Restoration: The Rise of Resurgence: Book II

by Joshua W. Nelson

  None of the rooms had more than two mobs, and we would randomly encounter groups of two Wraiths along the path. The mobs in the hallways continued to be loot snobs and dropped nothing, but the mobs in the rooms were freer with their rewards.

  So long as a mob was in one of the rooms, it dropped a spell. The spells were all Level 24 and included multiple classes. Jason was ecstatic when one of the spells that dropped was for a Cleric—an improved Stun no less. Too bad he likely wouldn’t get to use it before we finished the dungeon. But any freebies on spells was a boon to our bank account.

  We cleared out the rooms and continued to lay waste throughout the dungeon. Our only limiting factor was waiting on Wayne to regenerate his Vitality. All the Wraiths continued to hit with that annoying Vitality draining proc.

  Further into the Monastery, we encountered our first problem. We entered a larger room on the east side of the school that resembled a study area with multiple tables and chairs, and four mobs popped at the same time. They didn’t pop as a set of four, but two on each side.

  We weren’t unprepared for this possibility, though. We had discussed a very similar scenario before we ventured further into the dungeon, and we had come up with a plan. Now it was time to see if it would work.

  “Implement Operation Sacrifice!” Dan yelled.

  “Sacrifice?”

  “Yeah, Alex. Because if this doesn’t work, I’m probably going to get a major ass beating!”

  “Shouldn’t it be called ‘Operation Thank the Gods for Small Favors,’ then?”

  “Your words cut deep, Allitang! Now cast Stun already!”

  The plan was straight forward: Jason would hit the mobs with a Stun, and then Dan would cast Snare and shoot them with arrows. With the area we had already cleared out closer to the entrance, Dan could then take the mobs for a run.

  In the meantime, Wayne and I would go to work on the other two mobs until Dan returned. Once Jason was finished with the non-primary mobs, he would start Stunning Wayne’s target.

  The strategy was simple—if it worked—but it was time consuming. We had already spent over an hour to get to this point due to waiting on Wayne’s Vitality returning. Any extra time it took us to take down these mobs was going to increase the time we spent waiting on Wayne.

  The strategy did work, and it did eat up Wayne’s Vitality as we suspected. Even worse, there was another room on the west side of the building that looked the same. We were going to have to do this again.

  After waiting ten minutes, we approached the second room. We planned a different tactic this time. I would pull aggro first by going into the room with my Conceal/Stealth on and head to one of the far sides of the room. I hoped that I could drop my Invis and only grab two mobs. Then the rest would enter, hugging the wall in the hopes of not aggroing the mobs on the other side.

  It worked. And it didn’t. The side I chose only had one mob spawn when I dropped my Invis, but the tactic of hugging the wall did keep our party from spawning whatever else was in the room.

  With only one Wraith, we killed it very quickly. That meant there were probably two or more on the other side. Back to Operation Sacrifice if it was more than two.

  Of course, three Wraiths spawned as we approached the other side, and Dan took one for a tour of the Monastery’s interior while Wayne and I went to work on the other two. We were in for another wait while Wayne got back his Vitality. This dungeon was a time suck.

  Good news, though: those eight mobs all dropped spells. We were now looking at 19 spells total. Not bad at all.

  We cleared the remainder of the hallway Wraiths and only had two rooms left. One was a large dining room-like area with two long tables set up and multiple chairs around the table. There were no further connecting corridors or doors to this room. A dead end, although I hoped not literally. The second room was empty of furniture, but it did have a closed door on the north side. And a mob. This was the first mob we had seen in the complex. Naturally, it was a Yellow mini-boss. The Great Priest of Loust.

  We had no clue what was in store in the dining room, but we weren’t about to leave a room uncleared before heading to the boss. That was just bad gameplay.

  “We should just enter and hug the wall—all of us at the same time, I mean. Whatever spawns, we can figure out how to deal with it then,” Jason suggested.

  I agreed but still didn’t like the plan. What was the point of having crowd control and a puller if you couldn’t even see the mobs? With no other options available to us, we let Wayne lead as we entered and hugged the wall, and for the first time in this damn dungeon, we got lucky. There were five mobs total in the room, but they were spread out in such a way that if we creeped up on them, they would spawn as individuals and not the whole group. This wouldn’t have worked with the other mobs, as they spawned almost on top of each other.

  The real benefit was that, because of only taking one at a time, Wayne lost very little Vitality, and we could go at the mini-boss in no time flat. Well, that and the additional five spells we received.

  The Priest, appearing as an apparition, was wearing a hooded, flowing robe that hid his face from view. He was carrying a staff in one hand and a dagger in the other. Both the dagger and staff were emitting dark shadows.

  “Let’s go at this guy hard from the outset,” Wayne said. “Allister leads with his Stun, then Alex hits him with his Backstab, and I’ll be throwing the kitchen sink at him.”

  I wanted to get the full benefit from my Blacksuit and the chance to possibly Disembowel, but I still didn’t want to risk the guys seeing how the Blacksuit works.

  “I’m going to scout really quick to make sure none of the earlier mobs have respawned. If we have to run around this place, I don’t want them popping up and messing us up.”

  “How will you know, Alex? They won’t spawn if you are Invis.”

  “No worries, Allister. I’ll go to the entrance and drop my Invis there. If the ones at the entrance spawn, I’ll just run them back straight through the middle. It shouldn’t have been long enough for those to have respawned as well.”

  “Sounds good, hombre. Just don’t get F’ed in the A!”

  “Thanks for the words of encouragement, Dan.”

  I activated my Conceal/Stealth and rounded the corner away from the group and toward the entrance. I really did plan on checking if any of the mobs had respawned on top of putting on my Blacksuit.

  Luckily, there were no mobs at the start of the dungeon, and I reactivated my Invisibility. I then headed straight into the room with the Priest and planted myself behind him.

  “Back and ready guys. As soon as you Stun him, I will hit him with my Backstab.”

  As soon as Jason entered, the Priest turned toward him and began casting a spell. Jason’s Stun landed, making the incorporeal being solid and stopping his casting. Wayne rushed over to begin gaining aggro on the Priest, and I launched my first attack.

  And I was fucked.

  I didn’t just land a Disembowel. I landed a Disembowel with a Critical Strike.

  As you may recall, our damage output increased when the target was returned to a corporeal state from Stun, so on top of doing 4 times the regular Backstab damage with Disembowel, it was then tripled from doing a Crit.

  The Priest’s hit points dropped ten percent from that one strike. It was going to take lots of effort on the part of Wayne to aggro the Priest. In the meantime, I had to sit there and just take the punishment.

  “This is soooo going to blow.”

  “What the hell did you do, Alex?”

  “Massive Crit Backstab. I’m going to need some heals, Jason!”

  Jason yelled “On it!” right as the Priest turned toward me and swung his staff at my body. My Agility being one of the lowest Stats on my character, my chances to dodge were low. The resulting 5 percent loss in hit points from that one strike told me I wasn’t successful in my attempt.

  The Priest continued to unleash a flurry of attacks on me with both the dagger and
staff and I watched my hit point bar drop from 95 percent to 75 percent. If I hadn’t upgraded my full set of armor recently, I would probably be looking at my bind point right now.

  Thanks to the double Stuns of Jason and Wayne, the Priest had very few opportunities to cast any spells, and his hit points were dropping fast. Dan’s Fermium-tipped Elven arrows were tearing into the Priest as well.

  But that Priest’s wicked little dagger had a nasty proc! Along with slicing into me, the proc sucked out 200 of my hit points and gave it back to the Priest! I only had 5400 hit points total at full health. Thank the gods that the proc only landed twice.

  Just before the Priest hit 75 percent health, it finally turned to Wayne.

  Jason landed a heal on me, bringing my hit points back to 80 percent from the almost 50 percent they had dropped to. I still had to wait before attacking, however, or I would just pull aggro again.

  Just like with all the bosses we had fought, the Priest set off an insta-cast AoE spell at 75 percent that did 1,000 hit points of damage. I was back to 60 percent hit points, though the damage was negligible to the rest of the party. My hit points had not fallen far enough thanks to Jason’s timely heal to automatically put me back at the top of the Priest’s aggro range, so we survived the first special attack without concern.

  After several more Taunts, Kicks, and Bashes, I felt comfortable to get back in the fight. Once I started adding my damage, the Priest’s hit points went down even quicker.

  It seemed like no time had passed when we saw the Priest’s health approach the 50 percent mark, and we prepared for the next surprise. Jason’s Stun knocked the Priest back and dropped him to 50 percent. It also knocked the hood off of the Priest, and we got to take a look at the face of our foe for the first time.

  He had a totally bald head, and his skin was a dark purple. His eyes were pitch black, and he only had two slits in his skull where his nose was supposed to be. Most disconcerting was his mouth. As he opened it we saw rows of jagged sharp teeth, and his snake-like tongue slithered out of his mouth for just an instant. It was as grotesque a mob as we had ever seen.

  “Ghoul,” Dan said.

  “How can you be sure?”

  “I watch a lot of horror movies, and I’m telling you, Wayne, that’s a Ghoul.”

  “Horror movies? Like home movies of the family at reunions?”

  “Nah, Allijaws. The kind you find on regular broadcasts. My family reunions would be NC-17 due to the level of gratuitous stupidity that is the hallmark of my family.”

  “Apples usually don’t fall from the tree, you know.”

  “Yeah, but I hold out hope that I’m adopted. Or that mom really liked the mailman. That guy was cool.”

  I thought we had avoided the 50 percent surprise, but as soon as the Stun wore off, the Priest hit us with an AoE of Shackles and backed away from the group. All of us were stuck where we stood and couldn’t move. Except for Dan.

  “Guess that new amulet is really paying off! I resisted the AoE.”

  Ignoring Dan, I turned to Jason, “Can you cast?”

  “Not a problem,” Jason said as he launched another Stun at the Priest, interrupting yet another casting attempt. Dan was free to move around, but since he fired arrows from a distance to begin with, I wasn’t concerned with his freedom of movement. If our only Stun came from Wayne, this could have gone badly.

  After a short time, the AoE wore off and we were back in the fight. The last surprise came at 25 percent, when the Priest summoned four Golem-type creatures that went after us individually. Again, the Priest backed off, trying to put room between us so he could cast a spell.

  “These guys aren’t Wraiths, so I can kite a couple.”

  “Get to it. Wayne and I will take down these other two. Jason, you keep on Stunning the Priest.”

  With the cool down on Jason’s spell, there was no way he could keep up a constant Stun. This allowed the Priest to finally get off some of his spells. We were hit with a series of Damage over Time (DoT) attacks that began to dwindle our hit points. One of them would have been inconsequential, but three of them stacked together would begin to seriously eat away at our health. Only Dan resisted the casting again. Another testament to his new amulet.

  Wayne and I took down the Golems rather quickly, as they did not have much in the way of hit points. Dan continued to kite the other two golems and kept them busy as Wayne and I finished off the Priest.

  With both Stuns back in the game, the Priest didn’t get any more casts off. Not long after, we dealt him his death blow and mopped up the last two golems.

  I went over to the Priest and looted the corpse. He had another spell on him and two items. Interestingly enough, he also had a pattern for making magical leggings. None of us were Tailors, but I bet the guy that made our backpacks would love an item like this.

  I also had the first experience with what the Wanderer told me about not all loot being applicable for our group.

  “First item is a bust. The stave is a Shaman only item and not tradeable,” I said as I linked the weapon.

  “Man, I hate that shit! The stupid AI should be able to figure out who is fighting the mob and only drop loot for the group!” Wayne complained.

  “I’ll be sure to tell him your thoughts,” I said with a joking laugh. Everyone joined me. If they only knew.

  “Here’s the second item.”

  “Nice, Alex! That thing is awesome!” Wayne yelled out.

  “It’s for anyone, so we can roll if you want.”

  “Don’t be dumb. Of course you can have it,” Dan said.

  I grabbed the blade and immediately equipped it into my primary hand. Just like with the Priest, the Dagger emitted a dark shadow that seemed to flow from the hilt of it and drip off the point, if shadows could drip. The hilt wasn’t much bigger than my hand and the guard would have only been sufficient to stop another dagger. There weren’t any jewels or ornamentation on the blade or hilt, but you could tell it was the work of a master and steeped in magic. I put my Dagger of Jagged Rock into my off-hand and checked my Character.

  With a nod of contentment, I closed my character’s biographical information and activated my Conceal/Stealth. Without a further word, I walked through the now open door at the north side of the room and headed deeper into the dungeon. It was time to find this Wendigo.

  *

  “Well fuck me with a prickly pear.”

  “For once, I agree with one of your statements,” Jason said to Dan as we looked into the room of the final Boss. The remainder of the dungeon followed very closely with the beginning. Lots of Wraiths, lots of hallways, and several rooms. The loot continued to be only spells, but we now had close to 50. Selling these would greatly increase the amount of money in our bank and allow us to purchase any new Skills we achieved at Level 24.

  Due to the Wraiths being a higher level, it took us another two hours to get through the second part of the dungeon. There were even a couple Yellow mobs in the rooms. It was no shock to anyone that the Wendigo was Red.

  And a foul looking beast it was. It had no clothes except for a belt that ran across its chest. The rest of its body was covered in deep white fur. It was bipedal, but that was where it stopped being like anything from any human realm. The legs were long, and I could see thick muscles through the fur. Each foot ended with four toes and six inch claws that looked about as thick as my finger. It had an enlarged ribcage and an overly narrow waist, showing off the bones along the sides of its torso. The head was feline in nature, with a huge mane of white hair flowing behind it. The ears were pointed at the top, but more like a Lynx than an Elf. And finally, were the arms. All four of them.

  The Wendigo had two massive arms extending from the shoulders that almost reached to its knees. Impressive, since the beast was standing at just over 7 feet. Six-inch claws adorned the ends of these arms as well. Just below what I considered the “primary arms” were two smaller arm-like appendages that sprouted from just under the arm pits. These
arms were far smaller but had five fingers instead of four. I guessed these were used for anything that required fine-tuned motor skills.

  “Hey! Look over there guys,” Wayne said while pointing toward the back of the room we were in. I imagined that the head of the Monastery used this area as his office, what with the huge desk and various areas for sitting. Just behind the desk I could make out two legs wrapped in armor. Laying near the feet was a satchel of some kind.

  This was obviously the last resting place of Tristan Lancaster.

  “We’ll put him to rest as soon as we deal with this huge fucker.”

  “Too bad you can’t just go over there and steal his satchel. Wouldn’t that make our lives easier.”

  “I don’t really feel all rainbows and unicorns about fighting this guy, Allister, but we’ve taken down mobs bigger than him before.”

  All of them turned and looked at me like I was smoking crack.

  “Ok. Maybe not bigger. And definitely not uglier. But at least the Boss looks cool!”

  They nodded their heads at that, and we began buffing up for the encounter. Jason hit all of us with any buff he had, making sure to include resistance buffs.

  “Since this ass clown isn’t a Wraith, no need to lead with the Stun. Looks like a pure Tank pull to me.”

  “Sure you don’t want to go in there first to hit him with one of your Backstabs again. That worked out really well last time, Alex.”

  Laughing, I said, “Only if I can wait five minutes before I attack!”

  Wayne looked around one more time and headed in. “No time like the present!”

  “You know, I never liked how that phrase goes because…”