Quest: Kill Ten Yeti Snowmakers
Reward: 50 Gold and increased rep with Stormguard guards
Quest: Kill Ten Yeti Oracles
Reward: 50 Gold and increased rep with Stormguard guards
Quest: Kill Ten Yeti Wardens
Reward: 50 Gold and increased rep with Stormguard guards
Quest: Kill Thirty Yeti Pathmakers
Reward: 50 Gold and increased rep with Stormguard guards
Quest: Purge the Yeti Cave
Reward: 100 Gold and an item from the Quartermaster.
“The cave will be beyond us for a short time sir, but we’ll tackle it before we move onto the next higher areas.” Alburet saluted, then he and the others turned and left.
“Why would he report your race change?” Marysue asked.
“The guards are the armies and the intelligence agencies of this world,” Fluff said softly. “They have files on anyone they consider of interest. All of us would be on file, as Alpha Company has been deemed worthy by the crown.”
“Ugh,” Marysue sighed. “I was hoping to not be famous here at least.”
“You’re second fiddle to me here,” Alburet chuckled. “Just keep your head down a little and people will look right past you. They would be wrong to, of course, the healer is always the most important part of any successful group.”
“Tanks being second,” Gerald chuckled.
“DPS comes last in ranking as always,” Karen sighed, “but it’s still way more fun than healing or tanking.”
Once back outside the main gates, Alburet summoned his minions. He called Tiny first and when the smoke cleared Tiny nodded to him, “Greetings, master. How are you feeling?”
“Fine, Tiny. How are the wives?” Alburet replied with a grin.
“They are holding a meet and greet today to decide which other two they want to add to the family,” Tiny rumbled. “When I go home I shall have two new wives to meet.”
Gerald blinked, “Wait, why are your other wives deciding?”
“Do not your wives decide what is best for your household?” Tiny asked.
“I don’t even have a single wife, much less several,” Gerald replied.
“Ah. One day you will and your first wife will then look for others that are compatible with you. The biggest decision you will ever make is who your first wife will be, so choose wisely. She will set the tone for the entire family.” Tiny gave a toothy grin when he finished speaking.
Karen laughed, “Oh, his first wife has already been picked, she just hasn’t told him yet.”
Marysue blushed and Gerald blinked. When he looked at her, Marysue was staring at him, her face unreadable. He swallowed audibly, “Mary?”
“We’ll talk tonight,” she said, her cheeks red. “I’ve been working up the nerve to speak with you about… things.”
His jaw dropped open, then closed with a snap, “Okay.” Worry, fear and hope fought for control of his face.
“Good. She will make a strong first wife for you,” Tiny rumbled. “A strong woman who can mend your wounds, the very best any protector can ask for.”
Alburet coughed, “Okay, that’s enough of that for now. Thank you, Tiny.” Shaking his head, he called Bob to his side, “Morning, Bob.”
“Damn it,” Bob sighed as he puffed into existence. “I was just about to go back for round eight, and why is it so damned cold?”
“We’re in the Snowblind Hills. It’s only going to get colder from here.” Karen paused, then asked the question, “Round eight?”
“Yeah! I had two Succubi Ladies from the Dark Lord’s court treating me like royalty last night. Very little sleep was had. On the upside, they were both talking about marriage when I was called here. So I very well might be starting my own family soon.”
“Once they give birth to a child of yours, they will become Imp Mothers,” Tiny rumbled.
“Yeah. Hopefully neither of them want a child until a few decades have passed at least,” Bob chuckled. “Neither of them seemed in any hurry for that last night.”
“We ready to start moving?” Gerald asked, tugging his jacket a little.
“All accounted for,” Alburet replied, “going to hold off on a Copy until we know what we are up against.”
“Single patrol mobs in between the caves that dot the mountains here,” Marysue told him. “Most of the caves are shallow things with a group inside of them consisting of the three mobs we have to kill ten of. Sometimes there are two groups in a cave. That’s when things get rough.”
“We’re hoping Stacia will be able to use her abilities on them,” Gerald added.
“I will do me best,” Stacia added as she walked along beside Alburet.
As they walked away from the fort, Alburet’s curiosity got the better of him. “Bob, how does the whole Imp Mother thing work?”
“If a Succubus becomes pregnant by an Imp, it changes their body and abilities. They will only produce Imps from any pregnancy from that point forward, regardless of who they get the seed from. They become very large and round and normally reside in one of the hot springs found in the Infernal Realm. When they do give birth, it isn’t to a single child but to a clutch of Imps, anywhere from five to twenty.”
“Ma’ told me once about the change,” Stacia added. “Succubi be able to control when we be getting’ pregnant. What happens to us is we lose all the abilities we used to have and our form changes, like ya did master. Nay as painful, more a euphoric experience from what I been told. What the Imp Mother gains is a secret they hold dear, nay tellin’ others, nay even their own children. No matter the Imp Mother’s rank, the Imps she births be Least Imps and they must earn their way from there.”
“Wouldn’t that mean Imps out number all other Infernals?” Karen asked, having listened to the story.
“Aye, tha’ they do,” Stacia nodded. “Many never go beyond the first few stages of advancement though. Iffin we go back and do the Cursed Woods, we be findin’ a lot of them. Even Infernals can die the final death, we just do nay die from old age. An unbound Infernal has the same chance of the final death as any other person, besides the two-souled. That be why it be viewed as dangerous to nay be bound to a Summoner.”
“Which explains why you stressed that point to Stewart after your change,” Alburet mused.
“Aye,” Stacia agreed, then fell silent as Tiny called out to them.
“Patrol,” Tiny rumbled. “Pathmaker coming this way.” He had his shield and axe ready even though Gerald moved forward to tank it. Tiny didn’t bat an eye, having become accustomed to being the secondary tank.
Stacia began to sing as her eyes focused on it. It took another step, then stood still. “Daze works,” Alburet called out as he advanced with the others into melee range.
“Glad that works as well as it did for the Langistors,” Gerald said as everyone lined up their critical attacks. He counted to three and everyone attacked, but the Pathmaker didn’t fall over as expected. Instead it roared, deafeningly loud, and everyone was stunned for five seconds.
While they were stunned, the Pathmaker smashed Gerald, sending him staggering back several feet. Tiny was given the same treatment then the creature spun on Alburet. The meaty fist slammed into Alburet, tossing him back a few feet just as the stun wore off. Fluff and Karen attacked again as Gerald taunted it to him. “Right, they have a stun,” he called out.
“Yeah, noticed,” Alburet wheezed and rubbed the place where the massive paw of the thing had smashed into his chest. “Fucker has a lot of strength.”
Another round of melee attacks, and the Pathmaker fell over and Alburet finally got a good look at it. Five foot in height and almost that in width, it was covered in varying shades of white hair and fur, with patches of bare, blue skin around its eyes and mouth. Its face looked like that of the abominable snowman from an old Christmas television special about misfit toys. The hands on the thing were almost dinner plate sized when open, which made an impressively large fist as well.
&n
bsp; Kneeling, Alburet touched the mob to accept the loot for the group, “Not bad coin.”
“Decent,” Karen agreed. “Solo these would be a real challenge, considering the damage they can do.
“Luckily, we have Marysue to keep us healthy,” Alburet grinned at Marysue. “Thanks for the heal, it felt like someone had hit me with a five pound sledge.”
“You should turn down the immersion, then,” she replied.
“Can’t, part of the testing I’m doing requires me to have it maxed.”
“No wonder you never want to get hit, then,” Gerald mused. “Anyway, we know we can take the solo guys. Next one, Stacia, see if you can make it an Ally. We need to know if that’ll fail like it did with the spiders.”
“Aye,” Stacia replied.
It didn’t take them long to locate another Pathmaker and test Stacia’s Ally ability on it. They saw the mob first from a distance. The Pathmaker strode along without apparent effort in the knee-deep snow, its thick legs shunting the snow to either side and leaving a mostly cleared path behind it. Stacia sang to it, and it walked over to the group and stood waiting for instructions.
“I be able to make them our Ally,” Stacia said proudly.
“We’ll wait for the effect to end then kill it here instead of risking having multiple opponents,” Gerald told them. “Alburet, go ahead and double up on Stacia.”
“Yes! He has seen the light! Double Succubi is the way and the night,” Bob cried out with both arms upraised, as if he was giving a sermon.
Karen, Marysue, and Alburet laughed outright at his display. Fluff giggled and managed not to blush. “Well done on the timing, Bob,” Alburet told the imp as he used Copy on Stacia. As soon as the double appeared, Alburet was hugged from both sides.
“He be right, double the pleasure, double the fun,” Stacia purred at him.
Bob began to bounce up and down in place, “Yes! Yes! Preach it to him sister!”
Another round of laughter went through the group, except for Gerald, who face palmed. “How long until the effect wears off?”
Stacia looked over at the mob, “Another minute.”
Tiny rumbled, “Two succubi is good, but five is better.”
“You’ve had five?” Bob gasped as he spun to face Tiny, his face a mix of interest and horror. “What’s it like?”
“Can we table that discussion, please?” Gerald grumbled. “Some of us would like to focus on the here and now, instead of juvenile fantasies.”
“Not a fantasy,” Tiny rumbled, “I have multiple wives. We do…”
“Tiny,” Alburet cut in, holding back his laughter. “He didn’t mean it that way. I’m sure you and your wives have indeed done as you say, but that Pathmaker is about to come out from under Stacia’s spell.”
“Yes, master,” Tiny rumbled as he turned to face the mob.
When the Pathmaker came to its senses, it roared and stunned them all for five seconds. It ran at Stacia, managing to get two hard hits in before Tiny and Gerald shook off the stun and taunted it back to them. Stacia was wincing as she staggered back to her feet. “Tha’ hurt,” she panted. Her health had fallen below half from the two hits.
Once the mob was down, Alburet went to Stacia, casting Demonic Vitality on her while hugging her. “Scared me for a moment there,” he said. “Are you okay?”
“I be healin’ now tha’ combat be over, master,” she told him, giving his cheek a kiss.
“There is probably a range on the stun,” Fluff spoke up in her soft tone. “Next time we should have Marysue and Tiny hold back to see if we can gauge the range of the stun.”
“That’s good thinking, Fluff,” Gerald replied. “We’ll try that on the next one after Stacia dazes it. Bob can hit it with a Fire Blast to break the daze and I’ll taunt it so it will use the stun at me instead of going after Bob or Stacia.”
“Okay,” Gerald continued, “we can probably take the caves without too many problems. We can knock out these quests today, minus the one to Purge the Cave.”
“Is it starting to snow harder?” Fluff asked.
“Yeah. The snow picks up the further into the hills we go,” Marysue told her. “It will also get colder.”
“Cool, let’s keep moving and see what a group of them is like,” Karen said and linked arms with Fluff. “Ready, Fluff?”
“Yes,” Fluff replied with a soft smile.
Two minutes later they were testing out the new plan. The Pathmaker’s roar proved to have a range of thirty feet from its body for the stun effect. Once they had it killed, they continued on. The snow came down more thickly as they moved further into the hills. Two more Pathmakers fell to the group before they found their first cave. The entrance was mostly hidden behind a snowbank. They had passed it walking, but Bob had glanced back and seen it.
“It should hold a Snowmaker, an Oracle, and a Warden,” Gerald told them as they prepared to go in. “Assume ranged DPS, healer and tank in the same order. If I recall, the Warden has a taunt ability that reduces all damage not directed at them by 90%. If it taunts you, just focus on it. The Oracle should have a heal over time spell as well as a damage mitigation buff. The Snowmaker has an area of effect cold damage spell and one that roots you in place with ice.”
“Every other mob has had tweaks since beta,” Karen reminded him. “So expect the unknown.”
“She’s right,” Marysue agreed. “Who knows what else they might pop up with? Since Stacia can friend two of them though, we might as well take out the Warden first. When the Ally ability wears off, she can Daze the Oracle while we kill the Snowmaker. Then we finish with the Oracle, which should make it easy.”
“What if there are two groups in there?” Fluff asked.
“She can Ally the two Oracles, Daze the two Snowmakers and we kill the Wardens first. Then switch off to the Snowmakers, then finally the Oracles.” Gerald looked at them when he finished, when no one objected he nodded. “Okay, let’s do this.”
The first fight was pretty straight forward, but they did find out a couple of the twists that had been added. The Warden could summon up a small circle of ten-foot tall ice around him and a target, excluding others from it. The Snowmaker had a new ability that would freeze a person into a solid block of ice that had to be damaged for the person to be freed from it. The Oracle didn’t show off any new abilities, but they figured that might be because it was all alone in the end.
“We can do this,” Gerald chuckled. “Stacia, you make hunting humanoids so much easier.”
“I do me best to make me master proud,” she replied simply. “Iffin Marysue was nay here, we be havin’ real issues. All me ability to control them would nay matter much iffin no one was healin’ ya.”
“Right?” Karen laughed. “The healer should get the praise. That said, though, Stacia you are still making life way easier.”
“Let’s see about fulfilling these quests, then,” Alburet cut in. “If we can knock this out, we can head back to turn in the couple of spider quests we have, too.”
They spent the next four hours walking through snow that sometimes came close to being a full on blizzard. They only found one cave with doubles, which proved to be a bit more challenging but was still very doable with the group working together.
They traipsed back to the fort to turn in quests and collect their rewards. Snoweye returned their salute, then started to stacking bags of coin on his desk.
“Very well done, Alpha Company. I can see why everyone’s talking about you.”
Guild Achievement: Clear the Goblin Town
They all blinked as the achievement popped up. Stacia pulled out her Guildstone to congratulate the group that had cleared the dungeon.
“I look forward to seeing you back out here to Purge the Yeti Cave, when you grow a little stronger.” Snoweye informed them as they collected their gold.
“We will be back, sir,” Alburet informed the Lunari sergeant. “We need to go turn in quests from the Webbed Wood still today, though.”
“That place is a nightmare,” Snoweye groaned. “I hated that place so much when I did my year there.”
“The webs stick to everything,” Fluffball commiserated with the sergeant.
“Exactly,” Snoweye nodded at her. “I wish you all the best until we meet again.”
They stopped at the shop inside the walls to sell the loot they’d picked up. It mostly consisted of pelts and teeth, but still earned them a good number of silver per item.
“Back to Stormguard, catch the portal over to the Webbed Woods to turn in. After that we’re free for the rest of the day.” Alburet looked at the others, “I’m probably going to wander around some and check in with some of the guildies again.”
Alpha Company (Alpha World Book 3) Page 22
