Max looted the corpses, finding a few rare and epic level items. Fitz stood in the center of the room, eyes closed. After a moment he pointed toward the corner furthest from the door. “There. Dark magic in there. Behind the wall.”
Max and Jules moved over to inspect the wall. After a few moments, Jules pressed on a slightly discolored brick, and a section of the wall cracked open. Brick and Lugs moved to the front as Max gripped the stone with his fingertips and yanked it open.
Inside was an empty room. Well, empty of demons, or furniture. There was a pile of chests and weapons, gold and silver statues, and a pedestal with a black orb upon it. The orb looked identical to the one they’d found in the dungeon near Whitehall.
Without needing to be asked, Alexander pulled out some obsidian and handed it to Brick. Brick shaped the stone into a box with a hinged lid, then handed it to Fitz. The wizard cast his magic into the box, then used it to scoop up the orb, sealing it inside.
Max and Jules were busy opening chests. There were a couple filled with gold coins, one filled with silver. A small chest was filled with nearly a hundred diamonds of varying sizes. In the back corner was a two-handed sword that glowed with power. Helga bent to lift it, showing it to the group. The blade was at least four feet long. Only she or Lugs could wield it.
Queensbane
Item Level: Unique, Legendary
Stats: Strength +20, Stamina +20, Crit +10
This weapon was crafted in the deepest pit of the demon plane by a demon master smith. It was commissioned by Chelok, the Demon Queen’s consort, who planned to remove her head and take her throne. Enchanted: Sharpness. Magic resistance 50%. Mind control resistance 100%.
Brick’s mouth dropped open. “That be… skymetal. All of it! Pure damned skymetal!” Fitz confirmed it with a nod of his head.
“Can I keep it?” Helga asked almost sheepishly. She knew the sword was worth hundreds of thousands of gold.
“I think you and Lugs should roll for it. It’s too large for the rest of us to use.” Alexander grinned at her. Brick and Max both looked at him. If they were to sell this weapon, each of the players in the room could pay their bills for a year.
Lugs shook his head. “I like my hammer.”
Helga beamed at him, giving the half-ogre a giant bear hug and actually lifting him to his tippy-toes. “Thank you!”
Alexander cleared his throat. “This is a valuable weapon. If you decide at any point to sell it, you’ll need to split the proceeds among the group members here.”
“Sell it?” Helga gasped. “Over my dead friggin’ body! I’m going to marry it!” She hugged the weapon to her chest. The group smiled and chuckled.
“Okay so now that the loot is settled, we need to discuss something. That orb we just found, it’s exactly like the one that was used to power the portal in the Whitehall dungeon. The portal that the demons used to invade and drive out the goblins.” Fibble sniffed and wiped his eyes at this.
“Fibble told us that the orb was delivered to the goblins by a man in black. My belief is that this is tied somehow to the Dark One, and maybe to Baron Dire. We need more information. When we encounter the queen down here, I want to try and speak with her before we kill her. Agreed?”
Everyone nodded their agreement.
Turning to Gelag, Alexander asked, “Gelag, does this treasure belong to your people? Did the demons steal it from you?”
The duergar poked around in the treasure pile. Lifting a gold statue, he said “Drow.” He dropped it, and reached for a dagger that looked to be made of mithril. “Dwarf.” Looking around, he shook his head. “Maybe some of the gold. But no, this is not Stoneburner treasure.”
“Well, once we’ve killed the queen, we’ll help you recover any valuables stolen from your people,” Alexander assured him.
Moving back into the corridor, they opened the door on the other side of the hall. This was a large room stacked with crates, chests, and bags. Gelag spoke up immediately “This is our supply storage. Food, tools, clothing.”
They quickly searched the room, finding no hidden enemies among the stacks. Fitz pointed out a concealed door behind a stack of crates. Gelag looked nervous. “Stoneburner vault. There be our treasures.”
Seeing the concern on the duergar’s face, Max said, “I love loot more than most. But we’re not here to steal from you or your people, Gelag. We need to open the room to make sure no enemies are inside. But we’ll not touch your property.”
Sasha’s mouth hung open in surprise, as she stared at Max. “Who are you, and what have you done with our friend?” she teased.
Gelag moved to the wall. Placing his hand over a particular stone section, he mumbled a few words. The door swung outward, and he moved aside. Brick stepped into the room, shield high, looking around. The room wasn’t large, maybe 10x10. Nothing living was visible, only chests, weapons, and bags piled along the walls.
The dwarf backed out of the room. “Nobody home,” he said.
Alexander gave Gelag a nod, and the duergar stepped inside. He picked up an enchanted sword, then stepped out and closed the door. “Thank you,” was all that he said.
Brick led the way back out to the hallway, and farther into the 5th level of the complex. Gelag said, “Main Hall only place left. Queen will be there.”
The hallway emptied into the largest cavern they’d seen so far. Easily two hundred yards across, the natural cavern had soaring ceilings that curved up into darkness. There were no exits that Alexander could see, except the one behind them. There was a small stream running across one side, the water running down one wall, and exiting under another. Large mushrooms grew near the stream, and what looked like small cows nibbled on the edges of the fungus.
Set in the middle of the cavern on a slight rise in the stone floor was a dais with a pair of golden thrones. The queen sat in the larger of the two seats, legs casually draped over one arm of the chair. The other throne was occupied by a man in black leather armor under a dark hooded cloak. The man was holding a black gem the size of a grapefruit, and appeared to be talking to it. Alexander couldn’t make out the words at his distance. Gathered around the dais were twenty or so demons, all facing the queen as if awaiting something.
Fibble tugged on Fitz’s robe, pointing to the man next to the queen. “Dark man. He put nasty dark surprise under chief’s big chair.”
Fitz took one look at the man and growled, “That’s Baron Dire. The necromancer. He is MINE.”
Not waiting for the rest of the group, Fitz strode forward. Pulling a staff from his bag, he began chanting. Ten steps closer to the thrones, the wizard thrust the staff forward, and a beam of white light raced toward the baron. The man looked up from his crystal just in time to see the spell hit him in the chest. He screamed in pain and rage, beginning to rise from his chair. But the light that struck him didn’t penetrate his body. Instead it wrapped around him, forming into a cage of light. As he tried to straighten up, his head touched the cage, and it seared a line into his forehead.
The demon queen leapt from her throne, shouting, “Kill them!”
At the same time, Sasha shouted, “Mow them down!”
Being nearly a hundred yards from the now charging demons, the players all cast ranged light attacks, if they had them. Other ranged attacks if they didn’t. Lainey fired healing arrows one after the other. Benny and Brick cast holy smite. Sasha cast an aoe thorn trap that grabbed all but two of the charging demons. Alexander hit two of them with wizard’s fire, mainly to distract the casters in that group, then began firing his ray of light wand at the two still charging. Edward opened up on the group that Sasha had trapped with the light cannon.
Misty used an ice spell to trap the two charging demons, and Max began filling them with arrows. Fibble was firing at anything that moved, shouting ‘Pew!’ with each shot. Sasha and Alexander began casting Trap Soul on every demon in the group. High-level mobs like these should produce powerful crystals.
Warren, Dayle, Helga, and Lug
s weren’t casters, and were setting up to intercept any demons who reached the group. Lugs slapped his forehead, then pulled out one of the looted spears. He moved to the side until his shot was lined up the way he wanted, then hurled the spear. There was an audible whistle as the weapon streaked through the air at incredible speed. It penetrated the stomach of the closest of the two demons who’d escaped the thorn trap. Pushing through that demon’s back, it also penetrated the thigh of the demon behind it. Already damaged from the others’ attacks, the two demons expired.
Lugs’ eyes unfocused as he stared at an alert that popped up on his UI. “I just got an achieve called ‘Two Birds, One Stone’!” he called out.
“Shaddup ‘n’ get yer arse into the fight!” Brick hollered at the giant tank. “Ye take the right, I’ll be takin’ the left.” Brick moved forward toward the trapped group of demons along with Warren, Dayle, and Helga. Lugs focused on the enemy and moved to join them.
Edward stepped far to the left, fixing his beam on one of the demons to the left side the of the group, and began cutting the trapped warrior in half. Fitz stayed near the prince. Brick and the others approached the right side of the group, smashing and cutting wherever they could. Max and Misty joined in with ranged attacks, while Benny, Sasha and Lyra focused on heals. Jules was nowhere in sight.
One of the caster demons managed to get off a spell, despite the ticking damage from the wizard’s fire. A black cloud appeared around Benny, who had hit the caster with a holy smite spell and pulled aggro.
The paladin screamed, and his health bar dropped quickly. “Heals on Benny!” Sasha shouted out. She, Alexander, Lainey, Lyra, and Fibble all hit Benny with heals. His health continued to drop, but more slowly. “Again!” Sasha shouted. This time his health shot up to over 50%, and stayed there as the cloud dissipated. The paladin dropped to his knees and began to mumble a prayer. His armor, and most of his exposed skin, were pitted as if burned by acid.
The players finished off the group of trash demons one by one. While they fought, the demon queen was casting spell after spell at the cage of light that Fitz had cast around Baron Dire. The light was beginning to flicker and fade.
“Fibble! Shoot the queen!” Fitz called out. The little goblin immediately tore across the cavern, yelling a war-cry as he pointed his demon-killer stick at the queen.
When he got close, he yelled, “Pew! Pew!” and began to bombard her with bursts of healing light magic.
The demoness screamed and spun toward the goblin. Who promptly changed direction and picked up speed. He occasionally turned to fire another burst at the enraged queen, but didn’t slow down one bit. Few things moved as quickly as a terrified goblin.
As Fibble kited the boss, the rest of the group burned down the remaining demons. Then it was time to focus on the queen.
Demon Queen Voliara
Level 75 Elite (Boss)
Health 18,100/20,000
“Fibble, run to me!” Sasha called out.
The little goblin made a sharp turn, dashing right toward the queen and under her legs, shooting her in the face before he passed through. The queen screamed, “I’ll eat your heart!” as she spun around, swinging a sharply clawed fist at the fast-moving Fibble.
Instead of connecting with goblin flesh, her wrist broke with a loud crack as Brick slammed into her outstretched hand using his shield rush ability. Two seconds later, the much larger Lugs slammed into her as well. Not using his ability, just his massive bulk.
Before she could recover, Jules appeared behind the queen, stabbing daggers into both sides of the demon’s neck, and ripping backward with all her strength. The critical hit took nearly 20% off the queen’s health. Jules quickly disappeared again, moving out of range of any counterstrike.
Edward focused his light cannon on the queen’s chest, trying to keep it as steady as possible. The boy was getting fatigued trying to aim the ten-pound weapon accurately through so many battles.
Brick and Benny both hit the queen with holy smite spells. She growled through the pain and began a spell of her own. Max interrupted her cast with a silence arrow, which struck at nearly the same time as a light arrow from Lainey.
Sasha cast a thorn trap on the queen, who was silently shouting something. Alexander immediately hit the demon with wizard’s fire. Lugs and Brick pounded on her body as Warren, Helga and Dayle moved to either side of her and began hacking and pounding.
The queen snapped her wings forward. The left one sliced a cut across Helga’s stomach, penetrating her armor and causing a bleed. Warren was knocked off his feet by the right wing, and the queen quickly moved over to stomp a cloven hoof into his chest. His armor cracked, Warren found himself pinned to the floor as the battle raged above him. He tried to rise, but could barely draw breath, and didn’t have the strength to move the queen.
A heal from Sasha improved his situation a bit, repairing crushed ribs so that he could breathe easier. Reaching up with his sword arm, he sliced the tendons in the back of the queen’s ankle. Rather than causing her to lift her weight from him, he achieved the opposite. The demon lost her balance, falling on top of the helpless warrior.
As she was still burning with wizard’s fire, Warren took both crush damage and fire damage. As his health was dipping down to zero again, Benny rushed forward to try a Lay on Hands spell to bring him back to full health. But the queen managed to shift herself around and slam a clawed hand into Warren’s face, using it to push herself up. The extra damage finished off Warren’s remaining health, killing him.
“Bitch! You killed my brother! You’re gonna die slowly for that!” Lyra screamed, shocking everyone in her group for a moment. Sasha looked at the woman with one eyebrow up, a grin on her face.
Lyra shook her head. “Yeah. It’s the immersion. This shit feels too real sometimes. Still, let’s hurt this demon bitch!” She grinned back. With that, she cast a light magic heal at the queen, causing her to stumble on her one good leg.
Fitz was staying out of the fight, focusing on making sure the man in the cage didn’t escape. He was wrapping the cage with containment magic, anti-teleportation magic, and strengthening magic for the cage itself.
Lugs dropped his hammer for a moment, pulling out one of his long spears. Seeing this, Brick taunted the queen with some of his love poetry.
“Over here, ye ugly wench! Yer lookin a bit rough today. Or does yer face always look like that? Is that a hunch on yer back? Right there between yer wings? Ye should have that removed!” he shouted at the already enraged demon queen. As he did so, he moved around her slightly to his left, turning the boss away from Lugs.
As soon as the queen turned, Lugs pulled the spear back in his long right arm, then jammed it forward with all his strength and weight behind it. The metal tip of the spear pierced the queen’s left arm, pushing through and into her chest, and out the back behind her right arm. The hit did incredible damage.
Demon Queen Voliara
Level 75 Elite (Boss)
Health 10,600/20,000
As Lugs picked up his shield, Sasha called out, “Nearly 50%! Everybody back off! Ranged, do your worst! Prepare to take cover!”
Sasha cast thorn vines on the queen again, renewing the trap and holding her in place. The new vines immediately caught fire, adding to the DoT damage the queen was taking. One of Fibble’s light magic bursts was the stroke that put the demon down below 50% health.
Brick and Lugs had taken a dozen steps back, while Helga, Dayle, and Jules quickly moved to take cover behind the two tanks and their shields. Sasha and all the ranged group moved back even further, continuing to cast and shoot as they moved. Lainey was almost exclusively using light arrows, and paused to down a mana potion. Max was preparing a silence arrow, on the off-chance he could interrupt whatever ability the queen was about to use. His cooldown, now reduced to one minute, had ten seconds left.
The queen stood up straight and began to move her right hand, while her left was immobilized by the spear. Alexander quick
ly raised a stone wall wide enough for the casters to hide behind, and then began another in front of the tanks. It was only about three feet high when the queen completed her spell. Max fired his silence arrow, but it failed to interrupt her. She raised her head toward the ceiling above and screamed.
Brick and Lugs interlocked their shields atop the wall as those behind them ducked down. A wave of psychic energy struck them, causing them to scream as well. Blood appeared at the corner of their eyes, and dripped from their ears. The caster group was less effected, being farther away and behind a better wall. Still, they were briefly stunned, unable to cast for ten seconds.
Among the entire group, only Helga wasn’t affected. Her new sword gave her 100% resistance to the queen’s mind ability. Seeing her friends vulnerable, Helga vaulted over the short wall and charged at the queen.
Within ten feet of the demon boss, she took a running leap toward the queen’s vulnerable left side where the arm was still pinned by Lugs’ spear. Sword over her head, she swept the massive blade downward as she landed, contracting all her core muscles to put additional power into the blow.
The Greystone Chronicles Book Two: The Dire Lands Page 42
