Seeing the other island of blades user approach Gavin shifts back into Bolstering Voice stance.
Argus nods to Eira "Healin'd be a lot #$@#in'easier if I keep better potions for this. My style mean I don'have to worry about this sort of @#$# often."
The angry archer sighs as he draws a few more arrows. The leaf blades on his avatar begin to rain to the floor as his fast healing pushes them away.
He smiles ruefully "Guess I just gotta kill em before they can get near me for now." Drawing himself into a careful style waiting for the next attack.
Hornfell moves again to strike against the tree with his flame katana...
"You'll be kindling before you can call Smokey!" the dwarf roars.
as hornfell slices clean through the tree it disperses into a million leaves cutting everyone in the area.
as the tree dies scores of skeletal hands erupt from the earth and begin clawing upwards. You look around for an exit and see a path heading into the woods possibly a back entrance to the Fortress or just a dead end, or, the road leading into the skeletal hands leading directly to the fortress.
Gavin eyes the flesh golem, trying to sense how much damage it has taken before continuing the assault.
A knight in full plate came rushing onto the battlefield, charging the Flesh Golem.
The knight's visor flashed brightly as he activated Iron Guard's Glare, he then turned to Gavin.
"Got here as fast as I could muster Gavin."
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Gavin grins seeing the knight come crushing down on the golem with all the weight of a crusader's vengeance.
"About time you got here; almost missed the party. Oh, and heal the archer - he got a little too close to that tree earlier." Gavin nods in the appropriate direction.
Hornfell curses as the razor leaves cut into him.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!!"
The HP bar at the lower right of his HUD drops slightly from the attack.
[52/70]
Talori backflips away from the tree just as it unleashes its flurry of leaves, leaving her unmarred.
"You know that you don't actually hurt, right Hornfell?"
Argus looks toward the group as the tree explodes violently Glad that wasn't on my @##. thing piled on me enough.
He retrieves a light healing potion and uses it.
Seeing the armored warrior break the treeline and Gavin greet him Argus sighs "Oi, Gaven. Why tha' hell didn't ya mention someone else was #@$#in' arriving?
Eira's the one in charge on this shindig so next time ask before ya go dragging more people into this little raid.
Argus says looking to the new arrival
Not that I'm gonna #$#$in'complain tha' ol'ironsides over there wants to help out but some damn courtesy to the raid leader would be good." As the skeletal hands arrive Argus looks to the path the skeletal hands had outlined. eyeing the mostly dead looking golem he starts speaking again
So which way do we go? looks like we can keep moving forward and re-kill some undead or we can try door number two an' either get a jump on the Twit-lites or reach a dead end and lose some time."
Alembic will dive out of the way of the majority of the explosion then come up swinging....and realize that everything is dead. Looking around, he will sheath his sword and respond to Argus by saying "Since I am new here, I will follow your lead."
[HP 83/92]
Talori hoists her massive swords.
"Alright, lets get a move on."
Hornfell grumbles at Talori as he sheathes his sword. "Pain lets me know that I'm actually alive. That and it's pure instinct to start yelling when razor sharp things fly at you."
The dwarf sheathes his sword and, looking at his health, decides that he will be alright. Hopefully, the enemy would have some health potions in their loot, and if not, that was alright. He'd survived worse, anyway.
"Wow, that looked painfull everyone still alive over there? How did everyone do?"
Saardonis sheathes his swords and takes a look to see if he got anything from the fight.
"Well, other than the leafy-slicey-pointy-hurty-thingy, I'm all good. Only down a few points. What about the rest of you guys?"
"Huh, so cold damage screws with those ones." Argus states in relation to the flesh golem as he walks over to the ground where the creature stood retrieving his valuable Adamantine arrows. With that action finished Argus grunts before looking in the newcomers direction "So anyway, I half way remember you from one of the last boss raids. You were one of the tanks that lasted pretty much the whole raid. You seem like a good sort, that being said I haven't had a chance to get around to the simple rules." Argus coughs one and puts up a thumb
"Eira's the leader of the night ravens and for this little curb stomp two step shes tha'one ya #$@#in' listen to unless she says otherwise."
Argus looks at the rest of the party "Bet you think I've got other rules eh? Told ya they were simple."
"Anyway onto the nitty gritty. We are coming to this place to capture Red players, and potentially scout a boss door.
Word I've gotten and had confirmed by a near miss PK on {Gavin} over there is that one of the splinters of the Twit-lites are hiding out in Adamant Fortress Awn apparently there's some quest in the place you can complete.
We spoil their day, beat them up and take them to jail. @#$#in'tea and crumpets all around."
Argus looks at his hand for a moment, as if expecting it to do something before nodding
"Lesse'other than that, from some bull@#$# runnin' around and talking to a number of @##holes I have determined that people know next to but#$%$ nothin'on this place.
Far as I know there are four types of big mobs and some sort of filler mook bullcrap. Sounds like a field boss is in the area along with the Floor boss for Level five.
Yes I am aware we are on the fourth floor, info tells me that this is where it is.
Big hitters are Golems {bone}{blood}{flesh} and {corpse}
{bone} are resistant to most weapon attacks, heard they take normal damage from adamantine weapons. Haven't fought one so dunno.
The have some trick where they throw parts of themselves and they put you in a crushing grapple or somethin. Keep an eye out for that.
{Blood} we know next to nothing about so watch out.
{Flesh we just fought. Resistant to everything but adamantine, lots of health, Swings like a truck and I think it has some kind of ability that activates based on damage but I didn;t get to see it in action.
Also, pretty sure its weak to frost. Will need to shoot a second one to tell for sure though.
{Corpse} Golems have a nasty poison effect around them that nails people with a the [Sickened] status and it looks like they fall over when you chop at them with a sword. From what I've heard they pretty much ignore crushing attacks."
Argus looks the the ground, mouth moving as he thinks about all he's said.
"Lesse' other than that the place is one long corridor with rooms on either side. Spawn points for bad guys are unreliable so expect attacks to come from anywhere oh and lets not forget the murder guild holed up in there that will also be trying to $#%$in'ream us."
With that said argus looks to the collected group
" So any @#$#in'questions relating to that, the simple rules or whatever else? Cuz if not we need to figure out if we want to try and scout the outside of the building for hidden entrances or if we want to save some trouble and just stomp our way through #$#$in'front door."
Saardonis raises his hand
"question...what's a crumpet? Also can we come back and do the quest later?"
Way I see it is this:
The PKers aren't into PVE if they can help it, so probably that "undefended" path is their ticket into the base. Risk we run that way is running into their sentries/traps, but probably we don't worry so much about golems.
Option 2 we kicketh the front door and go through the skellie hand-field into the fortress proper. Less likely of running into sentries right away, but we won't have the option of stealth if any of those random golem encounters happen. If we get lucky the write the noise off as random PVErs in the vacinity, and either ignore us or try and steal our loot. If the latter then we could possibly subdue them and get some more intel.
I'm guessing they'll have multiple bolt holes and escape paths either way, so my vote's just to go for a stealthy knock on their front door (option 1).
After helping defeat the golem, Mikhail sheathed his blade, then turned to Argus.
"My apologies for barging in as I did. I had contacted Gavin for new intel on PK'ers. I did not know he was in combat at the time. Which explains why he did not have the time to explain to me that this was a private gathering."
Mikhail looked around to see which of the people gathered there was Eira.
"If you can use one more person on this raid, I am very willing to join. I'm not much of a damage dealer, but I can protect myself and those around me quite decently, what say you Eira?"
"Gavin, what's PVE?"
Talori shrugs. "Another tank would be nice. Eira is an amazing dodger, though we need someone to soak up the damage for us."
She then turns to Eira. "What do you think?"
Hornfell grunts. "I could probably tank, but my HP is currently down to [52/70]. If you've got any healing crystals or potions, I'd gladly appreciate them. Otherwise, I'll be the Off-Tank and DPS."
Gavin pulls up a brochure for the game and explains some basic VMMO terminology to Alembic.
Sighing the currently helmeted Argus turns to Saardonis "A crumpe.. Ya know what, no I'm just gonna let you wonder what a Crumpet is. I got no #$%$in' clue on the quest, if you end up stumbling onto its starting point than have at it. Hopefully its got a long cool down so we can deny the Twit-lites the option of trying again soon.
Beyond that you got an opinion on our path?"
Argus looks at the gaggle of new faces around him nodding and addressing the knight "Eh, not in as much private as it was before. Fujiro's an old face I know, Gavin ended up with a crowd that wanted in on the action after a bit of a rumble down in the Meridian heights, the town of beginnings. You are just the newest in a whole avalanche of random #$%#er's comin' out of the woodwork to stick it to the twits."
"aw, is it at least edible? and we can try the stealth route, the worst that happens is we end up fighting things right? at least the sneaky way might avoid some."
Saardonis takes a look around as he talks, trying to re-find the path the twits took.
"Hate to break it to ya Gavy, but Argus is right. A little heads up would be nice. Besides I don't bite and my bark isn't too bad, can't really say the same for my enforcer." She barrels out a melodic laugh while pointing at Argus. "You see, people have guns, some have a hulk, we....well we have an Argus. Another rule you probably need to keep sacred is to never step on Argus' d**k. He may tear yours off in return." She smiles and with a wave of her hand continues, "But don't worry, I am not too upset. Just let me know next time ok? Besides the more help the better." She winks at Argus, "I owe you a drink my friend".
She turns her attention to Mikhail, "You are most welcome in this Raid. We have a need for you and could definitely use an extra hand!" Eira extends a hand for a shake. "I am not sure if you met everyone yet so please allow me to introduce you to the gang" with a warm smile she introduces each one. "I am Eira, this here is my wonderful husband, Zero. Over here we have Talori, don't let her beautiful face fool you, she is vicious! And the quiet and shy man over there is Argus, the enforcer." She grins trying her best not to laugh.
She clears her throat and her demeanor shifts into a more serious note. "Perhaps the skeleton hands are meant to dissuade us from choosing that path. I would hate to choose the path that looks clear only to be greeted by a brutal attack. What do you think Zero?" She looks up at her husband, "do you think it is a trap?" She looks around at all the faces of her guild. "Are you guys wanting to split up and risk taking the other path? Perhaps Zero, Gavin, Saardonis and Argus can scout whilst the rest of us go down the other?"
Zero can't help but smile as he listens to Eira's introduction. "Scout out another way to ruin the blades day, I'm in. They probably don't expect an attack especially not on two fronts. I'm cool with this kind of set up." Zero says with an icy grin as the slight warmth that tried to break through was frozen over by the reminder of why they were here.
Nods somberly to Eira. Future requests will be sent through you.
Mikhail shook Eira's extended hand. "The name's Mikhail. Glad I can be of assistance. The less of those PK'ers running free, the better for all of us."
He listened to the back and forth about what they would do now and waited for the group to reach a decision on what to do, looking around if there was still any trouble in the immediate area. "I'm ready when you are, just point me in the right direction."
Bowing deeply to Eira, Alembic says "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, fair lady. You may consider my blade at your disposal." and then he kisses her hand.
"awesome, scouting. Let's get going people."
"Shy n' Meek." Argus snorts in amusement
"Right, plan sounds fine to me Eira." looking to his declared 'scouting' crew Argus nods.
"Lets get this @#$#train rolling. My Avatars starting race gives me some bonuses when looking for crap hidden in stone, So hopefully I can spot whatever it is quick." Sighing in satisfaction as his health ticks back up to full now that they were out of combat he casts a wary look to the trees along the edge of the fort.
"But lets keep an eye out for more of those @#$#in limp @#$# walkin' piles of kindling hiding out in the forest like little @#$#%es. Damned leaves hurt"
Hornfell follows right behind Argus, using a rope to scale the fortress walls.
Following Fujiro, Gavin climbs the rope
After glaring at Alembic Zero turns to scout out the second path with the others. His weapons out and ready.
Alembic will fall in line behind Eira, blade drawn but in a relaxed guard.
Talori hefts her swords and takes point, knowing that she has the most HP and DPS output if the whole raiding party.
Mikhail followed Eira, Talori & Alembic, positioning himself where Eira instructed.
@argus, as always, these fortress complex's have secret doors and exits, whether the one you found was designed to be an entrance or exit you are not sure however. you follow the spiraling staircase up a little ways and, predictably, when you open the secret wall of the passage you entered you come out into a large chamber with shelves of books everywhere, a large fire is burning and at a desk a man is sitting with the chair turned opposite of you.
Ahh, so the information was right, there are people stupid enough to try to me.... you here a deep, melodic yet spine chilling voice speak. full view close up!
Well, I must thank you for coming to your deaths and saving me the trouble of hunting you down. Alas, I am a sportsman, tell me. Why should I let you live??
you notice something odd about this man. He has no name over his head, merely a red Icon.
"Why should you let us live? Well since we are taking you down I don't think an answer is really necessary." Zero says as he gives the mystery man a thumbs down hand gesture as he smirks. Damn, we weren't supposed to find them this quick..Eira be safe..
"Indeed," Hornfell supplies as he reaches for his weapon. "And 'let us live' is only applicable when you've maneuvered yourself into a position of advantage, which clearly you have not."
As he talks, Hornfell decides to make a Perception check just in case anything appears out of the ordinary.
@hornfell, just as you speak you notice shadowed blurring images moving around the room, at first you thought it was your imagination, but then you caught one cast a shadow in front of the fireplace for just the briefest of seconds.
@group moving through the skeleton hands,
reflex save or take for every turn spent in the field, its about 150 feet worth of it. reflex save needed each turn spent.
as you reach the front gates you a greeted not by golems, or monsters you anticipated, but instead a figure in a wide brimmed hat and large cloak holding a nodachi.
greetings from our master, we heard someone was asking about us, so we had to call off all operations on our goal until they came out, You all have been a real pest you know that? Though, as always it has proven to be better to be safe than sorry.
she then throws the hat off with the cloak you see
she laughs,
Lets have some fun! SO! who wants to die first? she speaks in a coy and playful voice.
Running through the grasping hands, Alembic does his best to move in such a way that they do not grab him.
"I will accept your challenge, lady."
"I have no reason to delay this fight sir."
Saardonis draws his weapons as he speaks and prepares for combat.
Mikhail rushed through the field of grasping hands, trying to avoid them as best he could.
When Mikhail got out of the field, he adopted his defensive stance and stated dryly "So this is the greeting comity?"
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