Sasha called “Go!”
Instead of his usual flinging of insults to get the skeletons’ attention, Brick tried something new. He pointed his hammer and a flash of holy light flew from it, smashing into the leftmost skeleton, and killing it instantly. The other two raised their swords and rushed toward Brick. When they got within a step of him, he activated shield bash, and the sound of crunching bones signaled the death of a second skeleton. Alexander took the opportunity to test his new skills, and cast a bolt of magic at the remaining mob. He didn’t get a crit, but still he dropped its health bar by about 20%, hitting it for 60 pts. Max and Lainey both hit it with arrows, but they weren’t very effective. Skeletons have no flesh for arrows to catch.
Brick’s hammer glowed again as he cast a heal on himself. The skeleton backed off, repulsed by the holy light of his paladin spell. Lainey cast thorn trap, doing significant damage to the skeleton and holding it in place. Alexander hit it in the face with another bolt, taking it down to about 10% health. Brick stepped up to finish it off with a skull-crushing hammer blow.
As Max looted the corpses, he said, “That was easier than I remember”.
Sasha held up her creepy eyeball staff. “We’ve got much better gear than when we were here as noobs last time. Plus, we have a paladin this time. His holy magic makes the undead weaker, and they take more damage. And we have Lainey now, so extra damage!”
They continued down the corridor, killing skeletons in groups of 2 to 4. After about 10 minutes they reached the dungeon’s first room. There were three groups of 4 skeletons wandering around in a seeming random pattern. In a far corner near the back there was a skeleton mage with robes and a staff. Next to him were two skeleton archers.
Brick knew what to do. He waited at the entrance of the room until one of the groups drifted close, then hit one of them with his holy smite. As that mob dropped, the other three rushed toward him.
Alexander raised a hand, saying, “Hold on I want to try something.”
Brick activated shield bash, knocking the lead skeleton backward into the other two. As all three fell in a heap, Alexander cast wizard fire on the top one. The skeleton burst into flames, which quickly spread to the two trapped underneath. The initial burn damage to the top mob had taken about half its health. It thrashed about on top of the pile as the fire continued to tick off more damage every second. The other two skeletons managed to shove him off and rise to their feet, on fire themselves but still in the fight. Each of them was down about 25% and the damage was still ticking.
“Brick, just keep them busy, don’t hit them. I want to see how much damage the spell does before it expires.”
Brick obligingly raised his shield and kept himself between Alexander and the mobs. The fire damage had transferred aggro to him, and they were single-mindedly trying to get past Brick to reach him as they continued to burn. About 40 seconds in, the lead skeleton expired. The fire had finished him off. The remaining two continued to pound on Brick’s shield with their swords for the full minute, each one having about 20% health at the end. Alexander shot one in the face with a magic bolt while Brick finished the other with his hammer.
Max moved forward to loot the corpses of the 3 skeletons close by. The fourth was too close to the other skeleton patrols. Sasha looked at Brick. “I didn’t throw any heals on you, and I didn’t see you heal yourself, but the damage you were taking kept healing itself. What were you doin?”
Brick grinned and held up his shield. “It were me shield! The nasties were on fire, and every time they hit me shield, it healed me!”
Sasha laughed, remembering the special properties of the dwarf’s epic shield. “Does the fire damage stack?” She asked. Alexander just shrugged. “Let’s test this out. Brick, you pull the next group. Just taunt them, don’t do any damage. Same as last time, when they get close, knock them down. Alexander, you hit the top two with your fire spell. Let’s see if the spell damage stacks up!”
Brick grinned, and shouted at the next group of skeletons. They rushed over and he knocked them back. Alexander cast wizard’s fire on the top one, and one just below. The entire pile burst into flame. The two lower skeletons weren’t strong enough to lift both the burning ones on top of them, and not smart enough to coordinate to lift one together, so they all just squirmed as they burned in a pile. In about 30 seconds they were all dead.
At this point, Alexander was low on mana. Between the fights in this room, and those in the corridor, he was down to 40/300. Rather than wait for it to regenerate at his current rate of 22 per minute, he downed a mana potion that restored 200 mana instantly. The group rested for 3 more minutes while his mana bar ticked back up to full.
Then Brick jumped up and said, “It’s time to do somethin’ stupid!”
“Oh, shit” was all Max had time to say before Brick was off and running.
He shouted at the top of his lungs once he reached the center of the room, “C’mon you skinny bags of doggy treats! Its playtime!” instantly getting aggro with both skeleton patrols. As the rest of the group ran after him, the dwarf continued right on toward the caster and archers. His hammer flashed, and one of the archers dropped dead from holy smite. Brick raised his shield and ran right into the caster, interrupting its cast and knocking it back into the archer. Still the dwarf kept going, moving behind all the mobs into the very back corner of the room. He turned so that his back was against the corner, held up his shield, and waited for the mobs to catch up.
Sasha was cursing. “Max, silence the caster!” Max hit it with a silence arrow, taking its ability to cast spells, forcing it to charge at Brick with its staff.
Brick waited for all the mobs to form a tight group, pushing him against the walls and swinging weapons at him. He shouted, “FIRE!” then activated his shield bash. The caster was literally crushed between his shield and the other skeletons as it was blasted back. The entire group was entangled in a giant pile. Alexander cast wizard’s fire on several of the skeletons at the top of the pile. Five times a skeleton burst into fire that then spread to the others below. The only one not caught up in the conflagration was the last archer, which had switched to targeting Alexander and put an arrow in his shoulder before Lainey hit it with a shock arrow, causing it to drops its bow.
Brick just crouched behind his shield and let the mobs burn as they whacked at him. His hearty “BWAHAHAHA!” echoed out from the corner behind the massive fire. A quick check of his health bar on their group interface told the team any damage he was taking was being instantly healed, so the others focused on taking down the archer while other 9 skeletons roasted in a pile.
Level up! You are now level 11!
Your wisdom has increased by +1. Your intelligence has increased by +1
You have 1 free attribute point available
Level up! You are now level 12!
Your wisdom has increased by +1. Your intelligence has increased by +1
You have 1 free attribute point available
They had been close to leveling to 11 from the mobs they’d killed in the corridors. The combination of these skeletons and what apparently counted as a mini-boss gave them a huge xp boost. The level increases instantly filled their health, mana, and stamina bars.
The pile of melted skeletons in the corner began to move, and Brick emerged, all smiles.
“You stupid son of a rock golem!” Sasha began to yell. “You could have gotten yourself and the rest of us killed!” Alexander knew the scolding was mostly for Lainey’s benefit. She needed to know that stunts like that were dangerous.
Brick apparently knew it too, because the gigantic smile on his face never faded. “I be sorry, lass,” he said, not meaning it even a little. Nothing was going to dim his exuberance after the fun he’d just had.
Max laughed as he looted the pile of skeletons. He then looked around briefly for any hidden compartments. There hadn’t been any last time, but things changed over time, and it had been a year since they were here last.
Ale
xander had burned through 200 mana in a matter of seconds, but the damage was amazing. He felt a little overpowered. He hadn’t even gotten a crit but with 5 stacks of the DoT burning away, he estimated those mobs were taking 25 damage every second. None of them lived more than 20 seconds.
They finished looting, and continued on through the first level corridors and rooms with mini-bosses. The fights went much the same, though without any crazy stunts by Brick. They divided up the skeleton patrols and took them out. Casters and archers were hit with silence or stun arrows and burned down quickly. The group all reached level 13 as they fought their way through.
The only real point of interest happened in the first floor boss room. There were a dozen roaming skeletons in the room with the boss, and they knew from experience that if nobody touched them, they would just continue to roam until the boss reached 75% health, at which point he would activate them. Now, common wisdom was that you simply pulled one or two or three at time, whatever your group could handle, and took them out until just the boss was left. Sasha had been thinking about something as they cleared the corridors, and wanted to experiment. When they got to the final room, she’d told Brick to hold at the entrance. She instructed Max and Lainey to each shoot two different mobs, pulling a total of 4 of them over for Brick to pick up. She told Brick to lead them back up the corridor a bit, then knock them down. When he did, she cast her thorn trap. But instead of casting it on a single mob, she focused on casting at across the width of the corridor floor, and it worked. A circle about 8 feet wide formed under the squirming mobs, and thorn-covered vines engulfed and began to shred all 4.
Then Brick had an idea for another stupid stunt. “Alex, hit em with fire! Just once!” he shouted.
Alexander complied, casting wizard fire on the topmost skeleton. The fire spread to the other mobs, and to the VINES! The vines began to blister and pop, spraying burning sap in a wide area, and adding drastically to the heat of the fire. Further, even when the minute of wizard fire ticked off, the vines remained and continued to burn.
“Awwww yeah!” Brick looked extremely pleased with himself as the others just shook their heads. “You know what this means!”
Sasha sighed, deciding to let the dwarf have his fun. “Ok people, here’s how we do it. The crazy dwarf is gonna run around the room, bonk each of the mobs with his hammer to piss them off, and then hit the boss with his holy damage spell. He will then go hide in the corner like a scared lil’ girl while they all group up on him. I’ll cast vines in front of him, and Alexander, you cast fire on the boss and … 4 other mobs?” She looked at him with a question.
“Yeah, that should be enough to kill the mobs definitely. We’ll probably still need to DPS the boss, though,” he answered.
“Fine, then while I heal Brick, if he needs it, the rest of you focus on the boss. Brick, you’re going to have to taunt your lil’ dwarf ass off and hit him with holy damage to keep aggro with all that fire goin’ on.”
Brick just smiled and thumped his hammer on his shield. “Me baby can help with that!”
Without waiting for further discussion, the dwarf was off. He strolled out into the room, walked right up to the first skeleton on the left end of the room, and kicked it in the shin. Then he bounded across the room, hitting each skeleton in turn before moving on to the next, moving quickly enough to stay ahead of the angry bones behind him. When he had the attention of all 8, he ran at the boss.
The first floor boss was a skeleton knight. He was 10 feet tall, wore chainmail armor, and wielded a giant two-handed sword. The first time they’d been in this room, Alexander in his melee toon had drooled over that sword. He’d used it for a several weeks until he found better.
Brick, showing off at this point, ran straight at the boss. When he got close he dove forward, sliding on his shield like it was body board, passing between the boss’s legs. As he passed under the boss, he raised his hammer and shot it directly in the ass with his holy smite.
He continued the slide until he began to lose momentum, then jumped to his feet and dashed for the corner. The rest of the fight went as expected. Brick huddled in the corner until the boss and all 8 skeletons had mobbed up. Then he hit shield bash, and Sasha cast her vines over them all. Alexander hit the boss with wizard’s fire, and then 4 more of the skeletons in the pack. While the skeletons burned, Lainey and Max hit the boss in the head with arrow after arrow. Brick cast his smite spell as often as he could, and recited some of his love poetry at the boss while it burned. By the time the minute of wizard’s fire was up, the boss’s chainmail was heated to a bright cherry red, and it was being roasted inside its own armor.
When the boss fell, they all leveled up.
Level up! You are now level 14!
Your wisdom has increased by +1. Your intelligence has increased by +1
You have 1 free attribute point available
Max looted all the corpses while the rest of them sat down to rest. They’d cleared the floor in less than an hour. Alexander drank another mana potion, and they all had a light snack. Once everyone declared themselves ready, the descended the stairs to the second level.
The second floor of the dungeon was identical to the first in layout. This was, after all, a beginner dungeon meant to help new players focus on group tactics. The mobs at this level were slightly more difficult; zombies instead of skeletons with ghouls who could cast dark magic and healed themselves as mini-bosses. The group quickly learned that while ghouls would heal themselves of physical wounds from swords or arrows, they could not heal fire damage.
So it went. The team worked their way through room after room. They got more adventurous as they got farther along, pulling larger groups and literally burning them down. As a result, it was just over ninety minutes before they paused outside the second floor boss’s chamber. The boss was a ghoul necromancer. He had both single target and AOE dark magic spells that cast throughout the fight. At 50% health he would call zombie adds into the room and devour their souls to heal himself. If the fight reached 3 minutes, he would enrage, doing quadruple damage with his AOE spell, and any player hit with his single target spell would become undead and turn on their teammates, which almost always meant a wipe.
Sasha didn’t intend to let it last that long.
“Ok guys. This is a pretty standard tank and spank. Brick will hold his attention, hit him with holy magic and whisper sweet nothings at him. I’ll hit him with vines, Alexander will light him up. Lainey and Max, you just pour arrows into him. Max, you get the first interrupt. Lainey, after Max has used his one silence arrow, you use a stun arrow whenever you see him casting. Alexander can’t put more than one stack of fire on a single target, so we’ll just have to DPS him as fast as we can. When the adds come at 50%, I’ll cast another vines, and Alexander can light up several of the adds, which should kill them before the boss gets much of a heal. Everybody clear? Let’s do this!”
Brick ran in and hit the boss with holy smite. The ghoul screamed and began to cast a spell at him, but the dwarf activated shield rush and shot forward to smash into the necromancer, interrupting its cast. It pounded at his shield with a staff a few times before starting a new cast. This time Max shot it in the head with a silence arrow, and it was unable to cast. Sasha cast thorn trap on it, and Alexander hit it with fire. It tried to scream as it burned, but the silence spell was still in effect. Max and Lainey continued to hit it in the head with arrows until it looked like that guy Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies. Brick hit it with holy magic and pounded it with his hammer.
The boss dropped to 50% health in about 20 seconds. It raised its arms and four zombies emerged from alcoves to shamble toward the boss. The normal mechanic in this fight was to try and burn down the zombies before they reached the boss so that he couldn’t consume them and heal. At the very least you had to knock down their health bars as much as possible to limit the amount of life they had to share with their boss.
This group had other plans. They didn’t touch the zom
bies. They continued to burn down the boss, getting him to about 30% by the time the zombies reached him. The moment they did, Sasha hit her AOE thorn trap, and Alexander poured on the fire. He hit the boss and all 4 zombies. The vines caught fire, and the zombies died within seconds. The boss managed to get about 5% healed, but was suffering massive DoT damage from the burning zombies and vines, as well as the wizard fire cast on him directly. Max and Lainey kept up their shooting while Brick cast another holy smite, then actually sat down behind his shield and absorbed the heals from the fire as the boss pounded at him with its staff. The damage tics from the fire were constantly interrupting him so that he couldn’t even make an instant cast.
The boss died at just over the 1 minute mark.
You have earned the achievement: Speedy Gonzalez!
You have killed the Ghoul Necromancer boss faster than any team below level 15!
Reward: 3,000xp
Level up! You are now level 15!
Your wisdom has increased by +1. Your intelligence has increased by +1
You have 6 free attribute points available
They looted the boss without really looking at what had fallen, and headed for the stairs leading back up. The stairs brought them out to the portal room on the first level, and they walked through one by one.
As Alexander stepped out of the crypt into the cemetery, the two guards once again snapped to attention and saluted. “Welcome back, sir!” the same guard who had spoken before greeted him. “Hope everything went as planned?”
“Thank you, Corporal. Yes, it went very well. Cleared the first two floors, no major injuries, and we gained five levels each,” Alexander smiled at them. “Now we’re off to the market to sell the loot drops. But first, we’d like to thank you for the concern you showed earlier.” Alexander took out the sword that the first floor knight boss dropped. “This is for you. It is enchanted to always remain sharp, and will cut through most leather and chain armor. I know not everyone’s style fits a two-handed sword, so if you prefer you can gift it to someone, or sell it.”
The Greystone Chronicles: Book One: Io Online Page 21
