The Stator Rebellion Part 3

"Arrogant fools."

"That what many of the so-called Gods Favoured are."

"So proud of their status as Gods Favoured, they disdain all others, oblivious to the danger the subordinate under him could pose or of the intelligence of an enemy."

"They thought 200,000 men could be hidden so easily."

"Not even I would dare to do such a thing."

"Did they think that no one would ask why so many men were gathered around an army camp or see through their intentions?"

"That I, someone who specialised in ambushes, would be easy to take by surprise."

"They have much to learn, oh so much to learn."

"And they these rebels would sing."

"Sing songs of regret, pain, how they co-ordinated their attack and anything else we may bloody want.

Chuik Blord, General of The Kingdom of Oovere, known as 'The Black Death of Oovere.'

….

A week later, in-game, it was almost time to begin the revolution.

Stator had gathered 200,000 players around the army camp he was assigned to; it was mostly his viewers and other players who wanted to gain wealth and influence through the game that joined him, wanting either to support their favourite creator or get a potential piece of the pie. He had also recruited 20,000 players from within the army camp, all of whom had chosen to become soldiers alongside him, ready to strike when night fell, and the camp slept, hoping to take the Kingdom of Ooveres NPC soldiers by surprise and take them out in one fell swoop.

Because the goblin kingdom was situated within a large forest covering most of the primitive nation's borders, hiding places were easy to find. However, Stator found that he had not considered certain issues, mainly logistics when planning his rebellion.

Food, weapons, and armour cost a lot of money. The only good thing is that many players had enough money in their starter kits to afford food for a few in-game years if they were careful enough and lived frugally.

They were also near a military camp that was a few days from the nearest town or village. Without the 200,000 players outside the army camp being able to access the supply depot of the military camp he was in, there was a lot of trouble with logistics as they had to buy food from the surrounding villages and towns, but without the support of a state trying to procure enough food to feed hundreds of thousands of people was no easy feat. 

His second issue was that the army camp was much more fortified than he had imagined. While it is by no means a castle or a fortress, it did have primitive defences like a wooden gate and makeshift walls. It would be similar to the fortified camps you would usually find the Romans or ancient Chinese built, with a deep trench and crude wooden fortifications surrounding the large tent city that houses the 150,000 goblin soldiers, mostly NPCs.

Over the last week in the game, apart from organising his players, Stator had done some investigating on this primitive kingdom and was surprised to find that they were far more united than he had expected.

Instead of a bunch of warring tribes that hated each other, he found that they were happy to cooperate with each other, as the current king of the kingdom seemed to be respected by everyone. What worried him was that the general of his army, apart from being the chieftain of one of the most powerful tribes in Oovere, was also a master-level fighter and strategist, even having a nickname amongst the goblins and the neighbouring nations.

'The Black Death of Oovere.'

The goblin general earned this name because, unlike other goblins who primarily had green skin, his was black as the night, his eyes bloodred, and he was especially menacing at night when his scarlet eyes chilled your soul.

But there was one more cryptic reason why he was known after one of the worst plagues in history, and that was how the black-armoured goblin general killed his enemies.

The battles he fights take days, even weeks. No big battle or honourable victory is present in the black goblin general's art of war; instead, it becomes a slog, a battle of attrition, as enemy armies find themselves stuck trying to find him and his men in the vast forests that the goblins call home. They lose the goblins amongst the thickets of the forest and are peppered by poisoned arrows that seem to come from every direction. Even one small cut could be fatal, as the poison enters the bloodstream and starts whittling away the enemy's HP and lifeforce until they are too sick to fight or dead, while the prospect of powerful magical attacks stifles all chances of healing the sick and wounded needing to have antimagic crystals constantly activated otherwise they may find themselves being burnt to a crisp within the forest.

Attacking walled settlements to draw the army out is of no help either when faced with the goblin's unconventional way of fighting. Armies quickly found their supply lines cut and ambushed by The Black Deaths forces or, worse, poisoned by them. Their soldiers slowly threw up black blood, dying in agony. When all of them were weakened by sickness, the Black Death would descend with his troops upon his enemy, slitting their throats in the night, leaving no survivors or forcing his opponents to enact costly retreats that significantly drained their manpower.

Either way, in every defensive battle he has commanded so far, he has never lost and killed 80% of his enemies using one means or another. However, the most people remember from his battles is the trail of corpses he leaves behind as they slowly die from one toxin to another. The survivors give grim accounts if they get home, further increasing the black goblin general's reputation and instilling fear into the hearts of his enemies. 

The third problem he found was that most of his men were not soldiers by occupation or had the equipment that came with being soldiers. This was mainly because of how the game was set up. Also, the players who were soldiers in other army camps found it hard to leave, having to go as ordered as any good soldier did.

In addition, modern ways of training, fighting and punishment in the army were noticeably absent in Dynasties Online. In the game, it was normal to be flogged or face corporal punishment for disobedience, which is not practised in modern militaries and will come as quite a culture shock to the coddled modern human with little experience with genuine hardship. It is not even abnormal for a particularly suborn or immoral soldier to be beheaded by his commanding officer. A few who had tried to leave without permission were caught, charged with desertion, and beheaded with a large steel claver that severed the perpetrator's heads, which were then hung up publicly outside the command tent for all to see the price of desertion.

After that display, no one dared move a foot out of line, so this unforgiving military culture dashed Stators' hope of gathering a large army of well-equipped soldiers.

Unlike conventional MMORPGs, Dynasties Online did not have starter villages or areas for players to start at and gather; instead, they would be scattered about the world, especially now that the game had started and history could no longer be simulated, there was a limit on how many people could join certain kingdoms towns and villages this means that millions of people cannot appear out of anywhere in one kingdom potentially causing a food crisis or allowing the players to get together easily and start massacring NPCs and trying to take over a kingdom.

As a result, unlike the players who created their characters before the game began, who had complete freedom in where they could start, the newer players would have less freedom. For example, House Aurellion's migration from The Chavarian Empire to The Kingdom of Nathia was done with only a few thousand people who came to a kingdom over many in-game months and not a sudden influx of players that could potentially increase the population of a place many times over.

Occupations were also restricted somewhat, as a nation couldn't suddenly have millions of soldiers joining it at the same time. Neither could the system allow too many NPCs to become player characters, as this would lower the customisation options that players have and having a military comprised almost entirely of players near the start of the game was just asking for a coup to happen.

If players did not need to eat or drink to survive, this would be different, but expecting agricultural medieval nations with pre-industrial era technology to be able to support hundreds of millions of players and NPCs was too much. Not that the Friend System or DO's creator would allow industrial-era technology to be developed in the first place as they wanted to keep a fantasy medieval game, but magical technology that does similar things may be allowed. 

The Friend System and the developers of DO were not stupid; in fact, they were some of the most talented people in the industry and so had made ample preparations for these sorts of cases, having been gathered both by James Larant's excellent salary offers and working conditions and a select few especially suborn ones were even persuaded by the CEO himself who after making them sign an NDA revealed his entire plan shocking and inspiring many to join in working on the game.

This is one of the reasons why Stator had to spend so long gathering players together in one place, as they had to travel to the streamer's camp to meet him. Also, NPCs would suddenly realise that there were a lot of strangers about and ask why. They were not mindless drones but surprisingly intelligent, so Stator even had to have them buy food for many days and carry it with them so that his players had enough to sustain themselves while hiding in the woods.

With everything in place, the hobgoblin player waited for the sun to set. It was already late afternoon, and the sun was slowly cruising down into the west and the rise of a full moon would signal the start of the revolution.

The signal for him and the other players to take over one of the gates and allow their swarm of players to take over the camp, removing one of the most powerful goblin armies that could resist them.

In Stator's eyes, this would just be the first of many victories. Confident in his and the other player's abilities to take out these primitive NPCs who didn't seem to know better, smiling arrogantly as if everything was going to go to plan and nothing could stop him from rising to become the first player king in Dynasties Online.

….

"Who's a good boy?"

"Who's a good boy?"

A goblin said as he rode on a wolf as white as snow, scratching affectionately behind the ear of his vicious mount, which melted like putty in his hands, acting like a little puppy and licking a small piece of beef out of his partner's hand. Yes, that is what the goblin and wolf saw each other as, not as animal and owner, but partners who work together to survive as the red-skinned goblin had reared this snow-white wolf with red eyes since it was a little pup, having found its mother dead stabbed by the antlers of a stag in the forest one day he had adopted it until it became big enough to accompany him to war. 

Seeing this cute interaction, you would not expect this wolf to be responsible for snapping and devouring the enemies of Oovere with his razor-sharp teeth as the red-skinned goblin looked suspiciously at the small camp before him holding no more than 15 men, the hundredth one that he had found on his usual patrol. 

"Oh, what this that's going on?"

Kriggeelx, the red goblin, said out loud, his well-crafted steel crimson armour glinting slightly in the few sun rays that managed to cut through the dense foliage of the 90-foot-tall trees that dominated the ancient forest they call their home.

"Another one, eh? Captain Erx, how many of these tourist groups have we encountered in the past few hours?"

Kriggeelx asked his adjutant, a man who wore equally well-crafted armour. The only difference was that it was coloured a dark grey, a mix of steel and black iron and like his commander, had multiple spikes protruding from various parts of the armour, from the pauldron's to the polyenes, all had various razor-sharp bits of metal sticking out of them allowing any body part to be turned into a vicious weapon the. Compared to the armour given to the regular soldiers, the armour of these elites was far better, having all the resources, craft and skill available to the goblins imbued into it.

These elite goblins were treated similarly to how House Aurellion's Pelican Guards have customised armour that is far better than that of the basic soldiers under their command or most military forces in general.

The 20-man patrol unit he was in was constantly alert, and even the stupidest members thought something was up. Finding one group of travellers was one thing; after all, many people passed by where their camp was, which was close to a main road, but a hundred was just too unusual and immediately triggered the goblin vice general's well-honed instincts.

Each group gave the same excuse, which was that they were travellers resting. However, one thing baffled them, apart from the sudden surge in travellers, which was already suspicious enough as there was nothing of note here except the military camp.

It was that many of the goblins were of different tribes and seemingly getting along swimmingly, even in the army commanded by his respected friend, The Black Death, struggled to keep control of the more rowdier goblins. Despite the seeming unity within the goblin kingdom, there were still tribes that had been rivals for centuries, and even if they had to work together as a way to survive, the constant jostle for power and built-up grudges is not something so easily ignored.

The second is that even members of the general's tribe were among them and were too far from home, and it was unlikely that they would be ordered here, which was a question to ask his general and friend when he returned to the army. It would be one thing if they asked for an audience with their tribe leader, but they didn't, just claiming that they were travelling and when asked where, a few gave answers but not knowing the geography of the world of DO as they had only been in the game for a few days their stories did not make sense as a few of the places were nowhere near here and it some even went the wrong way.

This only increased Kriggeelx's suspicions as they were not travellers, and as there was only the army camp in the vicinity, it could only mean one thing…."

For some reason, these goblins were likely trying to prepare for an attack on their camp, though the intelligent goblin vice general could not figure out why. To him, it seemed like madness to try a rebellion that would destroy one of the strongest military assets available to the kingdom.

"Turd! Cough, sorry, I mean Purd."

Kriggeelx called out to a trusted member of his team, sighing at the unfortunate goblin's name, but despite the jokes they regularly played on the small goblin, he was loyal to a fault and wickedly intelligent dispute his rather embarrassing name as many a bully had found out being sent to the infirmary after getting into a conflict and poisoned by ones of the quick green-skinned man's daggers. There was one more thing that was important, the fact that the small goblin could read and write.

"Go back to camp and send messages to all of the tribal leaders, letting them know that their members are around the camp for some reason and are acting suspiciously. Ask for an explanation and send a message to the king. This may be a plot by those unhappy with the current status quo, and it doesn't seem to be along tribal lines either, which makes this situation particularly dangerous as there could be many spies in the loyalist tribes."

"I doubt we will get replies before this situation escalates, but they need to know of the potential danger if we are destroyed for any reason."

"Though I wonder just which idiot has the arrogance to take on our kingdom's best defensive army."

Kriggeelx said, his eyes shining with a vicious intelligence, deciding to get answers one way or another, whether willingly given or not. 

 "Erx and the rest with me; let's meet our friends here and 'question' them about why they are here, which sent a chill down his adjutant's spine. As if there was one thing you did not want, it was to be on the other side of his vice general's blade when questions were asked."

Kriggeelx said as he drew his identical two wickedly sharp steel swords and approached the group of unsuspecting players atop his growling white wolf.