The dev team had cunningly calmed the players' discontent and excitement with two lottery events. Triss had also been pretty sly about it, publicly announcing five of the thirty winners every hour and dragging the whole thing out for six hours before all the spots had finally been given away.
But everyone knew that nine times out of ten, lotteries like this were rigged.
So, by the time the servers were about to open, one hour later, the "special reserve players" Murphy had been keeping an eye on had mostly secured their spots in Transia. Of course, no matter where they were in the real world, the delivery time was a fixed eight hours.
That meant these thirty lucky winners wouldn't be able to enter the game until an hour after launch.
But they weren't really the point. The real point was that, with forty minutes to go before the players came online, the Rending Claw gnolls of the Dark Mountains had launched a surprise attack on Blackflame Pass.
Murphy had already taken a squad of the Grand Duke's Guards through a portal to the front lines. When he arrived in Shadowvale amid a flash of crimson light, Maxim had also assembled a group of shock troops and was preparing to head for Blackflame Pass to reinforce the defenders.
"How's the situation?"
Murphy asked casually, his chainsword strapped to his back. Fully armed, Maxim cradled his vulture war helm and answered in a low voice:
"The Rending Claw Clan mobilized tens of thousands of kobolds. While their blood banners kept us busy, they dug a tunnel on the other side of the position. They dug deep enough to evade the earth priests stationed there. It was only three hours ago that the scouts under Lord Hiss caught signs of activity