A New Day

Grim awoke to silence. For a moment he froze in fear, anticipating a howl like the last time he woke up. He waited for a few moments, looking around the camp. All six planned huts could be seen clearly in the morning twilight, their squat shapes outlined by the trees behind them. The platforms were visible as well, standing at about the same height as the huts’ roofs. They were a similar shade of brown as the trees, with some bark still visible on parts. There were a total of six tired looking goblins, three on each platform, staring out at the forest. He couldn’t see their faces, but they looked like they were almost asleep standing up.

The quiet, he realized, was because the rest of the camp was asleep in their huts. He didn’t immediately see anything wrong or out of place, but he was wary regardless. Figuring it would be best to let them sleep until he had something specific for them to do, he settled for counting the survivors and checking his sheets.

There were 22 remaining, happily the same number as when he had gone to sleep. Six of those were on guard duty, a perhaps excessive number, but it was in line with his request that they stick to groups of three or more. The remaining 16 were asleep in the six huts. He was happy to find Charms and Block in the same hut at the back left against the cliff. She had apparently taken all his requests seriously. If any more goblins were lost, he didn’t want either of those two to go. He liked Charms for both her body and her leadership, and he liked Block for his strength and his lack of fear. One could become a lover and general. The other could become a champion and role model.

He shook the thoughts from his head. It was one thing to value allies and make plans. It was a step too far to dream without planning. They all needed solutions right now, not just hopes and dreams. Maybe his character sheets would help him plan.

Grim, Level 2 Lesser Reaper
Monster, Shadow, Explicit, Micro-Boss
Experience to level up - 40
Attributes:
Strength 5
Dexterity 11
Stamina 6
Charisma 18
Intelligence 18
Wisdom 12
Skills:
Feats:
Incorporeal -
Possession (character) -
Grim Visage -
Liegelord 2/10 - Commands a very minor domain. May occasionally receive gifts or offers based on reputation. Others may occasionally seek favor or a position within the domain.
Spells:
Grant Release -

Liegelord remained interesting, but nothing had changed. What about fame?

Fame: 60
Defended encampment +10
Injured animal (+6)
Minions died (+4)
People are talking about you +5
Perks: 30
Liegelord (3/10) - Cost: 40
Summon tireless worker (0/1) - Cost: 50

The updates to his fame were definitely interesting. He had earned fame for both holding off the wolf and for the four goblins that had died fighting it. He wouldn’t complain about the consolation reward, but really? Receiving fame for fighting an animal implied that fame wasn’t bound to fighting adventurers, but it made some sense. No more wolves seemed to have attacked since that incident, meaning it probably had an impact beyond the one injured wolf. That people were talking about him was a bit more of a concern, but no adventurers knew the location of this camp, so it shouldn’t be too bad.

Aside from all that, the new perk was something he definitely wanted. A tireless worker of any kind would be invaluable, especially if it could build faster or better than the generally unskilled goblins. The huts and platforms were decent for their purposes of shelter and watching, but they were obviously rough constructions that any determined monster or adventurer could probably collapse.

Considering construction, walls should definitely be the next step for the camp. The lack of walls was why that wolf had attacked so easily at first. Thinking about it, walls were actually more important than shelter. They could sleep without roofs if required, but after last night it was apparent they couldn’t sleep without controlled entrances. So walls would be the next construction, but they still needed food and he needed fame and experience.

“Kaw, krawww!” He was jolted out of his thoughts by the loud cawing of a raven that had landed on the ground in front of him. He looked at it incredulously, wondering what it was doing.

“Krawww! Hri! Kahaha!” The sharp noise it made sounded like barking laughter, and the sound was a bit unnerving coming from the large, black-feathered bird.

“What?” He tentatively asked it, cocking his head, half expecting a response.

The raven cocked its head back at him, shuffling its wings before uttering another short, almost inquisitive squawk.

He was still wondering how to respond to the strange bird when a message popped up in his vision.

Level 1 Raven would like to join your domain.
Accept?

He was puzzled by the message, but he wouldn’t refuse the offer. Even a bird could probably be useful, maybe as a scout.

New minion:
Level 1 Raven
Beast, Bird

“Kahaha! Kahaha!” The raven laughed while bobbing its head as if nodding.

Well now he had a pet raven apparently. This was probably Liegelord at work, but it was odd that a bird was the first creature to approach him like this. Maybe it was bored or something. If he read its actions right, a semi-intelligent raven probably had very few opportunities beyond watching and possibly dying to adventurers or monsters.

As he mentally debated the raven’s actions, it was twisting its head around, presumably inspecting the camp. Then it looked back at him, stared into his hood, and laughed. Seriously, something was wrong with this bird. Although laughter was probably a fair assessment of the symmetrical and indefensible camp. The bird could at least help on one front though, watching for or finding things, assuming it could understand orders.

“Umm, can you understand me?” He asked uncertainly.

The raven cocked its head for a moment before nodding once. Great, at least communication would hopefully not be an issue.

“Could you find us some low, uh, very low level adventurers or something similar to fight? We need the experience. Maybe resources too.”

The raven took longer to respond this time, but finally it nodded multiple times, shuffled its wings and took off. It circled a few times before flying off over the tree tops. He watched it go and only realized after it was out of sight that he could have possessed it to explore directly. He should probably stay with the tribe anyway, but he wished he could fly like that.

Returning to the present, Grim noticed some of the guards were looking at him inquisitively. They were probably just wondering about the raven, though none of them mentioned it.

He still needed to figure out exactly how to defend the camp with fewer guards, walls would work, so he checked the construction menu for any walls. There were a few options for walls, but they all appeared to need large amounts of resources, generally wood. With how much they’d need it might require chopping down every tree within a hundred feet. That was just unacceptable without hatchets. It could take days to build a wall like that, and the wall would be near useless before it was completed.

They needed something better, and the only option left was the custom build option. Opening it revealed a dizzying array of virtual tools. After spending a few minutes trying and canceling different options, he felt he had a decent handle on it, and an idea for solving the wall problem. They could try digging out a trench around the camp and packing that dirt into an earthen wall on the inside edge of the trench. With some wooden planks to hold up the inside dirt, it would make a formidable wall with relatively little wood required.

The end result was an eight foot tall ridge of earth on the inside, an eight foot deep trench on the outside, and planks between the two forming a wall much like the cliff they were backed up against. The non-reinforced slopes would be steep but climbable, while the reinforced slope would be unclimbable by most every creature, including adventurers. Meanwhile, the flat top of the ridge would be perfect for sentries.

Assuming they carried through with this, the construction could be separated into multiple stages, digging out and building up the wall portion first and reinforcing with extra dirt second. With that tireless worker he was hoping for, the first stage might even be finished before it got too dark.

He took a bit longer to go around the outside of the camp and actually place the building plans, careful of the ordering. He considered totally enclosing the camp, but that might lead to adventurers or other attackers climbing in anywhere. So he left one gap in the center of the wall. The ground there would be slopped weirdly, but it would hopefully be easy enough to encourage aggressors to enter there rather than from an unexpected direction.

By the time that was done, a good half hour or more had passed since he woke up. The sun was now visible through the trees and on the stone cliff above. The goblins were still mostly asleep, but the light had woken up a few. Those few were now taking out and eating what little meat they had remaining from yesterday’s hunting. Food would have to be added to the list of stuff desperately needed.

As soon as the early risers finished their meals he directed them to start work on the earthen wall to the left, outside of what he now considered Charms’ hut. As he watched them start, he quickly discovered an issue with the building plan there. Only the first foot or so of the ground at the cliff’s base was actually dirt, below that it was stone, which would take a while to mine through with daggers and the like. They were already started though, so he directed them to just dig other portions first.

Soon enough they were all awake and either eating or working. The guards eventually getting their own rest once the others were out and the sun was fully up. Grim was just reaching the point of looking for something else to do when the raven flew back into sight, swooping down to land on the rickety railing of one of the platforms.

“Kahaha! Kraww! Kawww!” Hopping from side to side, it announced itself with its cackling laugh and nodded excitedly at Grim, startling most of the goblins who hadn’t seen the raven when it first joined.