We’re screwed.

Peter lay still under the choking cloud of dust that filled the room and put his hand on his sword. There was no notification about anybody being dead, so presumably they could all still fight. Not that it would do much good.

If the players were intent on getting in here and taking out everyone in the room, then there wasn’t a single thing they could do about it. Not with their numbers and weapons.

He steeled himself to what might be necessary and scrambled backwards through the smoke to find the opening that went down to the tunnels. He truly hated to leave DG, but if a bunch of heavily armed players were going to burst in and start killing everyone, then he wasn’t planning to be one of the casualties.

More shouts came from outside, followed by another crackle of weapons fire and the sound of running feet.

He collided with another body and looked over to see Chester. The ghoul clearly had the same idea as Peter.

I guess he didn’t stay alive this long by freezing in an emergency.

But Peter wanted to at least give the big guy a chance.

“DG!” he barked. “We’re leaving! Hurry! Back down the tunnel!”

There was another whooshing hiss from outside and Peter steeled himself, but instead the RPG round kept going and exploded somewhere farther away.

He heard a grunt and shuffling that he hoped was DG moving towards them. He kept backing up, feeling for the exit with his foot.

More gunfire cracked, right next to the door. He heard someone yelling but couldn’t make out any words.

A hand clamped down on his arm. He turned his head to see the new female ghoul staring desperately into his eyes.

“Take me with you,” she said.

Peter didn’t stop backing up. He’d located the gap in the floor now, and his foot was pushed aside by what had to be Chester already sliding his way down to safety.

Dude takes care of himself, that’s for sure.

“Join my clan,” he said as be wriggled away.

“I join. I follow you,” she said intently, crawling along to keep up with him.

Where the hell is DG?

Peter grabbed the new ghoul’s arm and dragged her towards him, ignoring the new clan member notification.

“Down. Quietly,” he said.

The smoke and dust was starting to clear, and the could see out of the blasted doorway into the corridor now. Figures ran past, and he caught sight of them well enough to see that they were players, for sure. Not one of them looked into the room at them.

Sloppy.

He tightened his grip on the female ghoul’s arm, and when she looked at him he shook his head, hoping that would send the message, “Don’t move, don’t make a sound.”

But at that very moment Dumbo Ghoul sat up and looked around at the room.

“What happened?” he said. “Is everyone…”

“Ssssh!” Peter hissed. There was more sound outside. It was the flat flap-flapping of running ghoul feet.

“Don’t move,” Peter whispered.’

A crowd of ghouls ran past in the hallway. They were wearing standard ghoul rags, but with the quick look he got at them, Peter could see that they were carrying gleaming metal, probably long knives or even swords like his. One of them carried something long and shinyl, but was gone too fast for a good look.

Those are some organized Horde right there.

He had a feeling they weren’t just a random clan.

They waited a few more moments for any stragglers, but it seemed like the action had moved on. They could hear sporadic gunshots and shouts from farther away.

“You know those Horde?” Peter said to the female.

Scared

Common Horde; Lvl 2; 100% Carnage Clan

She shook her head.

“I just come here looking for food. But they strong, chasing players.”

Peter grimaced.

“Carnage Clan will be stronger. You’re lucky to get in now. Your name will be Alice.”

She nodded but he couldn’t help feeling she looked a bit sceptical, too.

Chester pulled himself back up out of their escape tunnel and glanced around the room at them all.

“We get lucky for sure,” he said. “We should follow them and maybe we find some good stuff.”

“Good stuff?”

“Dead ghouls. We see what they have. Maybe players too if we really really lucky.”

“Is that the way things always go? You see who dies and take their things?”

Chester nodded.

“Safer than fighting them, yes.”

Ghouls are scavengers, I guess I just have to deal with it.

But it wasn’t going to stay that way. All the same he had to admit the idea was logical, as long as they didn’t get torn apart by a player party looking for more kills.

He gave DG a once-over. The big guy was unhurt but seemed a little dazed by the explosion. He’d probably been closest to the door. He put him in the middle with Alice, and with Chester keeping a lookout at the rear.

I guess I have to trust him for now.

They moved carefully out of the room and towards the distant sound of gunfire, creeping along slowly and watching for threats.

The hallway was lined with colorful tiles that screamed shopping mall. They’d come up into some kind of underground shopping plaza. It wasn’t long before they reached the end and found themselves staring out into the jumbled wreckage of a food court. Seats and tables were scattered at all angles, and there were plastic trays everywhere on the ground.

Peter’s nose wrinkled at the fresh smell of smoke. The fight had gone through this way, for sure. The sounds of the fight were a bit louder, from out in the mall itself, but it didn’t seem like there was anybody else nearby.

It wasn’t long before they found their first casualty. A dead ghoul, riddled with bullets. He was long gone. The ghoul’s main weapon lay on the ground by it’s side.

CRUDE STEEL-TIPPED SPEAR

UNMODIFIED RANGED MELEE

ONE-HANDED, 2M RANGE

ATTACK +30 (Condition 85%) 26 It's a wooden shaft with a pointy steel bit on the end. Very useful for keeping your distance while you stab things. You can also throw it in a pinch, but of course that would give your enemy a chance to pick the thing up. So we'd advise against it in general.

That was a nice find. He waved it at Chester, who nodded approvingly. A good spear gave you some reach at least, over a knife. Though it was still a primitive weapon, you could do some decent damage with it, particularly if you took someone by surprise.

He did a quick check through its inventory. The was nothing special, but it was all good to have; a bottle of vitamins, some chocolate bars, and one gold coin.

Peter almost pocketed the coin without a glance, but something caught his eye.

A crude design had been carved into it. He wasn’t sure what it was at first, until he turned it upside down and realized it was a lopsided stick figure, carved into the coin with something sharp like a knife. There was an even less obvious item beside it, that might possibly have been a star.

“Do you know what that means?” he said to Chester.

The old ghoul nodded.

“Flame Lady,” he said. “This is her clan. We be smart to make sure they don’t know we take their stuff.”

That’s the other player.

“What do you know about her?” Peter whispered. “I’ve heard her name.”

Chester shrugged.

“Strong clan, lots of ghouls. Thought about going to join them. But they attack players. A lot. New clan member is going to have to fight fight fight.”

“And that didn’t seem like the safest choice?”

Peter was definitely getting an idea of how the ghoul’s head worked.

Chester smiled.

“I thought, I keep looking. See what I can find. Flame Lady will probably still be there if there’s no good clans.”

Chester pointed out into the mall.

“Not so much fighting now. Maybe we go look?”

They crept out into the open space where the stores had been. It was just a mess of shattered glass and hanging wires, but it was obviously a mezzanine level, with another lower level below. They kept close to the wall, watching out for any danger.

They found another dead ghoul before long, and going through it’s things there was another spear on the ground, and another one of the carved gold coins, along with a little food.

She doesn’t equip them with much, that’s for sure.

The sound of an explosion brought them all to a stop. It wasn’t terribly far away, and there was more shouting.

And then suddenly there they were. Three players, running along the level below. Two men, one woman. They were all dressed in combat gear, but it didn’t look like anything special. Their labels were too far away to make out names, but he could see that they were all level 9.

What are you doing this far into the Nexus?

Peter would have advised them to level up some (or a lot) more before trying to go this deep, or minimally to have someone with a lot of experience with them.

Some things never change.

Of course compared to Peter and his group they were still massively overpowered - the four ghouls would be dead with almost no effort at all if they tried to attack. The players seemed to be running away from something, heading back towards them in the direction of the food court.

One of the males shouted something that sounded like an order.

That’s what I was afraid of.

It was total gibberish. Obviously the system wasn’t geared to let ghouls talk to players.

The players dove for cover behind a destroyed set of planters, and one of the males shrugged an RPG off his back and reloaded it.

Peter could see what they were thinking. There was a sagging segment of the upper level flooring not far away. One good hit might bring a whole section crashing down.

Or not. If it was me I’d just keep running.

It didn’t take long before their pursuers showed up.

“Holy shit,” Peter said out loud.

There were being chased by a swarm of ghouls. Way more than there had been back in the food court. There had to be at least forty, maybe fifty or more.

They must have been herding them into an ambush.

A tall ghoul wearing something blue followed in the rear, pacing along behind them all. It wasn’t the one he’d seen when he’d wiped with his last party, but it looked damn similar.

The RPG fired, traced an arc upwards, and exploded against the dangling floor segment, showering debris down on the lead ghouls. A few of them collapsed, but it made no difference to the swarm, which charged ahead blindly, screaming and waving a random assortment of daggers, swords, and spears. The bulk of the hanging floor remained solidly unmoved.

And that’s why you don’t bet everything on a gamble like that.

The second male player jumped up and began firing wildly into the pack while shouting something to the other two. He was obviously setting himself out as bait to let them get away. Neither of the other two seemed to object - they just turned and ran. Which was either good discipline or shitty party members; it was hard to tell.

The player did pretty well for a few moments. Ghouls were dropping to the floor on all sides. He probably took out nearly a dozen before the pack finally swamped him in a wave of flashing blades. The tall ghoul at the back waited until he was obviously dead and then yelled at the crowd.

“Enough! Take down the other two! Group D strip the player and catch up with us!”

The leader’s voice boomed out in the echoing mall space. It was obvious he was used to this.

It took a few moments for the order to take hold. Some of the ghouls looked to be trying to physically tear the dead player to pieces. Eventually a few thumps to some heads brought their attention back to the job, and the whole pack swarmed off down the mall in the direction the last two players had run.

“Is that Group D?” Peter said.

“Guess so,” said Chester.

A lone ghoul looked around at his dead party members, then turned and got to work on the player, carefully pulling things out of his inventory.

“This is it!” Chester said. “We take his stuff now. We jump him fast, before they know it.”

Peter looked at DG.

“You up to a fight?”

He was still a bit worried about the big ghoul’s health, but got a thumbs-up in reply.

“No problem boss. Scrawny guy.”

Alice looked as worried as ever.

“Now’s your chance,” Peter said to her. “Show us you’re a good clan member.”

She nodded slowly and then pulled out a surprisingly long knife from her rags.

“Fine,” she said. “But this not safe place to stay.”

“No kidding,” Peter said. “Getting away from here fast is job number two.”

He looked at Chester and pointed at the part of their floor closest to the Group D ghoul, then at gap down to the floor below. It was probably only ten or eleven feet. Certainly enough to jump.

Chester didn’t lose any time. He set out creeping towards their target spot, and Peter followed without looking back.

I guess now we see if she’s reliable.

Once they were above the lone ghoul, there was no time left. He was obviously finishing up.

Peter felt like he needed to show leadership again, so he didn’t wait for the others. He leaped out over the edge without another word, landing solidly on the ghoul and smashing him against the floor. He wrapped his hand over the creature’s mouth before it could shout out, while Chester, DG, and Alice all thumped to the ground around them.

Group D Ghoul 4

Common Horde; Lvl 2; 35% Flame Clan

Yeesh, that’s not much of a name. Then again if you’ve got hundreds to deal with I guess it makes sense.

Presumably Ghoul 4 could expect to get a new 1, 2, 3, and so on now that the others in his group had bought it.

The ghoul’s head turned to look at him, and it’s eyes burned with hate. It started to struggle against his hold. Chester and DG leapt in and pulled away it’s weapon before it could get free, and Peter flipped it over.

“Don’t yell or we’ll kill you right away,” he said. “We’re taking your things. But join Carnage Clan and you can live.”

The ghoul snarled and spat at him.

“I happy if I die for the Flame Lady,” it growled. “We find you and kill you all. All of you!”

“Last chance,” Peter said. “We already beat you. You’re finished. Now follow me. Carnage Clan will grow stronger than Flame Clan.”

He really wanted to recruit one of the other player’s ghouls. Being able to debrief Number 4 here would be a huge advantage.

But the ghoul just spat again.

“Let me fight you! I die for her! I die for the Crystal City!”

“The what now?” Peter said.

“Boss, we need to hurry. They come back soon,” Chester said.

The ghoul turned to Chester to snarl at him, then stopped and hissed, staring.

Before Peter could say another word Chester’s knife drove itself into Number 4’s chest, killing him instantly.

“Chester, what the hell?”

“They come back! You hear any fighting? We need to go!”

He was right, but something didn’t sit well all the same. They could return to that later though.

“Alice and DG, grab everything you can from the other dead ghouls! Chester check the player for anything this guy missed.”

Peter dove into Number 4’s inventory.

Meds, food, a couple of decent knives. One rifle and four free mags of ammunition. The rifle was a good find of course, but all the same he’d been hoping for more weapons. A sidearm, anything.

M4 RIFLE (2/30 5.56x45mm)

UNMODIFIED RANGED PROJECTILE, SELECTIVE FIRE

TWO-HANDED LEVEL 6

ATTACK (FIREARMS REQUIRED) +150 (Condition 80%) 120 Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could use this? Oh well, hope is what keeps us all going!

At least it could go in the Weapons Pile until he figured how to unlock the firearms ability.

There was some decent combat wear - boots, some armor, good gloves. All of it was base level 8. It was way better than the Raider stuff, but he’d have to wait to wear it. Like usual.

A bedroll - that was nice. It had a +1 Stamina rested buff.

We need to be on the lookout for a crapton of items like that. Us poor fragile ghouls need all the help we can get.

173 gold.

Outstanding. Now I just need somewhere to spend the stuff.

It was a good haul. Not amazing, but good. The players must have been farming exp, or else they hadn’t reached their actual goal yet.

Then there was the final item. Peter had never seen it before - the icon was a golden dodecahedron, spinning and shining. But his eyes went wide when he examined it.

PLAYER KILL TOKEN LVL: 9 CLASS: CHANCE

Congratulations on a player kill! Well, not in your case obviously, but congratulations on getting one by whatever means turned out to be necessary. Ready to roll the bones? One token gets you one spin, and the rewards are going to be good no matter what you end up with. Could be skills, could be buffs, could be EXP, could be just about anything. You might want to share the joy with your friends, but that’s your call.

BONUS: Level 9+ Token. You have a vanishingly small chance of getting something truly unique and amazing

Peter realized that Chester was looking over his shoulder at the token in his hand.

“Plenty of Horde would kill you for that,” he said quietly.

Peter looked back at him.

“Is that so? What would you do?”

Chester looked at it a moment longer then shrugged.

“Share it with the clan. Open it with whole clan there, whole clan gets the magic.”

“Oh? You’ve done this before?”

“Not me, chief. But I hear stories.”

Peter pocketed the thing. If there was going to be a clan-wide buff then he needed to wait until they got home to do anything with it.

He wasn’t sure if he really believed Chester, though. The ghoul’s eyes had sparkled when he saw it.

“Anything else on the player?”

“Nah, they clean him out good.”

“DG? Alice?”

They had found more spears, knives, food, and meds. Which was good - more supplies for the clan meant less foraging and more time spent doing useful work.

But Peter was getting nervous, and he saw Chester looking down the length of the darkened mall and sniffing.

“Do we have company?” he said.

“Think I hear something. We should go. Fast.”

Peter didn’t trust Chester yet on a number of levels, but he did respect the ghoul’s survival sense. If he said it was time to run, it was probably time to run.

But of course now they were on the bottom floor of the mall. There had to be multiple exits, and they sure as shit weren’t going to run in the direction the mob might be coming from. Which left only one choice.

“That way,” Peter said. “Quietly.”

Nobody argued. They headed out without a word, padding along quickly through the shattered glass and torn metal, looking for a way out.

There was a shout from behind them. It wasn’t close, but it definitely sounded like the voice of the tall leader-ghoul.

“Faster,” Peter said.

Come on, anything. A broken escalator, an elevator shaft, a fire exit. Anything at all!

They reached the end of the mall, and at first it looked like a dead end. It was just more ruined and emptied shops.

“There!” said Dumbo Ghoul.

A big pair of fire doors were almost concealed behind a fallen section of the upper floor.

“Good eyes,” Peter said. “This must be how they all came in.”

From behind them came the roar of dozens of ghoul voices all shouting at the same time. They sounded angry.

“And I think they just found out that we shafted them. Let’s get out of here.”

Chester didn’t need any convincing. He looked like he was already prepared to bolt and leave them behind.

But the moment he yanked open one of the big grey fire doors, a voice spoke up from somewhere close to them. It sounded like it was just a few feet away.

“Stop!”

The voice was gravelly and gurgling, and both Peter and Chester whipped around on it, weapons at the ready.

There was nothing there.

“Go!” Peter said to the others. “I’ll come after…”

“No!” the voice said again. “You must come with me.”

The roar of enraged ghouls thundered down the mall, heading towards them.

"We're getting out of here!" Peter yelled at the voice. "Try and stop us!"

A pixellated shimmering in the air appeared in front of them. It quickly resolved into a disgusting sight. The creature looked like a pile of random limbs and guts in an exoskeletal web of silver metal. A tentacle-like arm protruded, pointing what was very obviously a plasma pistol at Peter's head.

"Refusal is intolerable. You must remove him from the Creche."