6% Magic Resistance
Jare nodded and gratefully took the rings. He smiled as he nudged Auth with his elbow and said, "I think she's trying for Divine Jester too."
Auth only shook his head and groaned.
Tamara stopped to glance up at both of them, but shook her head as if to say, "not asking."
Jare began moving gear from his bag to store into his ring. Everyone greedily eyed the rings being made for Jare, especially the storage ring. Storage bags were fairly expensive, even the smallest one cost one hundred credits, enough to buy food for weeks. Bigger bags cost more at an exponential rate. And no one there had even heard rumors of a storage ring that allowed nearly instant item equip.
Meanwhile, Tamara asked Auth for more dual slot rings and gems. "Thanks, Auth!" She said.
Auth nodded gratefully to Tamara and said, "Thanks for making these amazing items, Tamara!" Then he asked the warrior, "Jare, did you want me to bind the ring to you?" He had already started the binding spell even as he asked, knowing Jare would love it. Binding the ring to Jare assured that he would not lose the ring, and it had the secondary effect that as long as he was alive, only he could use the ring
As expected, Jare nodded.
Azdel lit a pipe and blew smoke rings as he shifted his feet side to side. He, like the others, had been amazed by Tamara's skill. As a mage, he was able to cast store and recall, so the rings weren't doing anything any competent mage could do. However, the combat and utility of such items were incredible. For instance, a wizard could fire off wands, then call a different one while the first was recharging. An archer could shoot arrows faster by cutting out the motions to draw a new arrow, not to mention the fact that one "item" slot will fill a theoretically unlimited number of the same object. An archer could technically fit ten thousand iron tipped arrows in one slot, then use another slot to carry another ten thousand steel tipped arrows. But oddly shaped items wouldn't fit in the same slot, for instance, gold nuggets would fit one slot, but a triangular shaped gold nugget would sit in another. Or a broken steel tipped arrow would probably take a different slot. Tamara's design also showed how well versed she was with crafting. The protection rune was engraved directly onto the ring, camouflaged against random artwork, but it was clearly drawing on ambient mana, allowing the ring to add extra protection. Then the spellgem allowed another 64 objects to be stored, but it was powered by a core. The strength gem used its core to add the +6 strength to its bearer. Unable to contain his excitement, despite his smoke rings, Azdel finally gave in, he needed to ask the question everyone had to be thinking. "Tamara, would you be able to make me a storage ring?"
Tamara smiled at the little gnome, knowing that he was a tinkerer. "I'd love to make a ring for you, Azdel. I'll get Auth, then you. Sol and Arnaud have decent gear already, so you'll be the last before we go. Jare got his first since I've been carrying all of his extra gear. I should be able to finish within the hour, and then we'll be chasing the Fabricator." She said, "Sorry, Sol and Arnaud, I don't know when I'll get the time to make more gear. Perhaps when we finish the dungeon?"
Azdel chuckled as he said, "No worries! I'm the one who urged speed. And I'm going to be around for a long, long time. I'm a citizen of Hopetown after all." He was making little gnome hops as he finished his sentence. He was a happy gnome.
As she finished her next ring, she passed it over to Jare, while Auth bound it to him. She drew out an amulet, also made by Auth. This amulet needed a heal and shield gem. Again, she carved out a storage rune on the amulet, allowing it to draw mana from the ambient environment. First, she pulled out a 50+ core and carved out a shield spellcore. Next, she created the heal spellcore. As it was now, the spellcores would draw their spell level from the bearer. Since Jare would be the bearer, it would cast a level 1 heal or level 1 shield. A great advantage, yet she wanted it to be more powerful, so she turned to Auth to seal the spells. "Auth, please seal these. The first one is a heal spellcore and the second is a shield spellcore." She handed the spellcores to Auth.
Item: Turquoise Amulet of Shielded Healing
On Use: Cast heal on self
Shields bearer for 150 points
6% Armor
6% Magic Resistance
Tamara made four Constitutional Ring of Iceball for Jare's other fingers. With iceball, he could deal a great deal of damage and keep the enemy from running around. It wouldn't play nice with fireballs or nearby party members, but if the party was careful, they could burn down enemies faster. If the group needed to use fireballs, the iceballs could still disrupt casting and movement for a few moments at least.
Item: Peridot Constitutional Ring of Iceball
On Use Cast Iceball
+6 strength
6% shadow resistance
Taking the cores, he pulled out his bag of gems. Taking out the appropriate gem, he cast his seal enchant spell on the items. As before, there was a small delay before magic tendrils enveloped the spellcore, then combined the gem and core, leaving a sealed spellcore. Now, Jare could use his spellcores at the same power level as Auth, the cost was that the enchantment would be stuck at its current level forever. He accepted the empty Amulet of Storage and snapped the new spellcores into their slots, then gave the result to Jare. His hands were shaking, not from exertion though. He felt like he was holding an incredibly powerful artifact. An item that could shield or heal a warrior would be an incredible find! One that could do both was beyond anyone's expectations.
Tamara made four Topaz Ring of Fireball Storage for Auth and Azdel. Then made eight Turquoise Ring of Fireball to complete their set.
Item: Topaz Ring of Fireball Storage
On Use Cast Fireball
Store 64 items
+6 Strength
+6 Intelligence
Item: Turquoise Ring of Fireball
On Use Cast Fireball
+6 intelligence
6% Armor
6% Magic Resistance
After everyone equipped their freshly made jewelry, they packed up and went down the stairs. Nodding to each other, they refreshed their buffs and entered the floor, ready for combat.
The new floor appeared to be filled with goblins. That made sense why the fabricator was stored here. The Fabricator was in middle of the floor, and it was slowly making its way to the other side, presumably to the exit portal. The goblins and orcs needed to manually move the heavy item, so they had some small advantages.
Chapter 16
The passageway out of the exit portal room continued for a while before widening into a large room filled with goblins. Myst reported at least ten enemies. Two were casters, two appeared like tanks, and the rest were melee warriors. Myst had no problems sneaking to the back of the room and out to the next corridor. He was checking for wanderers, finding none a good five minute walk away. He returned to pick his caster to backstab.
The group had staged just out of sight, prepared to rush in. Jare turned to catch everyone's attention.
[Jare: Everyone ready?]
When everyone nodded, he targeted the enemy tank, then activated his slam rush ability. He picked up speed and slammed into the unprepared tank, startling the entire group and stunning his target. As the other goblins began to gather their weapons and attack, Jare unleashed knuckle stun, getting the entire group with no resistance.
Immediately after his stun took hold, all four mages behind him finished their Iceball casts, the balls of ice smashed against the lead enemies and drove them back. Several of the goblins caught the secondary effect of freezing to the ground, and the others turned blue as they caught the slow effect. Jare was unaffected due to his immunity to elemental attacks granted by his Divine Shield.
Jare unleashed his Cone Wave to continue his hate dominance, and he taunted for good measure. "When life gives you lime, make limeade!" He clicked both of his Iceball clicky rings, smashing into every goblin at least once, several got hit twice.
Myst pounced and took out his target with a double bac
kstab and their accompanying critical hits. The rest of the group fell quickly after that.
Jare has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 72 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 115 experience was earned!
...
Jare has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 72 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 115 experience was earned!
Tamara has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 57 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 91 experience was earned!
...
Tamara has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 57 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 91 experience was earned!
Ding! Tamara has gained a level. Welcome to level 44!
Azdel has defeated a level 56 being and has earned -0 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 0 experience was earned!
...
Azdel has defeated a level 56 being and has earned -0 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 0 experience was earned!
Sol has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 58 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 93 experience was earned!
...
Sol has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 58 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 93 experience was earned!
Auth has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 72 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 115 experience was earned!
...
Auth has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 72 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 115 experience was earned!
Jare commented, "This loot isn't very good. What's with the air loot?"
Grinning that she knew more about dungeoneering than Jare, she replied, "Air needs to be mined or looted from mobs. And it keeps you alive. Down here, we don't get fresh air from the outside. It's sealed."
[Bob89: That was easy! Looking through your logs, I think you can probably clear several rooms at once. The warriors on this level seem to have about 1300 to 1400 hp, and with our true mages owning 24 Fireball Rings, we should be able to easily decimate any number of goblins in range. Assuming a 70% resistance rate, 2 rounds of Fireballs would decimate the average monster. We open with Fireball Rings + casting spells which comes out to 28 fireballs.]
[Tamara: It does sound like a good idea, but how will we gather them all up? The casters will lag behind, while the warriors will attack anything in range?]
[Bob89: We would need to gather them all up, either by running, walling them in, or smashing them in by area effects. With three true mages, two to three iceballs should technically kill everything, but there will be mobs lagging behind or resistant to the spells.]
"Hey guys, since we're up to five members with area effect spells, I think we can clear this floor much faster. We need to catch up with the Fabricator anyhow." Tamara said as she watched the group clear out the loot.
Azdel looked intrigued as he stroked his beard. "I have an inkling of what you're thinking. I used to do something similar when I was a young gnome. We do have the right makeup for that tactic, and I agree it's a valid tactic here. But I have a few pointers and warnings if you'd like to listen to an old gnome like me."
Smirking, Tamara nodded, while the rest of the group chuckled at Azdel's humbleness. "Go on Azdel, we're listening."
Azdel conjured a chair, then took out his pipe and lit it with a small incantation. "So. The general technique for a successful Area Effect Group is a puller and group of mages. In a well established dungeon, you can pull the entire floor to the group, then wipe them out. The issue, in our case, is that the floor is mostly unknown. We could pull accidentally pull the floor boss, who may not be vulnerable to our attacks. So we would be better off if Myst continued to scout for us. Then when we're prepped, he could tag a mob and run towards us, while we move to meet him in the middle. The second issue is gathering all the mobs into a nice group all fitting into our favorite area of effect spell. It's easy to move warriors, they will simply follow the puller. The mages and other range attackers will lag behind. So the second technique is to try and hide behind a wall of some sort, which will force them to enter the target area."
Jare nodded as he interpreted the techniques. "So scout, ambush, and choose our terrain?"
Blowing a smoke ring, Azdel agreed with Jare.
"Could we create a mud wall or make a smokescreen to force the ranged user in?" Asked Tamara.
"It is possible. The issue is whether or not the mages will follow. Archers and other mechanical ranged will definitely come in, but mages are a different story. They might get the idea to pull an area effect spell on us as well." Replied Azdel.
Tamara said, "I'm going to go ahead and have Myst scout ahead while we figure out our plan of attack." She nodded at Myst, who was calmly waiting at the edge of the passageway, prompting him to get up and scout ahead, fading from view as his stealth went active. "Myst can send me images of each group he passes. Fortunately, I will see what type of mobs and the results of his inspections."
Azdel said, "So everyone here has an iceball spell, which is one of the best spells for this type of attack since each iceball has a chance to slow or immobilize the targets. Any spells or abilities that can help? I myself have an area effect spell to lower elemental resistance. I can teach it to everyone, but it's a non-stacking spell, so only one of us has to cast it."
Tamara said, "I have an area effect stun that lasts a good while. I've also got some gravity spells, I'm working on an area effect offensive gravity spell, but so far I use it for single target crowd control. I can also create walls of different types: fire, ice, air, and more. I can play a bard song that will lower magical resistance as well, but it's only about 15%"
Jare said, "I have a one round area effect stun. I've got the iceballs from my item enchantments. I have the warrior cone wave ability. Also, I've got the !@#$% area effect ability, but that can be used once a day."
Auth said. "I've got the basic area effect spells."
Sol said, "I've got a few different area effect spells. I don't feel comfortable talking about them, but I have no issues using them."
Blowing another ring, Azdel nodded his head with a smile. "This will work. First, we will move to the target area with one mage to lag behind, and the other mage to sprint ahead at the target area. We want to have a mage at each end to blast the mobs into the target area. Then Jare will lay down his area effect stun, and the mages at the ends will blow the mobs into the target area, while Tamara puts down walls of area to contain the mobs. When Jare's stun ends, Tamara launches her own stun. Then we fire all out at the mobs." Taking a breathe after his long plan, he continued. "Jare, don't use your area effect spell unless it's absolutely necessary. It's basically our get our of jail card. It's kinda overpowered really, but the day long refresh means we can't rely on it as a normal tactic." Turning to Tamara. "If you start your Resistance lowering song as the mobs enter the target room, they will be easier to corral."
Tamara nodded. "Will do."
The group conferred for another fifteen minutes to cover contingencies and backup plans. First, they needed to test the idea on a small group. In that case, the chance for unmanageable problems is smaller.
Myst pulled a small group similar in size and class makeup as the last group. He did get stunned for a second, but he shrugged it off early and scampered back to the waiting group.
Jare Rushed them the moment they appeared and group stunned them as the mages went to town with their rings. Resistances ranged from 30% to 70%, but the group was cut down in two rounds of combat.
Jare has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 72 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 115 experience was earned!
...
Jare has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 72 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 115 experience was earned!
Tamara has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 55 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 89 experience was earned!
...
Tamara has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 55 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 89 exp
erience was earned!
Azdel has defeated a level 56 being and has earned -0 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 0 experience was earned!
...
Azdel has defeated a level 56 being and has earned -0 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 0 experience was earned!
Sol has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 58 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 93 experience was earned!
...
Sol has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 58 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 93 experience was earned!
Auth has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 72 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 115 experience was earned!
...
Auth has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 72 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 115 experience was earned!
***
By the time the new tactics discussion wrapped up, Myst had scouted the entire floor up to the floor boss room. The entire map had updated my mini-map, so I could see the general layout of the floor as we decided on the ambush site. After providing the rest of the group my updated map, I went through the enemies on the list.
"As you can see on the mini-map, we are the most northwestern portion of the map. We took the passageway to the south. I've marked the room F1. To the south of us, the passageway splits into two, with rooms each way, and they join together into another room. Each of those three rooms has the same setup similar to our recent fight. Two tanks, six attack warriors, and two mages. For a total of thirty. Moving south and to the east, we run into another room with another ten man group. Again the passageway splits, with the north passageway ending with a dead-end room, also with a ten man group. The southern passageway has another guarded room, then curves back to the north."
Escape From Litchfield Page 26
