Spawning in I looked around and saw I was in a small town with no more then thirty buildings and a main road cutting through the middle of them. The other players and I seemed to be spawning near the inn. Moving a bit out of the way I decide to pull up my character screen by thinking 'status'.
[Name: Mr.Gold
Race: Kobold
Class: Merchant
Sub-class: none
Guild: none
Factions: unaffiliated
Reputation: -2
Level: 1 (0/100)
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Stats:
Health: 90/90
Mana: 90/90
Stamina: 110/110
Speed: 11
level stat gain: 1
Free points per level: 2
Current FP: 0
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Actives:
Inspect: Inspect an item for its description, stats and value. 10% margin of error for value. Costs: 5 mana
Speed boost: Buff yourself giving +10% speed. Costs: 40 mana. Time: 2 hours.
Copper Distraction: Throw out 10 copper coins to distract your enemy. Costs: 5 mana
Item Tag: Tag any item to show its stats and value. Costs: 5 mana. Time: 1 hours.
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Passives: None
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Buffs:
Metal Lover: +10% ore yield
Gotta Go Faster: +10% speed
My Precious: +10% gold (npc transactions only)
Fire Fire Fire: +50% heat resistance
Dragon Lover: +2 reputation with all dragon/lizard races
Huff and Puff: +10% stamina
—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—
Debuffs:
I don't feel so good: -10% health
Cold Blooded: -50% cold resistance
Selfish: -2 starting reputation
Mana? What Mana?: -10% mana]
Nodding after seeing everything was how it should be, I looked back and the stats with a slight frown. In AoA you only had 4 observable stats, health, mana, stamina and speed. These stats are automatically increased on level ups or by manually putting stat points into them. Things like strength and agility have to be trained. Want to be stronger? Go lift some weights. Of course there are other means of increasing them, however those are far rarer and more expensive.
"Hey boss!" A high pitched voice called out.
Looking up I saw four players coming towards me, my guild members. BabyGirlJune, or just June, was the one to call out. June and another member, Dark, both went with Gnomes for their race as they also had good buffs for being a merchant. The other two, Rex and KickRocks, went will Kobolds like I did.
Waving to them as they walked up to me I asked. "So anyone have any issues during the character creation?"
"Nope. Did you see that cute little fairy girl though? I just wanted to grab her and smother her in a hug!" June said.
The others just shook their heads while looking at June amused.
"So Mr.Gold what's the plan?" Rex asked.
He refused to drop the Mr part of my username or simply call me Jake. Always saying something about respect and me being their leader, no matter how small our guild currently is, whenever I brought it up.
"June, Dark and Rocks start looking for opportunities for us to exploit. Rex you're with me while we look for Shadow. Also add each other ingame and accept my party invite. Until we have the funds to create a guild this is how we will stay in contact while ingame. Everyone has the inspect active right?" I say as I see everyone nod. "Good then get to it. We need to know what natural resources this area has and what kind of imports and exports the town has. Just remember it's likely to change with us players involved in the world now. Also find out if there are any dungeons nearby. If need be we can set up outside and buy unwanted drops off players at the entrance and then resell in town until we have more funds. Alright Rex let's go."
After giving them their orders Rex and I left and started scanning the town while using inspect on players. Inspect on living things only told you their name and nothing else. After thirty minutes of doing this we finally found Shadow in the center of a small group of players he was giving orders to. A few minutes later someone said something to him causing him to look our way.
"Oh hey Jake I was just about to send some of us out to look for y'all. Comeon let's go talk in the tavern." He said while walking toward a nearby building with a sign that has a tankard on it.
"So what's the plan right now? I know Marks guild will be heavily recruiting and taking control of the surrounding towns but what do you want us to do?" He asked.
"For now you guys just focus on leveling as fast as you can. With how many of you are in this one area I doubt we will have any issues and we need you leveled when we start expanding. I have the other three gathering info so soon we should know what money makers this little town has." I explain as we enter.
"Ah some otherworlders! Welcome to my humble establishment. What can I get for you?" A sticky Dwarf man asks from behind a bar.
Looking around Kevin moves towards a table at the back that's partly covered in shadows. Sighing at his edginess I turn to the Dwarf.
"Hello I'm Gold and this is Rex that over there is Shadow. What do you have to offer?" I ask.
"Hmm Kobolds. I don't much care for your kind but money is money. We have beer, fruit juice or water. Beer is four copper, juice is two and water is one. Now hurry up and decide before I change my mind and kick you lizards out." He says while the hostility could clearly be heard in his tone. Damn -2 rep.
"Just three waters please." I say as I hand him three of my ten starting coppers. Signing I walk over and sit at the table Kevin chose.
"So how many of your members will be playing Ashes?" I ask him.
"A bit over a hundred. Of course we'll be recruiting, and of course if we happen to come across any merchant players we'll send them over to yall." He says as I get a message notification.
After reading it I tell him. "Well it seems there's 2 nearby dungeons, according to the locals. One is a spider based dungeon while the other is a feral goblin dungeon. The goblin dungeon probably won't be very profitable but still have some of your members run it to see what the loots like."
"What about the spider dungeon? You think it'll have better loot?" He asks while sending a message to someone.
"From the loot? Unlikely. But from what I've read about dungeons in Ashes, if you can harvest it then you can take it out of the dungeon. Spider silk could be extremely valuable if we can sell it to rich idiots as a luxury good."
"Makes sense. I'll do a bit of research then we will run it a few times to see if we can get the silk. If it works I'll get back to y'all. Now I'm gonna go level a bit, see ya latter dickhead." He says while giving me a fist bump.
Watching him leave before turning back and saying to Rex. "Alright let's get out there and see what the stores around here have to offer that players might need. And find a way to increase our fucking rep."