At least, that was her plan. Unfortunately for Tamara, she picked a fight with archers and unattached warriors. As soon as she cast her gravity ball, she got their attention. The skeleton archers immediately spotted her hiding spot and fired arrows at her. The warriors used their skill, Rush, to catch up with her for attempted sword strikes. Tamara's advantage was that she was quick, agile, and slowed them with Aria's Slumber song. The occasional knockback from the gravity ball would throw off the archers' aim or unbalance the warriors. After the last skeleton dropped, Tamara flopped on the ground and declared, "Let's not do that again!"
Sol walked in shaking his head. "What was that? Very impressive. But you forgot they had ranged and warriors. Despite gaining their attention, your ability to dodge and deflect was amazing!"
"The warriors I've encountered before didn't use Rush."
"Warriors in groups and armies rarely use Rush. If you take on ten enemies close in level, even tanks die quickly, so they need to spread out the damage."
Shrugging, Sol walked after the scouting Myst. "That isn't a bad spell. But it takes a bit of time to finish off the mobs. Also, we need a lot of room to kite the mobs. And we need to be particular about what classes we attack. We should keep in mind that some mobs will likely be resistant to spells."
She replied, "So you like the spell?" Her resolution to never use the spell was forgotten. "How about we do test runs on each floor to see how they respond? If it goes well, we can rest/kite when we need mana. This tactic was kind to my mana, so we can probably use it to go through the dungeon faster."
Sol agreed.
Several pulls later, she had refined her technique. She found that a backstab and gravity theft provided the best of both worlds. Sol could pull the mobs while she was stealthed, and while they were distracted, Tamara would backstab and gravity theft them as she could. This made the encounters significantly less difficult when they faced a melee heavy group. After several hours of clearing the floor, Myst reported back to Tamara, sending her an image of a lone mage huddled in the passageway.
"There's a mage up ahead. What do you think?" Said Tamara.
Sol thoughtfully responded, "Could be a lone survivor from a farming party. It's not that uncommon to wipe, especially if you're with a desperate group looking for air. Either way, you and Myst should stealth. I'll go talk to the man."
Tamara nodded and disappeared from sight.
Sol walked up boldly and spoke loudly, "Greetings. How fare you?"
The mage looked up, revealing a human man in his late twenties. He had brown eyes and black hair, framing an overly handsome and arrogant face. He wore a fine silk robe that was spotless and highly enchanted. The robe was blue with red and yellow stars and moons.
He said, "Ho! Battlemage. My party wiped, and I'm the only one to survive. Would you please escort me to the nearest exit portal? Or perhaps the way is clear to the floor portal? Either way, I'd gladly pay a rescue fee. I've been stuck here for nearly a week."
Sol normally wouldn't be willing to help, but there wasn't a real way to stop the guy from following them unless they were willing to attack him. "We can guide you to the portal room. We've been clearing this floor for hours, so the way back to the safe zone should have respawned. How did you survive here, all by yourself?"
"This hallway has a single wanderer that respawns once an hour. Fortunately, we are the mobs here that commonly drop air supplies for up to two hours. I've been taking cat naps between spawn. I've lost some air time since I started, but I had a large supply from doing the run. Mostly, it's been nerve-wracking to keep the wanderer from running when I get him to low hp."
[Sol: Tamara, his story seems to check out. I don't trust how his gear looks untouched, but he is a back line mage. Either he's really good or really bad. If he was telling the truth, then he was here when you entered the dungeon. He also appears like he hasn't been sleeping properly.]
[Tamara: Myst and I checked the area, he seems to be alone.]
[Tamara: OK. I'll unstealth and add him to the party. Let's go ahead and clear our party chat.]
"Tamara is our group leader. And her cat, Myst, is our scout." Sol explained as Tamara and Myst appeared.
Arnaud just nodded, not surprised that he was surrounded. It was rare to find anyone soloing a dungeon. Even if you were at a higher level than the floor monsters, you could easily get overwhelmed. Mages, in general, were easily overwhelmed, since their spells could be interrupted. Battlemages were a martial mage, so they could fight hand to hand, but they weren't best used as a main Tank.
[Arnaud: Thanks for adding me to the party! I'm a mage Elementalist.]
[Tamara: Welcome to the party!]
[Sol: Welcome to the party!]
Tamara said, "Sol is our tank. Myst is our scout. I'm the party damage dealer. How versed are you with fighting in a party?" They all assumed that Arnaud would fall to the back of the party and deal damage.
"I am a skilled backline mage. I know how to damage without distracting from the tank. I am also well versed in the layout of the first five levels of the dungeon. How about you two? You're incredibly brave to venture forth in a two man party. I've never seen anyone with less than a full five man party down here."
Tamara asked, "Can you tell me what happened with your last group?"
Arnaud nodded, "Yes. It was a close thing. I went with a pickup group full of people that I've previously teamed up with. Unfortunately, we were a bit greedy for air. So we were rushing, and we made a terrible mistake. We let a runner get away. I was supposed to be a damage dealer, and the rogue was supposed to use a slow poison on every mob. Well, she missed one, and it got away! The mob was so scared that it ran past at least three groups, and of course, they all ran up here to attack us. Menon, the tank, professionally got full aggro, while the rogue backstabbed her heart out, poisoning them with her blades. I went full blast. But it was too much for us to handle. Our tank was ripped to shreds by the mob train, despite our healer going all out. After the tank went down, the mobs went after the healer, who heroically blasted out an area effect blast that knocked and stunned the mobs to the floor. I knew we were lost, so I yelled out, calling everyone to move. I blasted out my mana using fireballs and lightning balls. Still, it wasn't enough, they recovered and killed the cleric. By that time, we had killed over half the mobs, and all of them were poisoned. They went after the rogue next, and she went down fast. The other mage was also blasting away with fireballs, so by the time we blew out our mana, only 2 mobs were left. They ganged up and dismembered the other mage. My last fireball smashed into them, finally killing the train. As the runner came back, he was at nearly no health, so I finished him off with several ice darts."
"That was quite a tale! In this team, I've been doing the slow. Do you want to take over the job, or do you want to do blasting only?" Said Tamara.
"I'd rather blast if I could."
"Great! You're on blast duty!" Said Tamara.
***
Myst was scouting, hidden in the shadows. He sent his owner a mental picture of the junction guarded by two Greater Skeletons and two Undead Mages. This was one of the first contacts with casters. Floor 4 was filled with undead in the 34 level range.
Tamara recalled him back. "We've got two melees and two mages up ahead. We haven't had many encounters with magic users. Any suggestions?"
Arnaud raised his hand. "I've got plenty of experience on this level. The melee will rush at you, so Sol can tank those two. Next, the mages will cast fireballs or iceballs at us. Our best bet is to focus fire on the mages, while Sol distracts the melee. We've had great success using fireballs on the undead mages. Ice based spells have a higher resist on undead. Fortunately, the undead on this floor don't run. Unfortunately, physical attacks work better on the mages. They have high spell resistances, probably at 80% or higher for elemental magic, but all three of us should be able to field a lot of firepower."
As Myst appeared and scampered up Tamara's arm, she came up with a p
lan. "Myst and I will sneak up to the two mages and take them out, while Sol and Arnaud Fireball the warriors.We should be able to overwhelm them. If the mages are typical casters, they should have around 900 hit points and a high amount of elemental resistance. So our initial volley will take the warriors down to around half. If Myst is there, he can double backstab as a cat, taking out one mage nearly instantly. Then as we gang up on the last mage, we'll take down the mages in the opening rounds of combat. Once the mages are down, we'll go after the warriors. We can go back to normal tactics after that."
No one objected, so Sol pulled the junction into their room. Myst jumped 20 feet and slipped into the shadows, while Tamara followed suit. Myst with his Double Strike took advantage of his sneaking status to take out a mage. Tamara's mage also went down due to her lucky 20x critical hit.
The warriors were still advancing on Sol and Arnaud as they swam into a sea of Fireballs. Tamara and Myst harried them from behind. All four of them quickly killed the last two warriors.
Tamara gained 1 level in Sneak and now it is 21
Tamara gained 1 level in Bard and now it is 6
Tamara gained 1 level in Beat Dance Battle and now it is 6
Tamara gained 1 level in Meditation and now it is 31
Tamara gained 1 level in Sword and now it is 29
Tamara has defeated a level 34 being and has earned 37 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 59 experience was earned!
...
Tamara has defeated a level 34 being and has earned 37 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 59 experience was earned!
Sol has defeated a level 34 being and has earned 37 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 59 experience was earned!
...
Sol has defeated a level 34 being and has earned 37 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 59 experience was earned!
The fight mostly worked out as planned, the only hiccup was that the mages didn't want to leave the room, so Sol needed to hide out of sight before the mages would come closer to cast their line of sight spells. As usual, they dropped a few credits, cores, and spoiled or cursed items.
They fought for hours before coming to the boss room. The entrance was distinct since it was a double black door with golden decorations that set it apart from all other doors.
"The Level Boss encounter is an undead knight. He's primary melee, but he can self-heal and hit like a truck. He has some low level clerics that help heal him, so we need to take those guys out first. Crap loot as usual, " said Arnaud.
Tamara asked, "Can we peek into the room, then close it really quick without starting the boss encounter?"
Arnaud shrugged his shoulders. "We can try it. It's a good idea to know anyhow."
"Let's buff ourselves up. After buffs, we'll test the door theory. Myst and I will be on sneak duty, we'll take out at least one of the clerics quickly, then we'll reacquire sneak, then take out the second cleric. Sol will tank as usual. Arnaud, you can either help take out the clerics or attack the boss."
Everyone nodded. For these encounters, everyone pulled up their personal mage shields. Tamara added some extra oomph to a mage shield on Sol, then they all meditated to get their mana back. Fortunately, the buffs lasted an hour each before they needed refreshing. Perhaps, she found a way to use the dynamos to keep their buffs topped off.
Once everyone was ready, Tamara and Myst faded into the shadows. Sweating bullets, Sol carefully opened the door wide enough for him to see the entire room. The room was square with a fair amount of space. As advertised, the boss was a huge, armored undead skeleton lounging on his throne. Two skeletal clerics stood behind him on each side. The boss and his underlings didn't move a muscle. Or, bones in this case. Everyone took a turn peeking into the room, except for Arnaud, who was familiar with the encounter.
Sol said, "I'll tank the skeleton. Everyone else on the clerics."
The battle went surprisingly well. After the encounter, as usual, they got lame loot. Arnaud smiled and said, "You guys got me to the exit portal as requested. Here are your credits!"
Shifting his feet, he gave his best smile. "I was wondering. Since we work well together. Would you mind if I came with you? As you've noticed, I'm very good at my job. I do a decent amount of damage to each mob, and I'll be an excellent guide up to level 10."
Tamara and Sol looked at each other. Sol gave her a quick nod, so Tamara turned back to Arnaud, giving him a thumbs up. "You've been very helpful. We cleared this level a lot faster with you aboard. And with a third member, we were much safer! With that said, you're welcome to join us for as far as you'd like. But keep in mind that we're aiming to clear the entire dungeon. And we're not requiring that you stay with us until the end."
Arnaud's mouth dropped open when she told him they were clearing the dungeon. Closing his mouth, he said, "I'm totally on that! I want to clear the dungeon too! You guys think we can get out of the prison when we clear it?"
"We're hoping that the rumors are true that clearing the dungeon will free us. However, we mostly wanted to test our skills," said Sol.
He replied, "Well, several levels will be cleared and camped. It's pretty common to see groups either camping the monsters or mining in special areas."
Floors 4 through 10 flew by. As Arnaud had explained, the lower level floors were usually camped for air, resources, and credits. Parties of adventurers would spend weeks or months camping a floor. The idea was simple, clear the floor in a specific pattern and time. If done correctly, they could separate the monsters into easy fights. Arnaud was incredibly informative on the mobs, traps, respawn times, and the boss monsters. Once, he found out how effective Tamara and Sol were as a team, he signed up to keep going down to at least level 10.
Each floor had its own special type of guardian, but the traps had no real pattern, except that they were getting more plentiful with each level they decended. Since Arnaud knew all the traps and mob locations, he was helpful in pointing out the traps. The floors and walls also kept with the various themes. Most levels had cavern walls and flooring, but some of the undead floors had cement and concrete passageways. Either way, the traps were cunningly hidden.
They quickly passed through the fourth floor since it was heavily crowded with adventurers. As they walked, Arnaud played tour guide, commenting on the creatures, spawn rates, loot drops, and even best farming strategies. Occasionally, he would stop to give more detailed instructions.
Tamara asked, "Is it strange that the hallways are clear, but we don't meet any adventurers?"
Arnaud shook his head and chuckled. "I see why you might think that. But adventurers in this dungeon are fighting for their lives, literally. If you poke your nose off the path, you're liable to get attacked without any warning. Only incredibly strong groups would dare to stay out in the open."
Sol nodded in agreement. "Every adventurer group down here are potentially your rivals as well. Launching a sneak attack will often mean the difference between winning and losing a fight."
They were walking along a long corridor, when Arnaud firmly commanded, "Stop." Making sure everyone was paid attention to him, he nodded in satisfaction. Then he pointed at the center of the floor and said, "there's a pit trap in the middle of the floor right over there. The best way to detect them is to walk slowly and tap along the floor." He demonstrated by slowly walking forward and tapping the ground with his staff extended out several feet in front of him. "Thud, thud, thud" The thuds were consistent until it reached the pit, where the sound became higher pitched. "This is the first edge of the pit, I'll lay down a line of chalk at both edges of the pit so we can jump across it safely." Nodding in satisfaction, he kept tapping to find solid ground. Then he threw some chalk dusting to designate the edges of the pit.
Tamara used Remote View to see if she could detect the pit via magic. The view shown was a top down view of the world as an eagle would see it if an eagle could gaze through rocks. The magic instantly gave her the default view covering the area she was at, but as a bon
us, it gave some indications that things were not as they seemed at the trap area. After adjusting her spell, she was able to change to penetration power to see the pit. The trap mechanism was a platform that would support a certain weight threshold, after which it would collapse dramatically. This probably allowed small animals to pass over the pit unharmed but killed others. Focusing the spell downward, the drop extended a good thirty feet and ended with sharp metal stakes with multiple skeletons. If they were willing to take the risk, it looked like there were some gear packs down there, but Tamara decided to let it go. The risk versus reward payout was too low. It was unlikely that a well geared adventurer would end up at the bottom of a pit like this.
The next trap they encountered was the fire dart trap. It was pretty ingenious. Each dart by itself was mildly damaging, but usually, by the time the trap triggered, the party was deep in the trap with layers of darts firing. Arnaud said there were no visual clues on its existence. He knew of them because of his extensive dungeoneering. On the lower levels, they would have to deal with multiple element darts, but they usually came in the fire variety. Because of her Sense Magic skill, they were actually easier to detect for the half-elf. Remote View continued to give her the top down view, but the traps were massive mana leaks, so when she encountered them, she usually had to drop her Remote View or tank through eye searing light. This type of trap was interesting because there were multiple dart glyphs connected to a single proximity trigger.
Tamara was an adept student to Arnaud. It was good fortune that they found Arnaud and he was good at explaining everything he knew about traps. Deeper down, she would be their best chance to detect traps. On her advantage, she had Remote View to spot physical traps and Sense Magic to find the magic traps. Usually, magic traps were almost impossible to detect for the magically blind since many of them had no physical component to see. It was simply a glyph carved into the stone.
Escape From Litchfield Page 19
