Though nothing looked out of the ordinary outside of the Keep’s unusual construction, the big indicators that things had gone horribly wrong were the utter lack of sound outside of our own breathing and a few smears on the walls and floors, all the colors of elementalkin blood were present.
“Orders, sarge?” our Vanguard asked.
“I’m not ruling out a possible ambush, even if there’s no obvious place for that to come from,” I replied. Keeping an eye ahead, I turned to get a good look at our group. “How about one tank ahead and one behind, with the toughest melee in each group with them and everyone else sandwiched in the middle? We’ll spread to some kind of normal ranks when we can.”
Naturally, everyone had an eye on how Crysta, Vanni, and Kayla responded to that. I didn’t take offense. They were the pros here. Crysta smiled as she nocked an arrow, “Gotcha, Shale!”
“Sounds good,” Vanni said. “I’ll take rear guard and if something blitzes us frontside, I can Impose up to solidify the front line.”
I saluted her with my banner. “And I’ll do the same if they try to overwhelm us from behind.” I glanced between Burndall and Dunya before settling on the pint-sized Bladesaint. “Dunya, up with me and Vin, you back up Vanni. Everybody else, huddle in the middle.”
With a quick affirmative from the others, we sorted ourselves in the entrance chamber before moving carefully forward. Even if the entrance was an alley of doom, we were entering a perfect chokepoint, and I could make out more smeared blood on the stones ahead. Burnie and Merina were close behind us in the front row, and I could hear the Dancer suck in a deep breath as we picked through the gore in front of us.
“I don’t like the feel of this,” she half-whispered, something that made me try to focus my senses even more. Were some of the facets and seams in the carved quartz ahead a little thicker? I couldn’t be sure, so I kept moving. At least none of the blood looked fresh and slippery.
Despite the growing paranoia we all felt, nothing surged out to attack us, not right away anyway. Those thicker cracks I thought I had seen were in fact arrow slits beyond which were places for defenders to unload a deadly fusillade of arrows and Sparkshooter shots into the narrow hallway. Even with the obvious defensive position here, there was nothing but gloom to be seen looking through the slits.
Burnie shook his head. “You know, dudes, while I don’t want to get shot full of holes like Shale did, I’m getting pretty Damocles worried now. What kind of nasties do they have if the baddies can abandon this kind of position?”
“Maybe there’s another explanation,” Kayla frowned. “Maybe the beasts in this part of the Keep aren’t that smart or lack the right weapons to take advantage of this attack point.”
Whatever the explanation, I wasn’t going to let it worry me at this point. After all, it had already been told to use that the strongest resistance was expected to be deeper in.
Crysta had her bow held high, sighting down her Eagle Eye Gem. “Well, there’s another set of double doors ahead. Wood, steel bands, closed, but totally beat-up. Like, maybe they managed to hold the courtyard for a bit but got overrun.”
“Then we move forward,” I said and led onward.
As the door Crysta described came into view, the deathly silence that permeated the Keep was interrupted by the growing sounds of metal scraping on stone, intermittent as they were. It was as if something large and clumsy was doing its best to be sneaky, each bout of stillness that moment of embarrassment after it bumped into something or dragged its boot on the floor. Even though it didn’t really matter to whatever MOBs lay ahead, we all quieted as we advanced, Nahma and Wazif even going so far as to activate their Shadowstep Gems, shifting into translucent ghosts behind me.
I shifted into raid chat as I put my hand out, ready to push the battered door open.
Shale: Whatever is in there is big, which makes sense for the courtyard. When we go in, get ready to spread out if things go aggro to minimize AoEs. Give Vanni and me a few moments to get things under control. Be safe and try to assess the situation while you have the time.
Crysta: And, like, I know I don’t have to say this but it’s sooo easy to forget when things go nuts … please, please, pllllease do not get out of your healers’ line of sight. We can’t heal what we can’t see.
Vanni: To add to that, if you get aggro, run towards your tanks, not away from them. It just makes our job easier.
It was Grouping 101. Maybe it was unnecessary but Crysta was right. Even the best could lose track of things in the heat of a fight and some of our guild didn’t have the experience the rest did.
Shale: Good stuff. Now, is everybody ready?
To be professional, I nudged the ‘Raid Ready Call’ command, sending out an immediate prompt to everyone. Green ‘OK’s erupted across the status arcs before my eyes. The last was Kayla’s, but it was punctuated by her words across our private channel.
Kayla: You’ve got this, Max.
That was enough to wash out the last of the lingering doubts that nibbled from the recesses of my heart. The thing about living a decade with self-loathing is that no matter how hard you think you’ve exorcised the demons, they linger, but the right little bit of love and support can push them back. With a smile and renewed confidence, I shoved the double door open and led the charge.
The hallway opened into a large chamber, what had to be the actual courtyard of the Keep. That in and of itself is something of a lie, as this area was roofed by the same carved quartz as the rest of the structure, but the room was still huge, rising up to what had to be the full height of the building. Open balconies allowed access to the two upper levels through staircases and walkways on both sides while hallways were carved into the solid rock deeper into the ground floor. Many of the paths that once crisscrossed above us were gone, though, and their shattered debris was strewn among the rest of the damage in the courtyard floor. Though there were more blood and signs of battle, the distinct lack of corpses of any kind continued to worry me.
More importantly, two intact things grabbed my attention. First and foremost, dominating most of the space in the center of the courtyard, was a gigantic, metal automaton of some kind, or maybe it would be more accurate to say that it was three merged into one. Each one was a humanoid construct, whirring gears encased in armor plate, but bizarrely welded together. The backplates of the left and right ones were fused onto the wrists of the much larger central golem, replacing the hands. It was the scraping of the otherwise inanimate larger golem’s arms on the stone as the smaller ones dragged the dead metal behind them that was the source of the sounds we’d heard. Inside the torso of all three golems was a pulsing core of elemental power, the heart of the automaton that kept it moving and fighting.
Shale: Is that a War Golem with smaller War Golems for hands?
Burndall: I think so, boss.
War Golems were close kin of the airship network that facilitated travel around Elementalis, relics of the pre-Sundering world that served as powerful guardians and last-ditch weapons of war for the Four Kingdoms. It made perfect sense that the Mountain King would station what few were at the service of Granholm at the border keeps. If they fell, well, the results were what we faced at that very moment. What had happened to these three, being turned into some demented conjoined triplets of doom, I didn’t know but I could guess from the three nameplates that snapped overhead as the thing oriented on us: The Corrupted Right Hand of War, The Corrupted Left Hand of War, and The Grand War Golem.
The second important thing was only visible through the legs of the twenty-foot tall Grand War Golem and that was the base and first few feet of the courtyard’s Life Crystal. The carved stone of the pedestal it was set on looked fine but the Crystal itself was wrapped in sickly black tendrils of liquid darkness, the light inside of the faceted stone dim. On top of that, there was a barred gate in front of it, dented but intact. A last-ditch defense to allow a rallying point for the Keep’s defenders? It was possible but now it only s
erved as another obstacle.
Of course, the biggest of those obstacles was already orienting on our merry band. The War Golems stalked forward, moving in a staccato sequence as the two Hands, each ten feet tall on their own, shuffled forward one at a time before the Grand Golem stalked behind them. Spread out as they were with the steely arms dragging behind them, there was no direct way to outmaneuver them. To get to the Life Crystal, we would have to go through. Still, some of the side passages were open and maybe we could use those to our advantage.
“Burnie, pick a tunnel and go,” I shouted as I moved forward. “Kayla and Crysta, stick with Vanni and me. Everybody else, follow Burndall and get around these guys. Merina – “
“I can keep them alive,” the Dancer nodded.
“Then go!” Vanni was right by my side as we charged forward, her sword trailing sparks as she ran it along the ground, my banner fluttering behind me as I led with my shield. “We’ll hold them.”
“I’ll try to gather up the two Hands,” my fellow Warlord announced, “if you can hold the big guy?”
“My pleasure!” I had no doubt in Vanni’s ability (any doubts as to whether she was who she should be aside) and it was another vote of confidence in her that I could keep the Grand Golem at bay. At the same time, I found myself wishing as we came within striking distance of the trio that we had someone who could at least fake being an off-tank.
Behind me, I could hear the sounds of feet-on-stone as Burnie and the others cut right, Crysta’s bowstring pulling taut, and the incantations on Kayla’s lips. The Hands started to turn, curving in towards us, as hatches across the chest of the Grand Golem hinged open to show the various charged Gems at its disposal. A Defiant Display would throw a wrench into Vanni’s plan, so I bent down in mid-step, dismissing my banner as I plunged my hand into the crystal beneath my feet, activating my Fused Boulder Hurl Gem. A hunk of quartz ripped free with one easy yank as the linked Petrify spell infused the stone and with one mighty heave, I hurled it right at the dead center of the thing.
It was a dead-on hit, the boulder denting the outer shell as it exploded with elemental energy. Even as I made my toss, Vanni turned towards the Right Hand, accelerating forward with a burst of wind. Her Shield Charge caught the full attention the golem, throwing it back as she buried her shield into its ‘gut’. However, its backward slide was arrested by the massive arm it was attached to, barely arresting its forward march.
The Left Hand was still grinding its way in a slow arc towards us, a good thing as we already had our hands full, pardon the pun. The shell of both robots we hit crackled, coruscating energy flowing out from the cores to protect the heart of each, even as they made their counterattacks. The Right Hand’s, well, hands wreathed in black-streaked flame as it threw punches at Vanni as the Grand Golem’s array of Gems let loose a barrage of elemental micro-bursts from almost every elemental type.
Burndall: Don’t worry! We’re coming!
That was small comfort, but what was more comforting was the split-second reactions of our Promised. Before Vanni and I were hit, support was on its way. Kayla’s incantation concluded with a wash of protective ice over my form as the release of Crysta’s bow let out an explosive twang. Her arrow rocketed past me and burst right above Vanni’s shoulder, letting out a spiral of cushioning winds to surround her.
With the Wind Shield in place and two deft blocks, Vanni took only a few scratches to her armor. I wasn’t quite so lucky. Kayla’s Ice Shield absorbed the first four bursts of the Elemental Volley but the next six blasts all cut through. Five I blocked with my shield but the last wormed through all my defenses and hit me square in the chest. My feet skidded back a half-foot as I grit through the burn in my chest and throbbing shield arm, but I could take it. A little extra pain was what I signed up for by taking on the main boss, after all.
“Keep going, Max,” Kayla shouted. “I won’t let you down!”
Even as she launched into another incantation, I tried not to worry about the Left Hand as it accelerated its lumbering step, reorienting on the two healers. Vanni was on it, I had to remind myself, as I skidded to a halt right in front of the goliath and dropped into Watchdog Stance. The weapon ports on the big guy hadn’t closed so another barrage was likely, and the Stance was my best defense as well as my best weapon against that.
True to her reputation, Vanni spun without dropping her guard, lighting sparking up her Perseus Blade as she threw it across the courtyard. Champion’s Throw was a Gem I had wanted for some time now, and it made me smile through the pain to see it in actual use. Her sword plunged into the side of the Left Hand, again triggering an immediate reaction of elemental energy, before disappearing in a flash of light and reappearing back in her hand.
Though delayed, the rest of the Knights weren’t out of the fight for too long. Burndall and Dunya were in the lead as they burst out of a hallway behind the triad of golems, something I could only tell by their green outlines and the occasional flash of movement past the big guy’s arms. I cursed myself. While it had seemed a smart idea, everyone on the back end would be counted as out of our line of sight. That meant no tanks and neither of our single-target healers could help them if they got into trouble.
We would just have to keep all the attention on us in the front.
Shale: Dogpile the Right Hand first! We’ll disarm the thing first so we can concentrate fire on the core safely.
It was a classic strategy. Take out the adds then finish off the big boss.
Vindril: Affirmative, sarge.
The green outlines of the others arrowed towards the Right Hand. Though the Champion’s Throw didn’t do much damage, the Left Hand was now fully focused on Vanni, keeping it out of the immediate fight for a bit longer as it dragged after her. The elemental shields that had come to life around the golems remained intact so that would have to be target number one to deal with, but I trusted our DPSers to figure out the best way to do that. For now, my sole purpose was to keep the heat squarely on me.
Speaking of heat, unlike Lucar’s Octo-Flail, the Grand Golem seemed to have no real cooldown on its barrage. Another multi-spectrum light show of elemental death burst forth from its Gems as it kept track of me with clockwork precision. This time, my gift from the Vale of the Three Wolves guided my arm, throwing my shield in the way of every blast and answering them with a barrage of riposting swipes and bashes.
Even deflecting all the shots, I could feel the impacts shaking my entire body even through the alien metal of my Elohjin shield. At least these things were focusing on single targets so far and I still had plenty of tricks up my sleeve. Unfortunately, the Grand Golem’s elemental shield was like Lucar’s, absorbing all the Light Damage into itself, only allowing a trickle of the physical hits to get through. On top of that, the intensity of the shield continued to grow as each strike added a stacking Boon that I only caught a mere glimpse of with the speed that it stacked. Something was seriously wrong …
The Grand War Golem gains a stack of Retributive Energy (Light)! At ten stacks, the Light Nova Spell (a high damage Light Element AoE attack) will activate automatically.
The Grand War Golem reaches 10 stacks of Retributive Energy (Light)!
There was only time for me to let out a shout of alarm, not even the split-second to drop Watchdog to switch to my Walking Wall to shield Kayla and Crysta. I was guaranteed a block myself, but I could only hope the others could defend themselves.
And that was it. The shield around the largest of the golems erupted into a corona of burning, dazzling light that washed over the courtyard.
17
The only good thing that happened was that no one died in that Nova, not that I had anything to do with that. No, that came down to the quick thinking of the others, and that put a little pinprick into my confidence.
Kayla Dimension Door’d into the safety of a side passage as Nahma used a Smoke Bomb teleport to do the same. Merina managed to spiral into the Waltz of the Diamond Princess, getting a lay
er of shielding on the entire raid that ate a chunk of the incoming damage. Vanni got up a Walking Wall of her own, enough to shield Crysta from the blast. Combined, that was enough to turn what could have been an early death that cascaded into a wipe into merely a close call.
Still, we had an uphill battle now.
Shale: Sorry, guys, never seen that mechanic before!
Nahma: Don’t worry, Mr. Shale, we’re still alive!
Vanni: New fight, new mechanics, there’s no reason to be sorry.
That one bit of honest assurance was enough to keep my confidence from slipping entirely away.
Wazif: But to be sure, I’ll try to watch the Boons on all three. Perhaps we can use positioning to trigger and avoid the Novas? That hurt far too much to have to relive no matter how much healing we get.
Merina: And I’ll top everyone off with a big dance!
Kayla: Merina, watch out for pulling aggro like that!
But it was too late. It was too late the moment Merina had shielded the entire raid at once, but she compounded it by immediately turning into a new dance as we tried to regroup. I cursed myself for not thinking about it before. Group heals were notorious for stripping aggro, yes, but it shouldn’t have been an issue … if any of us had accounted for the boosted hate all ‘Tank’ Classes produced. As Dancers were supposed to be tanks, Merina’s heals and Support skills generated more hate and so made her a walking target. If Vanni or I had been right there, we could have done something about it but with Merina out of our line of sight, there was no way we could provide an immediate response if she were to pull aggro in this situation.
Crystalfire Keep Page 18