in.

You really weren’t that impressed with your options, but a quick look at the unfiltered list showed lots of the wood-related construction required metal ore to create more complicated things.

“Alright, here,” you said, pulling the axe and the hammer out of your inventory. “Start working on the furniture I queued up. I’m going to go harvest stone. If anything else comes around, don’t let them come inside… if you can. You know what? Just try not to let them steal the tools, OK?”

The dark dwarf nodded, gave a Buzz for good measure, and hefted the hammer. A small pile of wood appeared in front of him, and he began to hit it with the hammer. The way the progress bar moved, he would definitely be done before you got back.

You unloaded the rest of your tools other than the pick into the back corner of the cave, near the… wait, where was your nice, clean water source?

Fuck, you were going to need to get building soon.

A glance over at your dark dwarf worker and he was already a quarter of the way done your future work table judging by the progress bar. You shook your head, marveling at the speed that a proper tool added to work, and stepped out onto the mountain trail.

It was past noon, but you still had a good six hours before sunset. Accounting for traveling up and back, you could get a good three hours of harvesting in as long as nothing got in your way.

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