As Morgana watched Ath3na and Black Howler agree to party, she turned a questioning eye on Leo. "Was this your plan? Have our two heaviest hitters come together through this duel?"
Leo wished he'd had that kind of foresight — but no. This was definitely not his plan for he didn't have the ability to force player interactions, and duels weren't meant to bring anyone together. In Leo's mind, they were simply a competitive form of social interaction. He told Morgana as much.
"I actually thought it would be more interesting if they were both on different teams and build some kind of rivalry with each other," he admitted. "But I think this path is also very interesting."
Leo, who was still disguised as Maestro, was grinning from ear to ear because he meant what he said. In fact, he suspected things weren't about to suddenly get easy for Ath3na and Black Howler just because they'd dropped their weapons and made up.
It was a thought that seemed to be on Morgana's mind too as she said, "Well, let's hope this doesn't blow up in our faces… those two don't seem compatible at all… they can't beat the Decapitator like this…"
"We can help them along, actually," Leo said while still grinning.
Around him, players were beginning to give Maestro weird looks. Some of them were even beginning to back away from the NPC who seemed to be talking to himself. Leo didn't see this happen, of course, as he was too focused on the idea that had just popped into his head.
"What are you plotting this time, Leo?" Morgana asked.
"We can give them an auxiliary quest," Leo said cryptically. "We can give all of them a quest."
---
Leo's idea only came to fruition the very next day for that was how long it took for him to get it prepared.
First, he and McCloud brainstormed mechanics for a new quest which they called, "Team Synergy!" They even made it a prequel quest for the Decapitator event.
"The only requirement for the quest is to have a party of four and above," Leo reiterated.
"But to complete the quest, players must show they can work together as one unified unit?" McCloud reaffirmed. "How will the system judge this?"
"Time," Leo explained. "Clearing a difficult quest within a specified time limit shows how fast and how well people can work together."
"Interesting, but we'd have to make the time limit extremely short and the challenge equally difficult…" McCloud's ears pricked up. "This could work, Game Master."
After they were done tinkering with the quest mechanics, they passed it to Agatha so she could write up a scenario to encourage team play.
"We want them to think working together is the best way to clear the quest," Leo explained.
"Yes, I see," Agatha nodded. "A scene of hot-blooded youths sweating together to achieve a common goal… I can certainly workshop this."
"Yeah, yeah," Leo nodded back at her. "I like this team spirit angle."
After Agatha finished the scenario, it was now time for the three of them to pitch the quest to Morgana and her ally in all things monetization, Dani the Ghoulie.
"So how much funding are you requesting this time?" Morgana asked as her fingers tapped on the obsidian table between her and Leo's party.
"As a proper incentive for players to take the quest seriously, we were thinking one free Resurrection Ticket for each member of teams who clear the quest was appropriate," McCloud explained.
"And what are Resurrection Tickets?" Dani asked, sounding intrigued.
McCloud refused to answer him, prompting Leo to elbow the wolfman in the gut.
"It's a rare item we created for this quest that'll allow players who possess it to resurrect once without paying the soul stone penalty," McCloud answered begrudgingly, "And no, you cannot put a price tag on this, you money-grubbing suit!"
Leo saw the danger signs appear on Morgana's face characterized by the widening of her violet eyes and the beginnings of a frown playing on her lips. This prompted him to add, "It'll only be rewarded to the first twenty teams to finish the quest with the fastest time!"
Morgana's mood did not improve. If anything, the pace of her tapping the table simply increased.
"Perhaps," Dani interrupted, "We can lower the number of winners… like you said, it is a rare item right?"
"Fifteen then," Leo said quickly.
"I was thinking about eight," Dani haggled.
"Twelve," Leo counter-offered.
"Nine," Dani fired back.
"Eleven," Leo said with narrow eyes.
"Ten," Dani insisted.
"Agreed," Leo said, grinning back at him.
Dani quickly realized that Leo had played him but simply chuckled at his defeat.
After they'd agreed on the number of winners, Dain addressed Morgana next. "I think introducing a rare item as a quest reward will pique player interest for it. It'll be a good marketing promotion. Later on, we can sell these Resurrection Tickets through one of our merchant shops and make a profit."
At the word 'profit', Morgana's smile returned quickly. "How much profit are we thinking here?"
"It'll have to be just a little bit lower than actual resurrection costs, but we can sell it as a bundle and make more soul stones that way," Dani explained. "Perhaps a hundred low-grade soul stones for a three-ticket bundle."
"Resurrections for level one players cost forty low-grade soul stones," Morgana reminded him. "A discount of twenty stones for your bundle seems too much."
Yes, but consider the fact that they'll be paying in advance for those tickets but it's not like they'll want to die over and over and consume these tickets right away, right?" Dani pointed out.
"We did make it taboo to die so players have been extra cautious these past two weeks," Leo agreed. "Chances are those tickets will stay in their inventories for a long time…"
"But we'll still be paid in advance for them," Dani agreed. Then he raised a finger to emphasize he had another point to make. "Obviously, we'll up the price for higher-level players too."
Leo could tell that Morgana was being drawn in by Dani's marketing plan. There was just one thing left to point out for her to finally approve their quest.
"What's the percentage of player death since the second day, McCloud?" he asked.
McCloud was foaming at the mouth and glaring at Dani, forcing Leo to elbow him in the ribs again.
"Give it up, man," Leo scolded. "You've lost this round… Dani's advice is good this time."
After a few more seconds of pouting, McCloud eventually relented. He pulled up his admin menu and sifted through the data Leo needed.
"Less than ten percent of the total player population as of yesterday evening," McCloud reported begrudgingly.
Leo could see Morgana's face light up with sudden delight after what she'd heard, and finally, she said, "Okay, quest approved. Let's get to work, people!"
---
The following day, an announcement appeared on the A.B.B.
[SERVER WIDE PREQUEL QUEST FOR 'HUNT THE RED-EYED DECAPITATOR' IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR ALL PARTIES OF FOUR AND ABOVE.]
Underneath the announcement were the details for the quest.
[[QUEST: TEAM SYNERGY] [RANK: D] the patrons of the tavern, DANTE'S DRIP, have contracted a STRANGE MALADY that cannot be cured by any medicine found in Adventour. The Lord, Morgana, has requested that substitute reapers who've banded together take on this mission before this illness spreads to the rest of town. For those who are willing, seek out the APOTHECARY, HARKNESS, so she may explain what ingredients are needed for the cure. Due to time constraints, she will only entertain the first thirty teams who arrive at her doorstep. [QUEST REWARDS: 1x Resurrection Ticket per team member]]
To make Agatha's scenario a reality, Leo enlisted the assistance of the proprietress of Dante's Drip, Donatella, as well as her frequent patrons.
"I'm only happy to assist you in this charade, Leo darling," she answered after he'd explained his request. "But let's make it fun and really poison my customers."
Sadly for her customers, all of them had no choice but to comply with her demand for none of them wanted to earn the ire of this capricious maenad who was also one of Adventour's seven troublemakers.
"There is something very wrong with you, Donatella," Morgana chuckled.
"My dear Morgana, I haven't the faintest idea what you mean," Donatella chuckled back.
So, at Donatella's request, a particularly nasty poison known as the Maenad's Tear was ingested by the dozen or so frequent patrons of her tavern, and now they were all sporting the red rash on their skin that was the first stage for the illness.
"I just realized," Morgana whispered into Leo's ear. "If the players fail, won't all these lesser die from Donatella's poison?"
Leo nodded. "Let's hope that doesn't happen… And look at that, the first team's just arrived."