Woanclerichalf-elfLevel 34
Owen roguehalflingLevel 25
Rurn sorcererhumanLevel 19
Marmaladepaladin dwarfLevel 19
Spinespikecleric elfLevel 17
Group 2
Group Leader: Sapentia, sorceress, human, Level 15
TusclshamanhumanLevel 18
GlarinsonpaladindwarfLevel 21
KlandianecromancerelfLevel 9
Elarthashadow knightlizardmanLevel 11
Veridadruidhalf-elfLevel 13
Rauskelwizardhalf-elfLevel 14
Group 3
Group Leader: Grythiss, shadow knight, lizardman, Level 14
SavodamonkhumanLevel 17
HealyupyclericdwarfLevel 12
GrosmandredwarriorhumanLevel 12
OgwarriorgnomeLevel 9
Nullenthawarriorhalf-elfLevel 8
BirchdruidelfLevel 7
RahodclerichumanLevel 9
[Group] ‘Blackstorm,’ I said, ‘you were a warrior in Epic, right?’
[Group] ‘Level seventy, with Sword of Thunder and Ring of the Frost Giant King,’ replied Oveidio, with a pride in his voice that was entirely deserved.
[Group] ‘Do you think this raid could take on a level sixty dark elf in a toe-to-toe fight?’
[Group] ‘Not chance.’
[Channel Raitha/Klytotoxos] ‘Really? This is the Blackstorm. Of Dreadnought?’ asked my friend.
[Channel Raitha/Klytotoxos] ‘Yep,’ I replied, as if it was no big deal for me to be grouped with one of Epic’s most celebrated figures. It was cool to be Blackstorm’s group and raid leader. Like some Dublin gurrier leading an ex-Red Army general. Still, it also put me under more pressure not to make a mistake. I had to keep his respect.
Woan joined in. [Group] ‘I couldn’t keep up with the healing.’
[Group] ‘That’s what I think too. We’re going to have to kite.’
[Group] ‘Raitha, would you care to fly on over the village and see what the pulls are like?’
[Group] ‘Certainly. Every time I take to the air and soar above the world is a pleasure for me. Even if it were not my duty.’
As the other raid members began to arrive at the bridge, I felt a little tearful. Compared to my recent experiences leading raids in Epic, this was a small, ramshackle group of relative strangers. Their armour was poor and patchwork, only covering certain parts of the body; their weapons were uninspiring; their outfits were bare of the pouches and bandoliers of potions and miscellaneous magic items that high-level characters in Epic always wore. Yet here they were, in defiance of their official paymaster and despite all the negative crap they must have heard about me. This is what was affecting me so much, the fact that they were demonstrating faith in me under circumstances when it wasn’t easy to do so. Our group of five was no longer alone.
When the last of our twenty-three raid members arrived - Savoda, a human monk, running swiftly through the swaying reeds of the northern bank - I silenced the raid channel.
[Channel Rescue] ‘First of all, thank you. I appreciate that you are willing to risk losing the rest of your pay to join me…’ At once, several voices started up, with the gist of their sentiment being they were fed up of being told what to do by Blackridge and that they’d rather be sacked than carry on under his direction. After allowing a certain amount of this (after all, it was heart-warming and created a strong bond of solidarity between us all), I reminded everyone that the channel was for me and emergencies only. ‘Thanks to Raitha, our eagle scout, we know that we face twenty-one dark elves, of all classes, levels forty-four to sixty-two.
‘Here’s our strategy.
‘I’ll pull. I’m a vampire and immune to their weapons…No please don’t ask’—I had to head off a sudden outbreak of curious questions—‘I’ll explain afterwards, when we are moving up to Fort Hellsmouth. There are four singles, three doubles, a three and a core group of eight, including the level sixty-two, who is a fighter class by the look of him, probably a shadow knight. For the singles, limit your damage so that I can keep the aggro, be patient, I’m only level thirteen so if you are level thirty plus, you’ll have to be really careful not to become the target. If you do, start running because we can’t go toe to toe with any of these.
‘Which brings me to the doubles. I’ll take one, you will all kite the other. I know you are all experienced Epic players, so I’m not going to micro-manage. You’ll know what to do, but in short, we all need Haste buffs and to try to get Slow, Ensare, Block, Freeze and any other movement restricting spells to stick on them. Other than that, it’s run like crazy if you have aggro and throw everything you have at the mob if you don’t. The triple is the same, except Raitha is going to take the third on a long run and bring it back when one of the other two is dead.
‘When we are left with the final, large group, I’ll try to talk to them and persuade them to leave, failing which I’ll pull them all and you will try to drag them off me one at a time. We can discuss this more later. For now, follow me. And best of luck.’
Allowing a few whoops and cheers to ring out in the channel without comment, I led the raid forwards. From the bridge, a rutted path led towards the village of Middlehampton, passing between young trees whose silhouettes made them appear like bushy-headed sentinels. With both moons still below the horizon, it was a very dark once we were in the forest, not that I minded, my wolf’s eyes were able to see incredible detail, such as the scarlet hue to the Oshmari plant that was common here. In fact, these woods were celebrated in game lore for containing dozens of rare plants and woodland creations, which were essential for crafters. There was a spawning point at Middlehampton to facilitate those wanting to explore the woods and, it seemed, Blackridge had stationed a whole group based there who ended up unable to get into the game.
Careful not to run too far ahead of my raid - they were all jogging behind me at the pace of the slowest, a dwarven cleric with the ridiculous name of Healyupy - I followed the path past abandoned carts and cottages that ought to have contained friendly NPCs. They too were not respawning since the arrival of the army of the General of Sword and General of Bow. I drew up at a crossroads in a clearing. Here was a tall wooden sign, leaning over slightly and pointing in two directions: the east road ran to Fort Hellsmouth, it declared, while if we continued north we came to Middlehampton.
[Channel Rescue] ‘Gather at the signpost for buffs.’
They closed in upon me, from the tall, slender elves and muscular barbarians, to the short dwarves and gnomes, whose faces were at my eye level.
[Channel Rescue] ‘Does someone have group Haste?’ I asked.
Silence.
With a twinge of anxiety that ran through my whole body, I checked the raid screen. [Channel Rescue] ‘Tuscl, don’t you have group Haste?’
[Channel Rescue] ‘Sorry, Tyro, one more level is needed. Is self only at the moment. If we were playing Epic I’d have it, but they have made Haste a level harder to obtain in Epic Two.’ The shaman’s accent was Spanish and she sounded cheerful, despite the fact this was a serious problem.
[Channel Rescue] ‘Any suggestions?’ I asked.
[Channel Rescue] ‘Stick with plan,’ came Sapentia’s voice. ‘Until mob slowed, three with self-Haste take the kite.’
[Channel Rescue] ‘Good. All right, if you don’t have Haste go easy on the aggro until you hear that the mob is slowed. Those of you casting slow spells on the mob may use the channel to update us if your spells get through. Now, please disperse along the south side and stay back in the woods. If you ever get aggro, run the mob clockwise around the edge of the clearing.’
Drawing in a deep, calming breath as I watched the raid party spread out among the trees, I called out once more. [Channel Rescue] ‘Raitha, we are in position and good to go.’
About a minute later, his soft-spoken voice excited and high-pitched, Raitha cried, [Channel Rescue] ‘Incoming! A dark elf.’
Hurtling towards me out of the trees to the north was t
he eagle form of my old friend and behind him, a sinister leather-armoured dark elf, sword in one hand, dagger in the other. Howling to get our enemy’s attention, I leapt forwards and triggered my bite and claw attacks.
You have attempted to bite a dark elf rogue and missed.
You have attempted to claw a dark elf rogue and missed.
You have been hit by a shortsword for 0 damage.
You have been hit by a dagger for 0 damage.
You have been hit by a dagger for 0 damage.
You have been hit by a shortsword for 0 damage.
You have been hit by a dagger for 0 damage.
You have been hit by a dagger for 0 damage.
Wow, I’d have been sliced into tiny wolf pieces if I didn’t have my immunity to weapons; the rogue was striking twice as often as I was. As in Epic, dark elves were a deep purple in colour and this one had extraordinarily vivid blue eyes that fastened on mine in hatred.
You have attempted to bite a dark elf rogue and missed.
You have attempted to claw a dark elf rogue and missed.
You have attempted to claw a dark elf rogue and missed.
You have been hit by a shortsword for 0 damage.
You have been hit by a dagger for 0 damage.
You have been hit by a dagger for 0 damage.
You have been hit by a shortsword for 0 damage.
You have been hit by a dagger for 0 damage.
You have been hit by a dagger for 0 damage.
You have bitten a dark elf rogue for 8 points of damage.
At last! It was another fifteen seconds or so before I hit him again, this time with a claw. The raid channel was admirably quiet.
[Channel Rescue] ‘This will take a while, but let’s be patient. Allow his hit points to drop below eighty per cent before you come in. And ease up if there’s any chance of you overtaking me.’
[Channel Raitha/Klytotoxos] ‘How about I attack him from behind? It would be an easy matter to fly in at his head. If I get aggro I can always start the kite,’ Raitha suggested.
[Channel Raitha/Klytotoxos] ‘Thank you, but no. He’s very fast and might kill you too quickly for you to fly away. Plus, we really need you for the pulls; if you did die now, that would be a disaster.’
[Channel Raitha/Klytotoxos] ‘You’re right, of course. It is just that I am so eager. Should we defeat these dark elves and rescue our companions, that will be quite some achievement. One that must surely make you a hero and not the villain.’
Although Raitha meant this very kindly, internally, I gave a shudder. For an atheist and someone with a scientific way of thinking, I’m surprisingly superstitious. Like the Ancient Greeks, I am very anxious that the Fates not think I am taking them for granted. If I could have, I would have touched wood to avert their attention to Raitha’s words.
[Channel Raitha/Klytotoxos] ‘This is going to take a few minutes,’ I said to Raitha, ‘how about flying high and scouting in case random encounters or enemy reinforcements are coming down these roads?’
[Channel Raitha/Klytotoxos] ‘Certainly. Good luck.’
Because my view was completely filled by my opponent, I could not see Raitha flying off.
When the Rogue was at 80 per cent hit points, I deliberately said nothing. It would be a test of how attentive were my fellow raiders. They passed the test. All ran in on the fight, jostling for positions (not all the melee classes could fit), and now the dark elf’s hit points began to decline much more rapidly. My new team were good though, I noted with approval that sometimes a player would step away from the fight, out of concern he or she had done so much damage the dark elf might turn upon them. It was perfect for the situation here. We had more people wanting to fight than could fit around the target, yet none of them could fight for long without risking overtaking me in the mob’s hate list. Swapping places kept up the DPS, without any of them gaining too much aggro.
In the space of about two minutes, without any wavering of his furious focus upon me, we reduced the dark elf to zero.
The dark elf rogue is dead. You gain experience.
Miniscule experience, since it was shared throughout the whole raid. Still, one down, twenty to go. And, importantly, as I could tell from the cheers among my group members and the high-fives that avatars gave each other, we’d proven that despite our low level, with these tactics we could take down the mobs standing in the way of the return of seven of our high-level comrades.
[Channel Rescue] ‘Very nicely done. I liked the swapping in and out, we can do that again whenever we get down to one mob. Meanwhile, does someone here have lots of bag space?’
[Channel Rescue] ‘I do.’ It was Tuscl who answered, the shaman who was a level away from being able to cast Group Haste.
[Channel Rescue] ‘Okay Tuscl, you are the main looter. Keep it all for redistribution later, unless something drops that can help us.’
By way of answer, Tuscl kneeled beside the body and searched it.
[Channel Rescue] ‘Well there he is!’ she announced at once. ‘A half-empty Potion of Speed.’
Aha, that made sense of the rogue’s rapid sequences of blows. Unfortunately, Speed was not, as it might sound, a spell that increased movement. For that, we needed Haste; Speed was for increasing your attack rate.
[Channel Rescue] ‘Pass it to Oveidio please. Raitha, we are good for the next one?’
In succession, we killed a dark elf shadow knight, an anti-paladin and a monk. None of them presented the slightest difficulty. My raiders were proving very competent in managing the amount of hate they were incurring. The loot from these mobs was quite good too. Three pieces of armour (which were all upgrades and which I gave to the players of the highest appropriate level) and another potion. We therefore had Speed strapped to the belt of Oveidio and Restore Spirit in Sapentia’s possession.
Next, I made another announcement, hopefully disguising my trepidation. While I was encouraged by the fact we’d managed the single pulls well, to move to a kiting strategy was a real step up and test of our collective raid skills, especially for those running the mobs. [Channel Rescue] ‘Now we have to deal the doubles. Good luck with the kite. Pull them please, Raitha.’
[Channel Rescue] ‘Incoming, two dark elves!’ cried Raitha eagerly, ‘probably a warrior and a cleric.’
[Channel Rescue] ‘Kite the cleric,’ I told the raid.
Even before I could see our new enemies, I could hear them and also the beating wings and screech of Raitha in full flight. Around a corner in the path they came, tunnelled towards me by the line of trees either side. A rush of darkness; a flash of yellow ringed eyes; then looming over me were the two dark elves.
Ignoring the cleric I leapt towards the figure who was obviously the warrior (longsword; a raised shield of black iron, depicting, in silver, a scorpion; beautifully crafted chainmail with plates of some kind of dark metal upon it; greaves and armguards of the same plate metal, curved to fit tightly on his slender limbs; a helmet, equally delicately fashioned, open at the front to reveal his handsome, elongated face).
You have attempted to bite a dark elf warrior and missed.
You have been hit by a longsword for 0 damage.
You have been hit by a shield for 0 damage.
You have attempted to bite a dark elf warrior and missed.
You have attempted to claw a dark elf rogue and missed.
You have attempted to claw a dark elf warrior and missed.
We settled into our combat, me leaping up towards that wickedly beautiful face, him slashing and bashing with skilful moves that should have destroyed me in a few seconds. Instead, my hit bar remained resolutely full while his, by tiny increments, was decreasing.
Every minute or so, I caught a flicker of activity from beyond my duel. From the left edge of my vision, Tuscl would run around the back of my opponent and soon after her came the furious dark elf cleric, mace held high, long black hair streaming behind him. Then some of our other raiders would cross my vision: throwi
ng daggers; firing bows; casting spells. The whole battle would move out of view for a moment, before coming around again. Around and around. Around and around.
An unfamiliar female voice spoke in the raid channel.
[Channel Rescue] ‘He’s resisting cold. My fire-based dots are getting through though.’ This probably was the voice of a druid, since they had several damage-over-time spells that drew upon the element of fire.
[Channel Rescue] ‘Thank you Verida.’ We only had the two druids among us and one of those was just level 7, so it seemed like a safe guess at her name. ‘Anyone have any luck with a Slow?’
[Channel Rescue] ‘Is Tuscl here. I need to debuff him first and lower his resistances. My group members can’t get through with anything. Can someone else try to take the aggro?’
Evidently no one could, as the running fight came into view once more and then another time, always with Tuscl running ahead of the cleric. Still, I was content with the situation. Kiting is not easy, especially when you are trying to draw someone after you who uses magic. Every now and again the NPC will stop to cast a spell and if you are a too close, you’ll be blown up. A nuke was bound to be fatal if the mob was around level 50 and you are below level 20. On the other hand, if you just simply run off too far while the caster pauses, you’ll lose the aggro and someone else will fall victim to the spell. What you had to do – and this was not something I was practiced in – was slow down your run as soon as the NPC started casting, to move out of range but still close enough to keep him interested. If you did that inside the length of time it took for the mob to cast the nuke, it would break off from launching the spell and move forward again. Our shaman seemed to have the relevant skills.
There was another danger in this situation too: it would be very easy for one of the other players throwing missiles or spells at the cleric to overtake Tuscl in respect to how much hate the mob had for her. Then we’d see the NPC turn around and start taking out raid members until someone got the kite flying again, so to speak. These were all good players, however, and were managing the aggro carefully. Not one person was dead and while the battle was developing extremely slowly, the hit points of the two dark elves were becoming lower.
The Dragon's Revenge Page 21