Where Ozzy had spent quite some time going through his skills, anticipating future problems, and getting the maximum benefit out of his points, Suzette was done in about two minutes.

She did try to dump EP into Road of Shadows. It didn't work since she hadn't used her new magic during the fights with the rat-kin and the Ubermaus. "Secret assassin class" and "use secret magic in front of 50 people including Brandon, Timmy, and Themis" just didn't seem to be a good combination. But she had lots of other things she wanted and quickly dumped the EP into them.

-Poisoner to level 5 cost 600 EP. She had been quite disappointed that Timmy had been resisting her poisoned treats and brews. The next time she needed to poison a paladin, she'd be ready. Maybe she should start testing things on Ozzy? Or Rolly! Rolly ate the most disgusting shit and never seemed to suffer.

-Strange Alchemy to level 5 took 350 EP. Unfortunately, it was going to be awhile until she could experiment again. It was really a shame about the town. She'd have to talk to the boys about making the alchemists' home a priority. She had some gold saved up from running the Tavern. She should give that to Aliester to help finance the restoration of their home and his laboratory.

-Assassin's Avoidance she increased from level 2 to level 5 for 800 EP. Who wanted to get hit?

The clothes she was allowed to wear had a little armor, but not a lot. Better to just avoid the blow.

-Light Affinity to Level 5 for 350 EP. Every level of an affinity dropped her mana cost for spells by 5%. More mana saved meant more spells. She had pushed hard against Ubermaus and her mana had dropped fast.

-Tools of the trade from 3 to 5 for 600. Sharp things. Pointy things. Choky things. All the things a Tavern Keeper needed. She needed to talk to Adrianna about some of them, and to Jorges about getting some things made.

-And lastly, 600 points brought enchantment up to level 5. This was the skill she liked the best and it was fun to use. There had been some temptation to simply put all the EP into this skill, but she’d been gaming for far too long to fall for that trap. It would be fun until she was useless in a dungeon and something was eating her face.

Better to spread the EP around at this stage and be somewhat competent in several things. This gave her a solid base in the skills of her class and pumped up her stats in the right places. At the end of it, she was surprised to get a message.

My, that was quick. Welcome to Level 7. You're the first Contract Worker to make it this far!

You have gained +200 Health, +200 Mana, and +600 Stamina (Is that right? What does a little slip of a girl like you need with that much stamina? Oh...OH! ... Boy, is my face red! I hadn't thought of that...forgive my faux pas. Have a nice bag of chocolate covered pretzels for an apology.)

The bag was quickly hidden. If he was lucky, Ozzy might get some. But she wasn't showing off her prize in the middle of a crowd of hungry workers who had been eating groat muffins for a couple of months! As she put the bag of waxed paper into the pocket of her apron, she found something already there. It was a white ceramic ring with gold highlights on the edges.

Ring of Animation

A personal gift from Fearless Leader to the annoying two-legs. Put some life into your mugs and crockery.

She put it on immediately. She wanted to try it out, but doubted any of her mugs in the tavern were in one piece. The upper three stories of the tavern were a complete loss, collapsed into a pile of rubble. The basement was technically still there, but clogged with fallen debris. She had barely been able to sneak through the entrance under the barracks into the well, and make her way to the front of the dungeon. She had claimed it for ACME and Fearless Leader had claimed the gates of Gadobhra. They had taken no chances on Momco. somehow winning and had made sure to have the objectives locked down.

One the bright side, nothing could emerge from the dungeon at this point. It had been a tight squeeze even for her. She didn’t have to worry about things coming out of the dungeon, or things going back in.

She had 18 Core Skill Points to spend. She started with sneaky ones.

-Un-noticed for 2 points.

-Silent step for 2 points.

-Magic eyes 3 seemed essential to any spellcaster. And being able to start identifying magic items was going to be handy. Rolly wasn’t always around, and she could use it as leverage with ACME for her new contract.

She didn’t see how the old contract still applied. ACME hadn’t lived up to its end of the bargain to protect the tavern. Both she and ACME now owned 50% shares of a pile of rubble and it was their fault. The dungeon being level 2 was also a much bigger responsibility.

She had spent 8 points, and just decided to raise her radiance. Eventually she would raise as many stats as she could, this was just the start. She dumped 9 CSP into buying 3 points of RAD to boost her main spell damage and saved the last point.

All done with that. Time to go pass out all that lovely food and drink the paladins had brought with them.

=*=

In the evening, they all sat down to work things out. It was obvious that the residents of the village shouldn't head back to Sedgewick just yet. They had already set up temporary lodging near the keep. And with food, water, and the Legion there, they were better off than coming back to a ruin. Just the opposite would actually happen. The few remaining residents such as the Innkeeper and his family would head to the keep as well, escorted by the Legion.

The workers would remain. They had some shelter at the barracks and would be working to repair the damaged walls and gatehouse. Jorges stated that he'd built it once, and it wouldn't be hard to build it again. Especially when so many of the workers had put a few points into their STR stat with the EP from the battle.

The ACME workers were used to 18-hour workdays and eating most anything. They had plenty of food and were anxious to get to work restoring the barracks, and then the town. Those people that had died would be back the next day. Suzette had set up an area for them to recover and rest. Some people would bounce back fast, some wouldn't. Death was funny that way.

Themis wasn't too worried about them. She'd fought shoulder to shoulder with Ozzy and seen that many of the others could fight. A few rat-kin roaming around would be easily dealt with. A little after dawn the next day, after the returning people had been seen to, the Legion and the Order of Paladins started back to the Keep. There was no clop-clop of coco-nuts accompanying them. Inquisitor Diego was going to stay around the town and watch the rebuilding.

That morning was an interesting one in so many ways. The workers all resurrected at dawn in front of the barracks. Ben just headed for the bar. Rolly was immediately greeted by a very happy Squirmie and the two of them went off to discuss spending their points. Suzette took Bettie and some of the others who were experiencing their first death and sat in the sun for a few hours, relaxing and getting over the memories of dying and the demoralizing effect of the first few hours alive.

The mercenaries Billy had hired were thrilled to have been able to keep their gear, get paid, and gain a big chunk of EP. The fifteen players from Guild First Strike were in great spirits. They had partied the entire time, and come back to find out their side had won. They’d be walking away with fine gear formerly worn by the people on the other side.

Nearer to Rowan Keep, nearly 250 players who had been on the Momco. team resurrected wearing their underwear with no weapons and not a penny to their name. A few had been smart and hidden some emergency gear in the woods, along with some cash. Most hadn't. The merchants were only too happy to sell the naked players second hand clothing, worn out armor, and beginner weapons for a mere triple their normal price. Of course, they also had to take promissory notes since everyone was penniless.

There was a lot of grumbling about the way in which many of them had died. The boring little village had become a death trap with killer cattle, hordes of undead, bandits, drunken goblins, vengeful ghosts, and sneaky traps. Several people mentioned being ambushed by Falconer. There was much speculation about where he was and how much money he had gotten away with. His betrayal of Momco. had cost them an easy win.

A couple of hours after the players and workers had resurrected Billy and Layla entered the game. They'd been held in seclusion like all the other dead people from the war. The two of them had spent the first two hours off-line and in a meeting with some of the higher-level ACME people. Billy was tentatively confirmed as Northern Regional Manager. Vern was still bitching about his lost money, but there was little sympathy in the room for him.

As Billy and Layla appeared, there was a small smattering of applause and some congratulations on leading their side to victory. Billy took a deep bow. He didn’t care how they’d won. The important thing was winning.

Layla looked around at the ruined town. "Damn. So, this is what winning looks like?"

"Yeah, it's a bit of a fixer-upper, but we wanted to re-build anyway. This just got us a head start on the demolition." Outwardly Billy was displaying his unusual brand of caustic optimism. Inside, he was worried. He was regional manager in the North, but only so long as he showed insane growth and profit that ACME demanded. And that wasn't going to be easy.

"We've got 75 workers here; we'll get this rebuilt fast."

Ben was listening in. "I think you will find that the number is just a bit less than 50, actually. You lost Sammy to Momco. and he seems to have taken his workers with him. Something about the contracts were technically with him." Ben didn’t mind at all. Sammy hadn’t been the best recruiter and his people had worked little and whined a lot.

Billy shrugged. "As usual, Sammy is wrong. But that's for the legal department to take care of. Frankly, he didn't recruit the best people and if Momco. wants to buy their contracts out, good riddance. Ben, you want to fill me in on anything I should know about."

"Delighted to Billy." Ben pitched his voice to carry to everyone.

""All residents except for Aliester, Adrianna, and Zephyr have been relocated to the keep. The area is fairly safe. I've talked to the goblin tribe and the bandits. Both groups are willing to patrol and deal with stray packs of rat-kin. I'd suggest offering a quest for killing 10 rat-kin and see if the players will get involved. We also have a new resident, Inquisitor Diego. He and I have done some adventuring together and I will attest to both his good fellowship and his choice in wine."

Diego waved to the crowd of workers and smiled.

"As you can see, the only remaining building is the barracks, and it has taken a few hits. Most of the destruction was caused when the dungeon broke and Ubermaus went on a rampage. There was a also large explosion when a mechanical device of the rat-kin exploded that made a nice crater. And another crater where the ACME and MOMCO. forces blew each other up."

Billy asked a surprised question, "Dungeon Break?"

"Yes, Momco. took over the dungeon and got careless, Timmy took the hit on that one and Momco. got a whopping penalty. The dungeon is now a Tier 2 dungeon by the way, it got much stronger. Much speculation on how that happened.”

Layla looked at Suzette and said, “Oh, it must have killed you to have to give up your dungeon to them.”

Suzette gave her a smile and flipped her hair back in a way that made the male workers stare transfixed. “Oh, Layla dear, you have no idea how true that statement is.”

Ben hurried on as if the women hadn’t said anything. “Don't worry about losing the low-level adventurers, we have a new Tier 1 dungeon called the Bunny Barrow. Fearless Leader offered his assistance if you need help dealing with the necromancer who runs that dungeon."

Layla looked at Billy. "And just who the hell is this Fearless Leader? You said you didn't know and he was crazy. Looks like he won the war for you and is still around."

Billy spread his hands. "Just got back, catching up as fast as I can. Ben, any messages from our esteemed Fearless Leader?"

"Just two," Ben said. "The first is that Moose and Squirrel are dead. The second is that he took his half of the magic items. He used them as presents for all the people he hired."

Layla was furious. Less magic items for her to sell was less bonus in her paycheck "And you just let him take ACME property?"

Ben bowed to Layla. "Apologies ma'am, but it wasn't my decision to make. I'm only a lowly worker and Mr. Billy put Fearless Leader in charge of the army. How could I tell him no? Frankly, he just told us he was doing it with a message and the items were gone the next time we looked."

Ben continued on. "We have a giant bat, a wild man with fleas, and a talking deer out in the woods somewhere. They fought on our side. There is also an angel who is staying with us. Some business of Ozzy's. He helped fight against the Daemons that showed up just before the rat-kin invaded."

"Daemons too? Did Momco. do that?" Billy planned to sit down with a few people and get more details.

Ben tilted his head a bit, glanced at Ozzy, and then said, "Well, it must have been them, it certainly wasn't us poor workers. Possibly Timmy got bored and summoned them to grind EP. Let’s just blame Momco. They'll say they didn't do it, but we know how they lie."

"But to summarize a bit, Fearless Leader led his small troops in an efficient guerilla campaign and whittled down the other side. The strange circumstances of lightning storms, back firing daemon summoning’s, vengeful Halloween spirits, and heavy drinking took a continuous toll. Then the dungeon overflow finished them off. A few survived the battle, but they tragically died of their wounds and from overdosing on potions. The last Momco. soldier died from puns."

Billy looked around. "I'm going to need a lot of time and more explanations to deal with this. But one thing bothers me. Why are you all so jubilant? It means more work for all of you and the town is destroyed." Too many of the workers were excited and laughing. Billy knew they were messing with their emotions a bit, but not this much.

Rolly rolled his eyes. "Who cares about some work? We got lots of EP. Lots of leveling. A big chunk of CSP, and we have a HUGE chest of phat loots to open up. We were only being polite and waiting for you to get here so you could watch us have fun."

The whole group started walking over to where Ubermaus had died. A path had been cleared through the rubble to the Tier 4 treasure chest. Billy took a second to bring up his roster. "Oh shit, Layla, look at this". Most of the workers Layla had brought with her were levels 2, 3 or 4. A big gain for just the last couple of weeks. But Billy's group was beyond that. Of the twenty-five workers in his group, 12 were at level 5 now. 9 had broken into Tier 2 and were level 6. Four of them were at level 7!

Layla looked over to where Ozzy was continuing to move two-ton stone blocks that had made up the tower. "What the hell is going on Billy?"

Billy was looking around at the workers as they clustered by the chest. "I don't know. But if we can turn a profit and I can stay in charge in the north, I don't care. We won the war. We have a high-level group of workers. We own a mine and have an ancient city to break into. Vern better watch his ass. This time next you he'll be working for us."

As everyone gathered around the chest, two huge conestoga type wagons pulled by 12 mules pulled into town. A grizzled dwarf in the drivers seat looked around the town, taking in the piles of the rubble, and sniffing the smell of burning rat-kin coming from the charnel pit. "Typical humans. Ther houses are always falling down and their cooking smells like crap. That boy is lucky I came for a visit."