Dark Fate, Book 9 Prologue (Patreon)

You guys know what time it is!

Prologue – Trade Chat

(Community Building and Civil Defense Chat, formerly Life in the City Chat Room)

abby_gail, bento, RainyDayze, GringottsGoblin, DoritoMan, D.VaLuvr69, RadicalEdward, DarkLord, FusionGal, NotACop, Scholar, RamblingWreck, Anonymous4, Anonymous6, SevenNationArmy, BagOTrix, DarkLord, Faraday, BackpageGal, FullServiceMassage, daytrader, shadow_clone23, THE_MERCHANT, jenny8675309, Rabbit, Angelus and Tracker are in the chat.

jenny8675309: So, the dire wolves were coming, right, and only me and the fighter I was with to stop them. Couldn’t run, because they were faster.

BagOTrix: Well, obviously you survived, but how? Dire Wolves are level 15, minimum, and a pack of them can easily take down someone ten levels higher if they’re alone.

jenny8675309: Well, wolves can’t climb, so I got up into the branches of the tree, while the fighter started swinging that axe of his. But I wasn’t just hiding, I’m a bard. So I sang him to victory!

daytrader: You have to be kidding.

jenny8675309: No, really! I have an ability that increases someone’s abilities while I sing, and I can use it while shooting my crossbow!

DarkLord: Ah, yes. The Inspire Courage ability, right? Good thing to have on your side. Bards are not the best fighters, but I’d easily choose one as my fifth for a party, since they make everyone around them better.

Scholar: Fifth? What about the other four?

DarkLord: An ideal party will have a tank, a healer, a melee attacker, and a ranged attacker. You can switch one of the attackers out for a support, like a bard, if you like, but having those four roles covered will make for a well-balanced team that can respond to a wide array of threats. But if it isn’t your fourth, then you definitely want a support as your fifth. A good support can enhance your overall ability more than just adding in an extra attacker would.

RamblingWreck: What constitutes a support?

DarkLord: Well, it is easier to say what it is not. Tanks focus on drawing threat and soaking attacks, keeping the nasties off the rest of the party so that they have room to work. Attackers, whether melee or ranged, focus primarily upon attacking and dealing damage, naturally. And Healers focus on keeping everyone alive and free from nasty effects like poisons, curses, and diseases.

DarkLord: Supporters, on the other hand, focus on all the other things. They might heal a bit, and they might attack a bit, but their primary use is utility, in making the rest of the party’s lives easier. This can come in the form of buffs, like a Bard’s ability to Inspire Courage, or it can be debuffs, like a Warlock’s curses. It can also be in any number of abilities that have limited or no ability in combat, but can make a huge difference outside of it, like a Ranger being able to follow tracks and remain undetected while scouting out in the wild.

Angelus: So, like how it is in those old tabletop games?

DarkLord: Yes, actually. Don’t discount the usefulness of supporters. They can make a deadly fight winnable, either by changing the strengths of the fighters, or just by ensuring that everyone gets to the fight in as good a condition as they can be. Killing an ogre when you’re already hurt and tired is a lot harder than when you’re well fed and rested, after all.

Scholar: That makes a good deal of sense.

SevenNationArmy: Hey, did you hear about the UFOs?

NotACop: This again? Didn’t we agree that there wasn’t anything last time?

SevenNationArmy: We did not! You just ignored me when I was asking about the UFO spotted in Atlanta. Anyways, that’s different! There are new ones!

FullServiceMassage: Are you sure you’re not just pent up? Maybe you’d like a massage?

Anonymous4: Actually, there was a UFO spotted a few weeks back. But nothing came of it. There weren’t even any reports on the normal sites.

Anonymous6: That’s because you’re not looking in the right places. One of my people has a friend of a friend who works in the defense industry. Boeing has reached out to a bunch of other companies in the industry. There’s some kind of joint research project going on. No one will say what, but it started two days after the UFO sighting.

RadicalEdward: You’re saying that someone got a UFO, and then turned it over to defense contractors? And no one said anything? Really?

RainyDayze: Yeah, that is really unbelievable. SOMEONE would have talked if it happened. Hell, you know that if a UFO appeared in Atlanta that the tower at Hartsfield would be freaking out, with all those flights constantly going in and out. Someone would have talked.

SevenNationArmy: Only if they saw it! They could have magic invisibility tech!

bento: As much as I hate to say it, he makes a good point. The System throws a lot of the old rules out the window.

SevenNationArmy: Exactly! And now there are more UFOs! They just haven’t gotten to Earth, yet.

BackpageGal: what are you talking about?

SevenNationArmy: There’s some kind of structure going on out by Ceres! A friend of mine enhanced his telescope with magic, and got a good look at them. There are at least two platforms out there!

Craig34: How high was your friend?

SevenNationArmy: That’s besides the point!

Craig34: I think it is. Never trust a stoner when they say they’ve seen aliens. It usually means they saw a bag of Cheetos and got confused.

bento: Well…

Craig34: Oh, come on! Don’t feed the troll.

bento: It is just that there ARE spells to enhance optics. You can make your own sight better, or increase the power of artificial aids, like glasses, binoculars, or telescopes. And Ceres can be seen even with a basic pair of binoculars.

Scholar: I just checked with a friend at an observatory in Japan. They used one of those enhancement spells on their telescope. There are definitely two structures out by Ceres, where there wasn’t one before.

THE_MERCHANT: Oh, dear. It seems that someone forgot to install cloaking devices on their new toys.

GringottsGoblin: Wait, what? Are you saying that someone bought those? HOW?

THE_MERCHANT: With money, of course. And they paid through the System Shop.

Tracker: How much does a spaceship go for?

THE_MERCHANT: Well, a two-person pod for asteroid mining costs roughly 500,000 gold. That does not include any upgrades, nor does it include training in actually using the ship.

GringottsGoblin: That is surprisingly cheap. Even with the current conversion rate of $1790 per ounce of gold, assuming a rate of half an ounce per coin, you’re looking at a rate of 447.5 million dollars per mining pod. The space shuttle cost $1.7 billion!

THE_MERCHANT: Actually, the conversion from pre-System currency to System currency is roughly $4500 to 1 gold coin. As more and more people switch to System currency, the value of pre-System currencies, which are not backed by material goods, will continue to decline.

GringottsGoblin: Hmm. I can shift some investments around, getting out of currency exchanges, and still come out on top, especially if I—Ahem. Anyways, yes, that is going to shake things up.

THE_MERCHANT: Of course, cryptocurrencies are currently not accepted by the System at all, so you have to convert those to recognized currencies first. I expect the crypto market is going to tank, soon, as people realize that.

daytrader: Oh, shit, I gotta tab out for a bit!

DarkLord: You did that on purpose, Merchant.

THE_MERCHANT: *whistles innocently* I’ve dealt with too many smug Crypto-Chads wanting to spend crypto at the System Shop. And then they get mad when I tell them they need to convert it into actual money before they can use it. It will be nice to see them taken to the cleaners.

Anonymous4: Uh, are there any other things that annoy you, so that I know not to do them?