by Sean Oswald
Emily was nervous. It was bad enough that Dave was enjoying this so much. She half-way understood the why of that, but now that Mira was taking chances and pushing herself so much … Emily couldn’t bear to lose any of her children and certainly not over something stupid like gaining XP. This wasn’t a game and yet sometimes they acted like it was. She wasn’t stupid, she knew that Dave was right that gaining XP probably made them safer in this world, but it was like money or fame back on earth. They might have value, but they weren’t worth dying over.
Now she found herself sneaking down a dark tunnel in a mine, what the rest of them were calling a dungeon. She trusted Dave. No matter what he wanted, he would always put her and the kids before himself. In fact, it was that one sided relationship which had so often made things awkward between them. Dave was happy to have them all depend upon him but never wanted to rely upon her for anything. As for the rest of the party, Jaselm had earned her trust and Daichi was well on the road to that. Mira was trustworthy as much as any teenager, good intentions even if poor judgment, and Kraden seemed a good enough sort.
Of course, they shouldn’t even be here, but it was too late for that. They were here now, and the team of people she was with were among the strongest people she could be with in this world. Even with the fungal attack on Mira and Dave, she felt oddly safe here. Well maybe it wasn’t that safety she felt that was so odd. Maybe it was the slight tingle running down her spine. Was that fear or was it a thrill?
Gaping in front of her was the room at the end of the left fork in the tunnel. It descended down far enough that the bottom was lost in darkness. Upon closer investigation, there was a staircase winding around the wall of the room or cavern as it descended down. Sure enough, just as Daichi had described, there was a chittering sound echoing in the room. The acoustics were rather weird making it impossible to tell exactly where the sound was coming from. For all she knew it could have been an Elorian cricket simply magnified by the chamber.
Right when Emily thought that she was getting into the flow of things, she noticed as they reached the top of the winding stairs down into darkness that all of the others started to stretch or pull out weapons. Even Mira was busy casting spells back into her staff to recharge it. Suddenly, she felt completely out of place again and didn’t know what was going on.
“Not to sound stupid, but what is everyone doing?”
A stretching Daichi answered her while touching his toes, “Preparing for combat of course.”
“Well if we think we are in for a fight shouldn’t we discuss it? Or make a plan? You know, or something?” Emily’s tone vacillated between confusion and anger.
“Honey, I’m sorry. You are so amazing at all of this that sometimes I forget you don’t know anything about basic dungeon crawls.” Dave’s tone was warm, but Emily could recognize when she was being patronized.
“What and Mira does? Or for that matter you do? Playing a video game is not the same thing as fighting for your life. When are you going to learn that?” The excitement from before was replaced by that feeling of being out of place again.
“What’s a vee doo game?” Jaselm asked confused.
Before Dave could answer, Mira said, “Just something that middle aged men and dateless teenagers did to pass the time back home.”
Jaselm was clearly more confused than before and even Daichi and Kraden were paying attention, but none of the Nelsons clarified any further as Dave was too busy trying to pull his foot out of his mouth.
“In a dungeon crawl, which means that we are moving slowly through a dungeon clearing all the obstacles and monsters as we go, each member of the party has a designated role. Experienced play … er, adventurers don’t need to discuss those roles even when working with a new team. They just all know what they are good at and prepare accordingly.” Dave’s face was apologetic but his words had slipped into his lawyer voice.
“Okay, so let’s assume for a minute that all of you know what you are supposed to do, don’t you think it would still be a good idea to explain to me and Mira. I know there are different roles in the party, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have a plan.” Emily wasn’t even bothering to hide her anger anymore. She thought she heard Daichi mutter under his breath something about, “Life is most smooth,” but then she stopped paying attention as she focused all her attention and glare on Dave.
Dave began, “Daichi is our scout. In a situation like this, since we don’t want to be fighting while descending the stairs, he is going to go down and try to pull something to us.” Seeing Emily’s confusion he added, “Pulling means that he will try to bring back a manageable amount of monsters for us to fight up here at the top of the stairs.”
“So go on,” Emily tapped her foot impatiently.
“Once he gets up to the top, it will be Jaselm’s job to grab agro from it. That means that he will have to try to get the monster or whatever it is to focus on him instead of Daichi or the rest of us. Jaselm is our tank because he is the best equipped to take damage,” said Dave.
“Doesn’t that mean that he gets hurt the most?” Emily asked.
Jaselm chimed in, “Tis an honor in service to the Mother of Redemption.”
More practically Dave said, “Yes it does and that is where you come in. As he takes damage it is your job to keep him healed. You can use the party interface to see how much of his health he has and how quickly he is losing it. But here is the tricky part for you. You have to not heal him until he has agro otherwise the monster could perceive you to be a bigger threat than him and switch to fighting you. One of the best ways to cripple an enemy is to take out their healers.”
“No one would have to tell me. I would of course heal any of you who were hurt.”
She could see Dave straining to not say, “I told you so,” so she was quick to add, “But don’t you think it would have been important to add the part about not healing too quickly cause of the agro thing?”
Apparently tired of watching Dave flounder, Daichi stepped in, “Emiri, you are correct we should have explained all of this to you, even before we reached this point in the dungeon. For that, you have my apologies. I ask that you forgive my shame. I will endeavor in the future to remember that your upbringing was very different.”
In the face of his apology there was very little that Emily could say. She didn’t want the old elf to feel like he had lost face. “No, I’m sorry. I’m just nervous and over reacting.”
Jaselm then took his turn in trying to explain, “Healing in and of itself will not gain agro with a non-intelligent beast. The way that it works is that a beast has what you could call an agro list, and in general, the more it hates you the higher you will rank on that list. A monster will generally, if all other things are equal, seek to kill the person highest on its agro list. Although certainly proximity and other things can affect this decision and an intelligent foe can avoid it all together.”
“Okay so how does healing you get the monster to hate me?”
“Well the simplest way to get hate is to cause damage to a creature. Other ways include sometimes just being seen, casting certain types of spells. For example, Mira’s charm magic is of a type which creates a huge amount of hate, so it is important that when she casts that spell it needs to be successful. For a healer, the way you gain hate is that when you heal one of us you gain hate equal to a percentage of the hate that the person you are healing.” The paladin stopped to make sure that Emily was understanding.
Then Daichi continued, “Our people have found that healing tends to produce hate equal to about 50% of the hate of the one being healed. Meaning if you were to heal Jaselm for an amount equal to his full health you would gain about 50% of the hate that he had at that time. So if your healing comes too soon or goes too fast then it would be easy for multiple healing spells to push you past his total hate.
It isn’t just you though that has to manage hate. When I come back with the target, I will be at the top of its hate list. In order to help th
e tank gain control of the creature, I have skills to enable me to reduce my hate. Specifically, you will see me drop to the ground once I reach a safe spot. It will appear to casual observation that I have died. My heart rate will drop and my life presence will fade to almost nothing. For most dumb beasts, they will assume that I am dead, and I will become much less of a priority.”
“Wait, so you are going to go into some kind of trance or something on the ground in the middle of a fight?” Emily asked incredulously.
“In a way, but my Feign Death skill only lasts for a minute at the most, and I can end it sooner if I get the signal that Jaselm has the matter well in hand.”
“Okay so what about Dave, Mira, and Kraden?”
“I know what to do, mom ...” Mira began before the mom look shut her up allowing the monk to continue.
“Dave and Kraden are responsible for dealing damage as am I once the tank has agro. It isn’t the tank’s job to actually do the damage just to be the target. He will try to position the beast in such a way that we can attack it from both sides. Then it will be our job to deal as much damage as possible without taking the agro away from the tank. And here is a part that may be difficult for you, you can’t just start healing one or more of us because then you will gain hate not only from Jaselm’s hate but also from ours.”
“What? You want me to let you die?”
“Not at all, my Lady, rather you should only heal one of the damage dealers if things become critical.”
“Okay, I guess I understand. Not sure, but I will try. That still doesn’t answer what Mira is supposed to be doing.”
“Yes, well it is apparent to all that you are highly protective of your offspring and this is only natural and good, so I am unsure how you want her to contribute.”
Dave jumped in at that point, “Mira has the widest range of skills. She can act as backup healer, which both spreads the healing agro and can help if the tank is taking damage faster than you can heal. She can also deal damage with her spells from a safe distance.” Then he looked at Mira, “At no point should she get within the attack range of anything we pull up here.”
Dave waited for Mira’s nod of acknowledgment and saw Emily seem to relax a bit more at that, “There is one other thing that she can do, but it tends to be dangerous so, she should only do it if things get really bad.”
“What is that?”
Emily’s words were spoken calmly, but Dave could easily perceive the fury that threatened to break loose beneath the surface. “It’s called crowd control. This is what happens if we get multiple targets which Jaselm can’t maintain the agro for, either because he would take damage too quickly if they were all attacking him at the same time or because they add onto the fight in such a way as not to be drawn to him.”
“So you want Mira to go and get the attention of any extra monsters that come? Are you crazy?” The pitch of her voice rose as she spoke. “You are staring me in the face and saying that our little girl has to let monsters attack her?”
“For the love of God, Emily, give me a little bit of credit,” Dave actually looked angry as he spoke defensively. “What you are talking about is called off-tanking, and it would fall to me to do that. Can you just wait and let me finish explaining?”
“Fine.”
“Mira has an assortment of spells which can control monsters either by limiting their movement, stunning them, or outright taking control of them.”
“Well since you are talking about me, you mean like my Daze, Charm, and Mesmerize spells?” Mira piped up clearly thinking it was her turn to talk.
Dave looked at Emily and then when she didn’t say anything he responded, “Yes, but also your Webbing spell and possibly your illusions.”
“What about my Lesser Earth Elementaling or Fear spell?” the teenager was clearly excited to be the center of attention.
“My guess is that any elemental creature you can summon with that spell won’t provide enough distraction to anything that we would need to worry about crowd control for. As far as the Fear spell that would be an absolute last resort.”
Emily seemed confused by that answer, “Why wouldn’t it be good for a monster to run away?”
Dave sighed but Daichi stepped in to answer, “Under controlled circumstances, but remember I will have gone to some trouble to make sure that I don’t bring back any more monsters than we can handle. Imagine if she uses magic to make a monster run back to its home and when the magic wears off, it brings back with it all its friends and family.”
“Ooohh, I guess I see what you mean.”
“There is another spell on her sheet that makes me feel comfortable with Mira doing this.” Everyone looked at Dave now. “She has a Gate spell. If I understand that correctly it will transport her back to her last safe position or possibly some kind of bind point. Right now I am assuming that it would take her to Eris’ Rise.”
“You mean that she can leave now? If she can do it, then why can’t she take us?”
“Chosen, it doesn’t work like that. While we paladins don’t have access to Conjuration magic, as I understand from some of the priests and mages associated with the church gate is a Tier 2 spell which will only transport the caster. I don’t know about any other specific limitations, but I think it will even work from within a dungeon, so it is highly valued,” Jaselm answered for Dave.
“Before you ask Emily, no I don’t want her to leave now, even though it is dangerous here. First, she is needed for the quest, secondly she can do things that none of the rest of us can, and if that isn’t enough reason, then do you really want her miles away without either of us or even Daichi or Jaselm to look after her?”
The question was rhetorical and Emily knew it wasn’t necessary to answer, but she still shook her head in the negative. Dave added then, “Mira, it is important, however, that now that we are likely going to be entering into a series of fights, you never let your mana fall below the minimum amount necessary to cast Gate. If things go very badly and it looks like we are all going to die, then you need to leave here. At least you will be able to escape.”
Shaking off that grim warning, the generally upbeat Jaselm said, “Well this mine isn’t going to clear itself.”
Dave looked at Emily to see how she was handling all of this information. He stepped close to her and put his arm around her. He took it as a positive sign that she didn’t push him away but instead snuggled in closer to him. Then looking at Daichi, Dave nodded his head to signal that it was okay to begin.
Chapter Twenty
“Death by violence, death by cold, death by starvation, – these are the normal endings of the stately and beautiful creatures of the wilderness. The sentimentalists who prattle about the peaceful life of nature do not realize its utter mercilessness” — Theodore Roosevelt
Mira held her breath as the moments turned into minutes. Daichi had been gone down the stairs for what seemed like an interminable amount of time. To calm her mind, she went through her stats for the moment. The health ring which she had won at the battle of Eris’ Rise and then temporarily traded to her mom for the mana regeneration ring was now on her dad’s finger. Since he was more likely to take damage than she was if things went right, it only made sense. Her mind was logical enough to understand that, and yet she still felt its loss even though she knew he would give it back after the fighting was concluded. Without that ring, her health was done to a mere one hundred.
She had also returned the mana regeneration ring to her mom. Enough time had passed now for her mana pool to have fully regenerated, including the three hundred mana that she stored in her staff. As a last measure, she ran through her spells. Making sure that she sorted out her options and decided what attacks she would use first. Despite the danger they had talked about with crowd control, there was a small part of her that was really hoping that she would be able to save everyone’s hide. She tried to objectively rationalize it, but high Intelligence and mediocre Wisdom left her with more processing power than
personal insight.
Just as Mira was truly starting to get bored and daydream about what her friends back home were doing, she saw the old monk come running up the stairs. At first there was no sign of why he was running, and it looked silly the way he just dropped to the ground, almost like he had died of exhaustion. That happened to old people didn’t it?
Then ten seconds behind him came the clacking of what sounded like ceramic plates being struck against a stone wall. Lots and lots of plates. Next she saw the eyes. The horrible soulless red orbs, set into an insect carapace. Large mandibles extended from its seemingly toothless jaw and behind that head was segment after segment of insect body. Each armored segment was carried by two pairs of pointy tipped legs which must have been the source of the sound she had been hearing. A quickly cast Assess Enemy spell came back as:
Giant Centipede: Level 18 Health: 820
For the briefest of moments she thought that she really needed to get an upgrade to that Tier 1 spell so she could learn more details about the creatures they were fighting, but then the battle was joined. Jaselm let out a taunt, which actually seemed to have very little effect on the creature. It was only when he moved between the body of Daichi and the mini freight train of a monster that he drew its attention. The arthropod was only about three feet tall but was as wide as a man and looked to be at least twenty feet long with a dozen or more segments. When it hit Jaselm it rose up into the air and hurled its weight straight at his chest. It didn’t seem to have any idea how to fight a human other than to knock him over.
The force of those several hundred pounds moving at the speed of a sprinting man hit the paladin square center. He moved his shield into place and there was a sort of bell like ringing as the beast impacted. Not at all a sound she would have expected, and while his feet were pushed back a solid eighteen inches, Jaselm was not bowled over like she had anticipated. She could only assume that he had a skill or spell that allowed him to absorb that much force.
