Azdel interrupted Tamara. "So. Does every room have a similar ten man group?"
"The first six rooms have that format, but it starts to favor casters the closer we get to the boss room. Myst didn't enter the boss's room, but it looks like the fabricator is in the boss room. There are ten rooms between us and the boss room."
Jare said, "Do we want to try and take all ten rooms? Or perhaps half of them?"
Azdel piped in, "I think we should take five rooms, possibly six rooms if Myst accidentally pulls the sixth room. I suggest Myst pull from the dead-end room all the way back to the room that joins the two hallways to the south of us."
Jare said, "That would give us 50 to 60 enemies to mow down. I'm down with that! That should be an easy two or three levels easily."
Auth nodded his head in agreement. "Sounds a lot better than trying to get 100 mobs at once. Technically we could do it, but it gives us a lot of rope to hang ourselves."
Azdel said, "So what can you tell us about the ambush site?"
Tamara replied, "The rooms are pretty identical. The floors are rough with stalagmites and stalactites similar to this room. I'd suggest that Jare pull the left corridor room into the hallway, then we can all run through the right corridor and meet at the joined room. If we do that, and time it right, we might be able to get both pulls to join and follow us to the southwest corner of the ambush room. I will hang back to push our stubborn mobs into place."
Azdel blew another smoke ring. "I volunteer to push Myst's mobs into place. I'm the more experienced mage and I've got some tricks up my sleeve if things go wrong. Plus gnomes have a natural knack of blending in with our environment when we stay still. Let's modify the plan a bit. Myst could get caught in a stun lock, so we'll have Arnaud keep a teleport ready." He stood up and carefully put his pipe away. Nodding at Tamara. "Start at your convenience."
Arnaud nodded, "I can keep a teleport ready, but I won't be able to help with anything else."
Tamara said, "Thanks, Arnaud. We know how mentally taxing spells are. Thank you for doing it!"
She turned to each of her teammates to make sure they were ready before giving Myst the mental go ahead signal.
Myst had to run slightly further than they needed to go, so Jare led them down the hallway at a slow, unhurried pace. Once they got to the intersection, Tamara stealthed and moved ahead of the party to find a good ambush spot. Tamara picked a spot behind some stalagmites. They weren't large by any means, but sprinting creatures will naturally pick the clear terrain over rough terrain or risk falling and getting trampled.
Tamara didn't have long to wait before the rest of her party ran to the designated corner of the room. Jare took a defensive position as Auth put his back to the wall, already muttering an incantation for iceball. Azdel moved into the hallway and quickly improvised on the plan and conjured an earthen wall in front of Jare to give the mobs something to work on. He stood still but didn't seem to be hidden. She glanced back to make sure Jare and Auth were doing good, and when her attention went back to Azdel, he was gone. Freaking gnomes! Seconds later Myst ran into the room and jumped over the wall, taking cover behind Jare. Tamara began tapping out her Magic Resistance debuff song. Her stealth skills continued to work. She could hear the mobs crying and echoing down the corridors as they came for their blood.
They had timed the rendezvous well, warriors from Myst and Jare's pulls entered the room at roughly the same time. They came as a large group, hollering and shouting war cries, they smashed into Azdel's wall. The warriors kept pouring into the room as the frontline made quick work out of the wall. Jare stood forward and unleashed his stun, knocking out the forward elements, even as more warriors entered, unaffected by Jare's stun. As expected, the mages lagged behind, just barely entering the room, enough to see Jare.
Since Tamara was well into the hallway, she was behind them. Her stealth dissipated as she began casting her spells, using both of her hands independently. Her air walls dropped, keeping large bodies from leaving the target area. Her iceball formed and smashed into the mages, but unexpectedly, they weren't pushed forward. Their Mana shields absorbed the damage and negated any of the secondary effects!
[Tamara: Bob89, can you redirect our orbs to push those mages in?]
[Bob89: Yes, but their mana shields will probably block most of the lateral motion. I suggest pushing them with air magic or gravity magic.]
Tamara glanced to see how Azdel was doing and was dismayed as his group of mages weren't budging as well.
[Tamara: Guys, start casting, I'll get the mages handled! Incoming stun]
Anticipating Tamara's stun, everyone had their ears plugged in. They could still hear some of Tamara's fury, so she gave them a heads up to keep them from losing their attention. Tamara unleashed her stun, catching all of the warriors and the mages on her half of the room. Unfortunately, Azdel's mages were too far to be affected. She entered her mental landscape to prepare her new mental rune, she would later call, "Condensed Gravity." Doing a quick calculation, she determined that at minimum, she needed a gravity field accelerating towards her companions at a 5 times gravity, so she opted to a field that would do 7 times gravity.
[Tamara: Incoming 7x gravity field focused on Jare. Brace for five seconds.]
The group as a whole had managed to unleash 6 iceballs and one Sleet Storm cast by Sol, causing havoc among the warriors and dropping their hitpoints by a third. They all paused to brace, knowing Tamara had near instant casting.
As she finished her rune, a dark ball formed, focused on Jare. The enemy was pulled rapidly, some were lifted right off the floor, towards the gravity ball. Tamara's orbs forcefully encouraged any lagging behind to catch up. As the group of monsters reached the target area, the group unleashed twenty-eight Fireballs, easily destroying sixty already weakened enemies. They were now half-way to the Boss room.
Jare has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 7 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 11 experience was earned!
...
Jare has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 7 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 11 experience was earned!
Tamara has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 6 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 9 experience was earned!
...
Tamara has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 6 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 9 experience 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 6 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 9 experience was earned!
...
Sol has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 6 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 9 experience was earned!
Auth has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 7 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 11 experience was earned!
...
Auth has defeated a level 56 being and has earned 7 raw experience! After bonuses applied, 11 experience was earned!
As he looted the bodies, Jare said, "That was pretty cool, they went down fast, and I still have some shields left."
Azdel replied, "The melee fighters went right for Jare, while the mages weren't moving. Thanks for your timely gravity ball, Tamara. Without it, we would have died, for sure." He gave Tamara a respectful nod.
Tamara replied, "Thanks Azdel! I have a few ideas to improve our chances. I still have some permacrete, so we might be able to put down a low wall, then fill up the rest with an earthen wall. This is so that even if they get through the earthen wall, they will still be at a disadvantage because they have to jump over it, and if you duck, the ranged need to get in closer to attack."
Auth piped in, "I've got a few large blocks of permacrete that I can put down while everyone sets up."
Moving to Auth, Tama
ra asked, "How many blocks do you have? And can you speed up the cure time? If your permacrete is in your mage dimensional space, please think about storing it somewhere more handy."
"Yes! Jare and I got some small sized bags, but I'll be using the storage rings" He began recalling permacrete blocks and restoring them into his storage rings. "If I use the transmute spell correctly, I should be able to convince it to transmute from a wet permacrete to a dry one."
After the group was back to full health and mana, they proceeded to the last cleared room.
Peering at his mini map, Azdel said, "Since Myst got the extra room, we can set up at the southernmost room. We'll be too far away for the next room to hear us." He continued to study the map as we walked. "The last set of rooms looks like it will be a bit harder setup than our last ambush site."
Tamara checked out how the rooms were laid out, and she could see what he meant. "It does look easier to pull all the mobs to us, then we can set up the room with a permacrete wall. But don't forget that these last rooms have more mages than the last set. Any chance they'll have new tricks up their sleeves?"
Azdel replied, "Not likely. Most dungeons spawn creatures that fall for the same tricks every time. But again, I should stress that there are some dungeons that inexplicably create monsters that learn over time. It doesn't mean the learning is fast in any way. But over centuries, an easy dungeon can become a death trap. It doesn't seem like it at first, but once you're in deep, and the riches are flowing, the monsters will get smarter. Lead you into traps, or change their tactics to overcome your strategies. Adventurers talk and the dungeon rating goes up."
"What are you worried about then?"
"The rooms seem to be smaller. We might have some trouble getting out of the mage line of sight. But your gravity ball worked like a charm last time." Azdel nodded his head as he came to a decision. "We will setup in the first occupied room and let Myst pull the last three rooms."
Tamara relayed the plans to Myst. They were in place, waiting for Myst to bring thirty monsters to them. She was worried. Myst's last pull had brought thirty enemies to them, however, the additional room had a much longer head start than the current pull. He had to start at the boss room, run west, then run north to get the top room, then run back south, through ten monsters, and finally run to the group. He's almost certain to take a lot of hits. "Guys. I'm a bit worried about this pull. Let's make sure to ready some spells to heal Myst. Just in case."
[Tamara: Bob89, what happens if Myst runs out of hp?]
[Bob89: He will despawn. I'm sure he will put himself back together eventually. But he might not be exactly the same as before.]
[Tamara: What do you mean not the same?]
[Bob89: Well. If it takes years for him to regenerate, then he won't stay the same after all that time.]
[Tamara: Years??]
[Bob89: Yes. Even though, he's based off of my nanocells, he can't make more cells with just any material. Just don't let him run out of hp.]
[Tamara: What about the stored Myst?]
[Bob89: Ah. I did not use that in my calculations. If he leaves enough nanocells in the storage space, he'll be able to repair himself quickly. I recommend that you never allow Myst to fully emerge.]
[Tamara: I'll have a talk with him about it. Thanks for your advice!]
[Bob89: NP]
With that last comment, everyone was in place.
***
The group rushed forward to take the room, and Tamara gave Myst the signal to start pulling. Entering the room, they immediately got into position. Jare started his normal routine, while Tamara, Azdel, and Sol started building a small permacrete wall. Jare got off his stun, then jumped over the small wall. It was about waist high, tall enough to duck under and impede line of sight, while small enough to let out attacks. They were taking advantage of the fact that self guiding spells needed to be line of sight. If they were fighting intelligent enemies, then they wouldn't be able to pull off this tactic.
Tamara took advantage of the stunned enemies to stealth and move behind the enemy line. In this battle, Azdel was staying behind the wall, since they only had one enemy front, while the last battle had two.
The mages began their area attacks to freeze, slow, and push the monsters closer to the group. Myst had finished gathering two rooms, and was on his way back, so they needed to stall a bit longer.
Myst sped through the room and jumped over the wall, stealthing immediately once he was out of sight. The rest of the mages continued to cast sparingly. They needed most of the monsters to be gathered before going all out. The mini-map showed the last lagging mage to enter the room, most were on the edges of the room, out of range for their area attacks. Tamara unleashed her sonic scream, stunning most of the enemy. As she screamed, she was simultaneously working on the runes to create the gravity ball, finishing just a couple seconds after her scream went into effect. The goblins as expected were pulled off the ground towards the group.
As the crowd thinned on the outer edge of their range, a massive named orc stood out. He was resisting the gravity ball by weight alone, even as his underlings were drawn into the target area. Basher the Orc Lord was huge! His legs and arms were the size of medium tree trunks, while his weapon was a huge steel and wood spiked club. Anyone caught by that monstrosity of a weapon was going to have a bad day! He was a mini-boss, not to be underestimated. The monster twirled his club around, and the very air coalesced into concentrated packets of air daggers, catching everyone in its path.
Freezing blasts smashed into the goblins, trying to knock them out of the target area, but the active gravity ball pulled them back in. The regular goblins were blown back the furthest, with little to no resistance to the spells, but the mages with their higher resistances were simply pushed a couple of feet before returning. The mini-boss was the least affected, in fact, the magic seemed to have no effect at all on him. They needed to mow down the goblins fast, then deal with the boss. Despite the disorientation of the gravity ball, the goblins quickly found a stable position and attacked the group.
Tamara finished her latest cast of iceball, directing it at the mini-boss just to see it smashed out of the air, the excess force pushed her back despite her distance. Watching the orc shrug off their attacks, she called out, "Jare, we need this guy tanked!" Against multiple enemies close to her group, she was effectively useless because her area effect spells would hit her friends, so she switched gears. She was done herding the goblins, now she'll make that orc regret coming out. First, she needed to give her group a small break. She used Sonic Scream, watching all the goblins fall down stunned, however, the orc readied his club for another air attack. Mini-bosses were tough buggers. It wasn't unexpected, but she still sighed in disappointment before engaging the orc.
Jare shouted, "Tanking the orc. Everyone sticks to the plan!" As he stepped over the wall, pushing through the press of stunned goblins. The orc was too heavy to be affected by the gravity ball, but he was still knocked out for the full duration of the sonic stun. He opened up by activating heavy strike, triple strike, and smashed into the orc with all his power. "I'm gonna chop you down, green tree!" Jare taunted, successfully gaining the orc's full attention. Just in time for Myst to get in a pair of backstabs. Myst's attacks scored massive damage and dropped the orc's HP down by a third. Jare Stun rushed him, but the orc was unaffected by the stun. Instead, it roared and went berserk, its muscles bulging out and doubling in size. Its fist smashed into Jare and knocked him across the room.
Bob89 guided the orbs to attack and disrupt the goblins. The mini-boss was too tough to be affected by the flying balls of metal. They were fairly fast, fine against normal opponents, but a massive, armored orc wouldn't even acknowledge the orbs unless it hit something critical like his face or eyes. Unlikely at best, but possible.
The group unleashed 28 Fireballs into the concentrated grouping of enemies. The conflagration lit up the whole room and blasted everyone back several steps. Even the mini-boss was push
ed back, stopping it from following up on the prone Jare. At least half of the mobs were killed by the explosion, but already the survivors stood up and gripped their weapons for revenge.
Sol, unleashed his Sleet Store, freezing and slowing a wide berth around him. Auth, Azdel, and Arnaud launched iceballs to further the effect.
Jumping to his feet, Jare Rushed the min-boss again. However, Tamara had stealthed and backstabbed the mini-boss, coupled with a Gravity Theft, just as Jare rammed into him, knocking the boss to the ceiling and bouncing him off the walls. He roared with frustration as he was spun and knocked around. Turning her attention back to the fight against the minions, she found only a mound of frozen corpses. Everyone began using their ranged spells and weapons against the mini-boss. Jare's Whirlwind ability sent the final blow that downed the boss.
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 experience 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!
Escape From Litchfield Page 27