The XP: Chapter 9

With the new year behind them the player base of Drainiverse looked forward to the fifteenth anniversary of the game. Every active player had received an email letting them know that the celebration would begin at six PM eastern standard time and would consist of an entire week’s worth of events. It was unlike any even the game had ever run. Which is why the login queue had over two thousand players waiting to sign in and see what the celebration was going to be like. Trart and the others were all waiting in the queue and chatting on their guild voice chat server. Trart was sitting at him computer keeping a lazy eye on the login queue while playing a game on the ancient console he had bought used. He was laughing at the playful banter the others were engaged in to pass the time. Suddenly the bell went off to signify a fifth players entering the chat.

“Are you all seriously waiting for the sever to calm down so you can play?” Torcano’s voice came through clearly.

“It’s the fifthteenth anniversary celebration event, who isn’t sitting by their computer waiting to play?” Stygian asked.

“Point taken.” Torcano admitted.

“Bragging because you are a GM and can skip the queue?” Bob asked.

“Nope, I’m offering to boot enough people to get you guys in, now.”

“Seriously?” Blackout asked.

“Why not?” Torcano replied.

“I thought you were like, our nemesis, or something?” Trart asked.

“If you guys would rather wait in line –“ Torcano started.

Bob sat up fast enough that Trart could hear her chair rebound over the chat channel. “No! Please do! It’s a very nice gesture.” She said excitedly.

Trart was the last one to fade into the game world. The population on the sever was as max capacity. Everyone was crowding around something not far from where the group materialized in. Torcano appeared next to Trart. Trart pointed at the massive gathering of people. “What’s that all about?” he asked Torcano.

Torcano smiles. “I don’t wanna ruin the surprise.” He said, making his way toward the group of players. The others followed him as he waded through the mob.

In the center of the massive group of players there was a sign that simply said Clan Wars: Champions of the Drainiverse! Next to the Sign sat an old woman, working on a knitting project.

Bob looked at the sign. ‘Clans? We already have guilds what’s the difference?” He asked to no one in particular.

Bob looked at the old woman. “Please tell me you are all here to slowly read this very simple sign and not because you are trying to get the matriarch to join your clan roster.” She yelled at the group of players. The player crowed loosened its density as many players shamefully left.

“She’s the Matriarch?” Trart pointed at the old woman. “You’ve got to be kidding me! She’s and old Lady, who would loose to her?” He asked.

Stygian is in shock. He clamps his hand over Trart’s mouth and pulls him away from the group. Uttering a simple “Sorry” as they leave.

She looked up from her project with a huge smile. “Bob! They added knitting to the game!”

Bob waved to what was left of the crowd. “How long have you been dealing with this?” She asked.

The matriarch answers without looking up from her project. “About an hour now. Soon as the announcement went up I was flooded with messages so I figured I would sit here and spam a polite “No, but thank you for asking” and get some crafting done.” She held up her sad looking knitted square of green and purple yarns. A huge smile on her face.

Blackout turns away from the sign. “So there’s more on the sign if you click on it. It’s a series of Player versus Player and Players versus Environment challenges. So it makes sense that the player base would be clamoring to get the Matriarch on their team. Let’s go get the others and decide if this is worth doing.” Blackout said, oddly taking charge.

Bob and the Matriarch said their goodbyes as Bob and Blackout left to join Stygian, Trart, and Torcano.

“Good news and bad news.” Bob started. “The good news is that the player base is gonna be wrapped up in this event for a while, the bad news is that the prize is the characters that win the tournament become NPC’s in the next expansion of the game, which sounds pretty awesome to me.” She explained

"Why is that bad news?" Trart asked in confusion.

"Because if we're trying to win the Clan War then we can't use the lack of GM attention on the rest of the world to our benefit." Blackout explained in a whisper. Trart nodded.

Clans are made up of five players, no more, no less.” Bob continued.

“So we’re one member short.” Stygian Interrupted.

Trart looked back at the group of people around the Matriarch. “Well we could –“

Bob shook her head. “No. She’s been harassed enough already. Let her enjoy her knitting.”

“I could use one of my non GM characters and be your fifth.” Torcano offered.

Bob shook her head again. “You’re already straddling the fence of violating the Terms Of Service as it is.”

“As long as I don’t play on your team during company time I can’t imagine it would be that big of a deal.” Torcano explained.

Blackout stepped in. “So that’s five then, what’s next?” He asked.

Bob smiled. “We need a kick ass name.” She said.

The group stood in silence, each of them waiting for one of the others to be struck by inspiration. After a moment it becomes clear that inspiration is going to take a while.