Rolly and Ben respawned in the Sedgewick Village Square.

Immediately the effects of respawning hit them.

The day was a bit gloomier, every joint hurt, and it took an effort not to throw up.

At least Ben felt that way.

Rolly staggered to his feet and put both thumbs in the air.

"HAH! Sucess! Still drunk.

Professor Rolly tests another theory.

I'll be back in a few.

Got to feed an animal." He staggered off towards the barn and corral area, leaving Ben to his misery.A few heads turned their way, but this seemed a normal enough occurrence lately to not hold much of the locals' interests.

Hearing a moan from his left, Ben realized they weren't the only ones respawning.

Jorge the Blacksmith had his head on the fountain rim, moaning.

Two of the lumberjacks, Jon and Cham, were laying on their backs discussing cloud shapes.

Miriam was using Jorges for a pillow.

Jon noticed Ben.

"So, in case you were wondering.

Being able to cut down a 24" tree in a minute does not mean you can actually kill a goblin.

Nor does a blacksmith swinging a hammer.

I think Miriam did the best with a shovel, but she was just tossing dirt in it's eyes."Cham disagreed.

"I told you, that had to be an orc! Maybe a midget Uruk-hai.

It was tough as hell.

I only did 20 damage on my one hit.

It dodged all the rest and barely looked like it was moving.

Had to be an orc assassin.""It's rough out there.

We got killed by a wolf, but we did kill a bunny." Ben got up, despite how his head felt.

He planned to go visit Matthias and toss Beatrice a couple of apples.

An hour later Suzette and Ozzy appeared.

Jon and Cham were still cloudwatching.

Jorges had declared he'd feel better pounding out nails, and Miriam had moved over to Jon and joined the discussion of cloud shapes.

Washing his head in the fountain made Ozzy feel a bit better.

This lasted until he noticed Suzette was dancing around the fountain, spinning on her toes and singing some familar tune that he just couldn't quite place.

"Well, someone is feeling good.

How are you overcoming the respawn BS?""Pretty people don't have bad days." And she was pretty.

Prettier? Her curly brown hair ran down to the small of her back and was tied in ribbons.

Her luminous green eyes and long pointed ears gave her an otherworldly charm.

The people of Sedgewick who saw her smiled warmly at her and waved.

Ozzy's head hurt.

Maybe he should find a way to get some CHA? Then again, maybe not dying would be a good thing to start practicing.

He did feel pretty good though.

A lot of the aches and pains were receeding.

Adding two points of CON to his heritage might not let him win beauty contests but it did make him feel better.

The extra STR had felt awkward at times.

That feeling was gone now.

He felt more balanced as he moved.

Rolly was just coming back from the barn where he'd tossed two empty buckets.

Ben appeared from the livery stable with a coiled whip on his belt.

"Borrowed this from Matthias.

Need to practice some.

Do you all feel like wandering a bit in the sunny fields of Sedgewick?" The others nodded and they started walking to the rabbit meadow.

This time out they didn't have much of anything except for the clothes on their backs.

What little gear they had was in their headstones.

At least those would be easy to find, and if the message they had gotten was true, a chest of loot was waiting as well.

The meadow looked as they'd left it.

Several Fat Rabbits were grazing.

They could see their headstones in a small clump where they had died.

They walked forward cautiously, but no wolf or other predator appeared.

Sure enough, a stout chest was sitting about twenty feet past their headstones.

Rolly heard a rustling in the brush and two men stepped out, obviously players.

The first was dressed in a blue robe with white stars on it.

His label proclaimed him to be 'MasterTBlaster Level 2 Elemental Mage.' The other wore a mix of armors and had a heavy crossbow pointed at them; 'Sniperdiperdoo' Blackguard Level 3' yelled at them.

"Looky here Masterblaster, just like you called it.

Poor helpless lambs coming back for their stuff.

Here's how it works folks: You all can just touch that loot chest to unlock it and get your shiny things, then drop them on the ground and back away from it, opposite direction of your tombstones.

We'll take the loot and leave.

You get back your stuff.

Try anything funny and we just kill you again.

And again if you keep coming back.

It will annoy us to stay here, but we don't mind the experience if you don't mind losing some levels in skills each time you die."The group looked at each other, and then spoke.

"We aren't stupid newbies, we know how this works.

I don't feel like pulling crossbow bolts out of my ass and losing another level." He walked to the chest, slapped it and walked away 30 feet.

The others followed one by one doing the same.

It sucked, but no one wanted to die again.

Pouches of coins dropped jingling to the ground, along with a large bulky bag and a pair of beautiful leather boots."Smart people, good working with you.

If you don't have a guild yet, you might consider signing up with us, we always need smart people." In the moment the duo's eyes went to the loot, Ozzy and Ben charged.

Ozzy yelled at the crossbowman.

"Hey, Goblin fondler! Over here!" The crossbow had been tracking Ben, but now swung over to Ozzy and fired.

The bolt hit Ozzy in the left shoulder doing 80 points of damage.

It hurt like hell but he kept charging.

The mage yelled, "Bart, they have a mage! Shoot her!"Suzette was waving her hands in a pattern and muttering, and then a glowing ring surrounded her on the ground.

Inner and outer rings of runes were circling her in different directions.

Rolly saw a person in camouflage step out from behind a bush where he was lurking and launch an arrow at her.

Then many things happened at once.

Ozzy reached the duo by the chest and threw a punch at Sniperdiperdoo.

He dodged the right hook, but didn't see the left to his gut coming.

His gut wasn't happy.

Even with the 5 points of mitigation, he took 50 points of damage and was knocked down.

Masterblaster was calling out words and yelling 'Fireb..ack,' but Ben's speed across the short distance took him by surprise, as did the whip that wrapped around his throat.

He didn't take a lot of damage, but he also didn't have a lot of Health and he wasn't going to be casting spells with his air cut off.

Ben was less successful trying to punch him with his offhand.

The arrow from the camouflaged ranger came close enough to Suzette that it actually went through her hair, barely missing her ear.

The Runic Circle had fully formed and she began to cast a second spell.

Rolly moved up towards where Ozzy was fighting and started channeling Health to him.

It was costing him Stamina, but he had a lot to spare.The next round saw Sniperdiperdoo unsuccessful in both his attempt to bash Ozzy with his crossbow or get away.

Giving up he went for his dagger.

Ozzy, on the other hand, was in a good position to start punching hard.

His first shot was deflected by the crossbow, knocking it from his opponent's hand.

The other hit did 55 more damage when it caught Sniperdiperdoo in the head.

Masterblaster and Ben seemed content rolling around on the ground and slapping at each other.The ranger put an arrow into Suzette doing 60 damage.

Her spell in return did 30 points of damage to him as a brilliant glowing arrow steaked towards him and hit him in the face.

The runic formation around her collapsed.

Hearing Suzette cry out, Rolly moved back to her and started sending her Health.

Ozzy took a dagger in the ribs, but two hard hits sent Sniperdiperdoo back to respawn.

Ben began strangling the mage with the whip, the mage could only flail back with his fists as he turned purple.

Suzette took another arrow, and returned fire with another glowing arrow.

Rolly continued to heal her.

Ozzy started a charge towards the ranger.

He promptly took an arrow in the chest that staggered him.

But that was the last arrow the ranger would get off.

A third spell from Suzette hit him in the face.

In total the three spells had barely done a third of his Health, but the last one also blinded him.

That was all Ozzy needed to tackle him and beat him with his fists until he despawned.

Ben finished off the mage and the fight was over.

Rolly expended almost all of his Stamina to heal them all up.

They quickly gathered up their coins and items and decided to headed back to Sedgewick before something else happend.

Your party has slain several Players:MasterTBlaster, Level 3Sniperdiperdoo, Level 3DangerRanger, Level 4You have each earned 250 points of experience that will be applied to your Tier 2 Progression Quest.

Kill more players to earn more experience.