Wayne also was having great success with the Dwarves. In a short time, he had designed a rotation for the East Range Dwarves, and they began clearing out the area around the mine. The mobs there were on a several hours respawn timer, which allowed for the Dwarves to clear out an area with ample time remaining before the next group began the same process. Wayne couldn’t say what level they were at now, but they were going through the mobs quicker than they had when they first started fighting.
More importantly, they were able to sell all of the High Quality Iron Ore that Wayne had unearthed, as well as a healthy amount of Fermium. Minus the ore needed to make Dan’s arrow heads of course. This extra money provided the Dwarves an opportunity to buy more equipment for the mine, as well as for their own armor. Almost every Dwarf had a full set of armor now. Wayne explained it all to me, listing the price of Fermium per kilogram. The amount was astronomical. And after just a little over a week of mining the ore in the entrance of the cave, the Dwarves had found enough to bankroll their own operation. Once the first shipment of Mithral arrived, the East Range Dwarves would be looking at some serious upgrades.
Following my advice, Wayne spoke with Tibble about what to do with the Mithral delivered by King Steelhammer. Tibble was of a mindset to keep it all, and see what his smiths could come up with. However, Wayne urged Tibble to think long term, focusing on the overall needs of the Clan and not just one or two aspects. Wayne suggested that Tibble sell the Medium Quality Mithral, use the Low Quality to increase the skills of their Smith, and to put whatever High Quality Mithral they received in reserve, not to be touched until their Smiths were able to work the metal themselves. Tibble was loath to sell any of the Mithral, but he saw reason when Wayne started discussing the fortifications they could make around the mine to ensure no one from the outside could take it from the East Range Clan. Of course all of this would cost money.
Separately, the Dwarves were cranking out arrow heads for Dan. They had already produced 300, and would continue to produce them as the Fermium became available. Tibble explained to Wayne that the arrowhead design was a simple one, and it had allowed for a number of the other Dwarves, aside from Thad, to begin learning the Smithing techniques for using Fermium. It was a win-win situation for all. Tibble had not lied, and the arrowheads did not have any magical properties. However, their strength and lightness did add a +4 Atk modifier. That would greatly increase the damage output Dan would be bringing to the table.
The Elven arrow shafts did not give a bonus to Atk, but rather a bonus to hit, increasing Dan’s accuracy greatly. The Birch arrow shafts that Dan created gave a 15 percent increase to hit, which is why they did not stay on the shelves at the merchant’s shop long. The first successful Elven arrow Dan created gave a 35 percent increase. Dan explained to the group that when he first started making the Birch shafts, the bonus was only five percent, but that it increased as his skill increased. We were hoping the same would be true with the Elven shafts. We hoped it would top out at 50 percent, but none of us knew for sure.
Jason and I weren’t having as much luck as our counterparts in progressing, until that eighth day when we finally found something of worth.
* * *
October 1st, 2043
“So what have we got?” Dan asked as he arrived on his horse that next morning. Broham was running beside him and didn’t look the least bit winded despite having to keep up with a horse. The wolf companion’s movement speed was almost as fast as the horse, and would likely over take it as it grew in levels. Broham had also grown in size as he grew in levels, and looked to be the same as a wolf that had seen one and a half years instead of just nine days. His size would continue to grow as well. A full size Dire Wolf stood almost three and a half feet at the shoulders. Broham could technically get larger than that.
“Jason’s favorite,” I responded.
“Hell yeah! Undead! I can’t wait to put the smack down!” Jason said while giving Wayne a high five.
“Let’s not rush into anything, I’m going to want to scout this place out before we rush in,” I reminded them.
There were no more groans of angst when I said I wanted to scout now, since my Conceal/Stealth and Blacksuit were moving at 100 percent of my movement speed. The groans this time were because the guys just didn’t want to wait.
“At least Jenny will be happy we found this place. They loved going through the castle and destroying the Undead there,” Wayne added.
“How are they coming along anyhow?”
“Really good. In fact, they are catching up to us pretty quickly. Since they aren’t bothering with any Crafting skills or building a Clan, they have been able to focus solely on leveling. They all have horses now and really good gear. They aren’t quite where we are because of our extra loots, but some of their purchased gear is better than ours.”
“Good,” I responded. “I want them leveling up to where we are as quickly as they can. I prefer that we all progress together and spend more time with each other.”
“I call Dibs on Kaitlin bro!” Dan said from behind us, as we walked toward the run down fort that was housing the Undead.
“Better not let her hear you say that Dan. She’ll put your balls in a vice!” Wayne exclaimed.
“I usually have to pay extra for that,” Dan responded in a whisper.
We all stopped as one, and turned back to look at Dan with our mouths slightly opened in shock.
“Joking! Jeez! You guys are always way too serious.”
“No one knows what kind of kink you rich asses get up to in your homes. Or your second homes. I’ve read Fifty Shades of Grey!” Jason said back to Dan.
“Woah! Way too much information bro. I don’t have a dungeon, or even a basement. Not that I wouldn’t mind a swing.”
“Stop. Enough. I have food I would like to keep down.” Jason said, ending the conversation.
We continued walking toward the fort and I started counting the Undead I could see. From behind me I heard Dan whisper to Wayne, “Seriously though bro, you won’t tell Kaitlin I said that right? I mean, we are boys right? You got my back?”
“Huh? Sorry, what was that Dan? I wasn’t paying attention. Someone just messaged me to ask about my Pink Tutu.”
“Oh man. Fuck my life.”
* * *
The unnamed fort housed a contingent of Undead Guards. We could see many of them through the breaches in the walls. I did a quick run through the fort and noted all of the Undead were Blue to me. I asked Jason what they registered for him, and he said Blue as well. This meant they were Level 20, two levels over Dan, Wayne, and I, and one level over Jason. The experience would be good for the three of us until we hit level 19, and then it would be back to the grind. However, this time Jason didn’t mind at all, since he knew he was going to get to use his Banish Undead spell, and probably become our top damage dealer.
After doing a thorough run through the fort I didn’t see any sign of where a boss or mini-boss could be located. I relayed this information to my group and we settled in to begin our wrecking spree. The plan was relatively simple. Dan would grab one or two at a time, kite one of them if we got two, letting Broham tear away at its flank, and Wayne would Tank the other. Standard operating procedure for us at this point.
And in no time, we had cleared the mobs. Each one dropped about 1 Gold piece, so if nothing else, we had us another cash cow, especially for the amount of force necessary to eradicate the fortress guards. But we still didn’t see any sort of boss after we had cleared the whole fortress. It may have been that this was simply a place to level and not a dungeon type event.
It only took us a little over an hour to clear the mobs, and none of them had respawned yet. I decided that I would go out with Dan and pull the mobs as they respawned, hoping that with my Chance modifier, we could at least get one rare mob to spawn. The money was good, and the items dropped would also sell for a Gold a piece, but we wanted more. What can I say, we’re greedy.
The respawn
on the mobs was two hours. I was standing next to Dan when the first mob popped back into existence. Again we got only an Undead Guard. I ran back with Dan to engage the mob with Wayne tanking and Jason adding his massive amount of undead damage. We continued like this through the entire fortress. Not a single rare spawn in the bunch.
“I guess you aren’t as lucky as I thought you were Alex,” Dan said. “I figured with your Chance, half of the mobs in this place would have ended up being rare spawns.”
“Yeah,” I said, thinking the same thing but still not wanting to let on that my Chance was way higher than anyone thought it was. I checked again to make sure the error had taken effect today, and saw that indeed my Chance was at 177. “I guess we just got really lucky those other times.”
“Well let’s clear these guys one more time. I’m close to getting my Level 19, and Broham is almost up to Level 10. After that we can go our separate ways and meet back up here tomorrow to continue bringing the pain.”
We all agreed and went through the mobs one last time. Again, there were no rare spawns. In total we collected almost 120 Gold and enough items to add another 30 or so in Gold. Our bank was in desperate need for funds, and I was happy to see that we would be replenishing some. I had no idea when we would get to the Capital, but I wanted to have some better gear when we did.
Dan received his Level 19 and Broham his Level 10. We all handed over our backpacks to Jason and he Gated back to Port Town to sell our items. In the meantime, Wayne headed back to the Dwarves, and Dan went off to improve his Fletching. I was alone out here in the woods, so I decided to do some more scouting around. I started at the fort and made ever larger circles heading away from the structure, hoping I would find something. And boy, did I ever.
Broham (Level 10) – 11 Strength, 10 Constitution, 10 Dexterity, 3 Agility, 1 Wisdom, 1 Intelligence, 1 Chance – Skill: Bite – Level 46
* * *
October 2nd, 2043
Wayne seemed to be the most concerned as the group came together and they saw the big smile on my face. “I know that look. That look means that I strip down to my little clothes and get poked in uncomfortable places to satisfy your morbid curiosity! I won’t do it I tell you!”
“Who the hell says ‘little clothes’ Wayne? What are you, Amish?”
“It’s called roleplaying Dan! This is a Roleplaying Game after all. And not a single word about what you think roleplaying involves.”
“For once my smile has nothing to do with you getting hurt Wayne. Or butt hurt, which usually comes after one of my inquiries.”
“See what he did there? He tried to soften up the word experiment by saying ‘inquiry.’ None of us are buying it bro.”
“I was buying it.” Dan replied.
I started laughing and said, “Thanks TC.” I then looked toward Wayne and said, “Seriously brother, this isn’t one of my experiments. I’ve found something that is going to make everyone very happy.”
Without another word, I headed off in the direction of my discovery and stopped a good distance away from my destination. I told the guys I needed to invis up and target the mob so they could see what I was talking about.
The previous day, while scouting out for more mobs, or anything interesting, I came across a cave not far from the fort. It appeared the resident of said cave was the cause of the Undead Guards. As I got close enough to easily select my target, I highlighted the Lich Prince who was standing just inside the mouth of the cave. To each side, the Prince had an Undead Guard. The two Guards were Blue and the Prince was Yellow. We could definitely handle this guy. Once I had him highlighted, I told my group to check out the mob I had targeted.
“Oh hell yeah! Nice find Alex!” Jason said.
“Damn! And he is only Yellow! How many others with him Alex?” Wayne asked.
“There are only two other Guards around him. And I scouted this out yesterday and earlier today. There are no more mobs in the cave where he is standing. It looks like just three mobs. Pretty easy for us!”
We headed over to the cave in our usual formation and took up our respective places. Dan would kite one of the Blues and Wayne would Tank the Lich and the other Blue. Per our normal procedures, we would kill the Blue first and then focus on the Lich. There was no telling what kind of surprises this bad boy would have for us, but at least we could manage this first part pretty easy.
At the signal, which amounted to me pointing at the Blue and nodding toward Dan, we engaged in our fight.
Everything flowed naturally and we quickly dealt with the Blue that Dan wasn’t kiting. With that mob down, Wayne and I focused our attentions on the Lich and began to nibble away at his hit points. As the Lich got down to just over 90 percent, it cast a Damage over Time spell on Wayne. This wasn’t like any of the DoTs we had seen before, where the spell did pure damage over a given period of time. Instead, this spell not only damaged Wayne, but also healed the Lich at the same time.
“Damnit! He just hit me with Blood Drain. He’s healing.”
The Lich only healed for a couple of percentage points, but that was life he got, and that Wayne lost. We had buffed before the fight, so there was nothing more we could do but take it and keep going. Jason indicated that his mana was fine, but that technically the Lich wasn’t undead, so he wouldn’t be adding any damage to this fight. That left it up to Wayne and I to take this guy down, at least until Dan finished off the Blue. But I hoped it wouldn’t take that long.
We got the Prince down to 90 percent again. Before I could tell Wayne to watch for the DoT, the Lich’s health points went back up, but this time all at once.
“What did he cast on you Wayne?”
“Nothing man, it wasn’t me.”
“Ummm, guys. I think we have a problem,” Dan said.
“Go Dan.”
“This Blue just lost a bunch of hit points.”
“How is that a problem?”
“I wasn’t shooting it.”
I realized what happened immediately. The Lich, being a master of Death magic, had siphoned off some of the health of the Undead Guard. I didn’t see this as a problem though, I saw it as a solution. All we had to do was kill the second Blue and we would own this guy.
I explained it to my group, “He’s a Lich, so he is stealing the life from the Guard. Bring him over here Dan, and Wayne and I will go at him.”
“Screw that noise!” Jason yelled and cast Banish Undead before any of us could stop him.
The Guard’s hit points dropped dramatically and Dan and I were able to finish it off while Wayne stayed on the Lich. I just hoped Jason hadn’t wasted mana that we could have used to heal Wayne in the long run.
Now that the Guard was down, we all focused on the Lich. Wayne with his war hammer, me with my dagger, Dan with his arrows, and Broham with his teeth. The Lich’s health was falling quickly. I was certain he would land a few more Blood Drain spells on Wayne, but in the long run we had this in the bag. I was mentally high fiving everyone. That was the exact moment the Lich healed to full.
“What the fuck?” Dan yelled out.
“Great time to find a bug in the game! Someone needs to start writing a report on this now. I’m pissed.” Jason exclaimed.
“I don’t think it’s a bug.” Wayne said. Dan, Jason, and I were facing the interior of the cave, but Wayne was on the other side of the Lich, and looking past the Prince and outside the cave. When I looked at Wayne he was indicating away from himself and out the entrance. I turned around briefly to see what Wayne was looking at and I could see the wall of the fort not far from our location.
And that’s when it hit me. Why the cave was so close to the fort. We were so screwed.
“The fort! The Undead in the fort! We didn’t kill them before we got here. He’s probably close enough to leach off of them too. We are so so dead.”
“We’ve got one chance Alex, we run. Hopefully this asshole boomerangs.” Wayne told me.
I was all in agreement for that, and told Dan to take
off first with Broham so he could make sure he got outside of aggro range and that Broham wouldn’t do something stupid.
I told Jason to go next, followed by me. Wayne insisted on being the last to go after Jason healed him to full.
All of us were outside of the aggro range when Wayne started running and getting beat down from behind. Only one of us would die in this case, but I really didn’t want any of us to lose any more experience.
Our luck finally turned and the Lich did boomerang! He popped back to his starting point and was again at full health. The boomerang reset the fight and the two Undead Guards also spawned next to him. But I didn’t care one bit about any of that. All I cared about was that my group was whole and no one lost any experience.
When we all had a moment to calm down and let our heart rate’s return to normal, we immediately started talking about the fight. And overall our reactions were positive. I mean, let’s face it. That fight kicked ass!
It was one hundred percent outside of what we had seen so far. The whole way the fight went down worked out perfectly for the designers at AltCon as well. I imagine if we had cleared the fort and then found the Lich, we would have thought him an easy target. But with the Undead all kicking in the fort, that Lich became an unstoppable force. So either way, we would have likely fought the Lich at some point without killing the Guards at the fort. Mad props to the boys and girls at AltCon for this encounter. I was even tempted to write them a note, congratulating them on a great encounter and design.
I was tempted. I wasn’t actually going to do it.
The other also thought the encounter was top notch. We even had a debate on whether we should tell Jenny and her group about the encounter when we eventually showed them the location. After debating back and forth, Wayne’s desire to have good relations with Jenny and Dan’s desire to have his balls unharmed, won out and we agreed to tell them. It was mostly Wayne and Jenny that won Jason and I over. No one cared much for Dan’s scrotum defense.
Resurgence: The Rise of Resurgence Book 1 Page 36
