Strength: 5
Agility: 12
Constitution: 20
Intelligence: 25
Wisdom: 27
Charisma: 20
Health: 550
Mana: 620
Spells:
Demon Skin-Rank 2
Demonic Retribution
Summon Least Imp
Fire Blast
Sap Strength
Abilities:
Personal Spells
Goblin Fort
Alburet blinked, his vision refocusing to the dimmer light inside the fort. The interior was a hallway with lanterns providing illumination. Behind him stood the doorway out, visible through the white swirling mist that was the portal. He accepted the quest that popped up via notification when he entered.
Quest: Kill the Commander
Reward: Increased rep with all Stormguard factions
Bonus: Kill the two optional bosses and receive random bonus loot from Quartermaster.
“Good, we’re all here,” Gerald said, “okay, the layout here is quick and easy. There are three bosses total, two of them optional. The Jailer in the basement prison area isn't all that bad. This level has the Captain of the Guard, he summons adds throughout the fight and can be a little tricky. The real boss is on the second floor. Named Guglug, he’s the Commander of the fort. Guglug summons adds like the Captain, so when we do that fight you will get an idea of how the Commander works. He’ll also throw poison clouds around the room which means you need to be on your toes.”
“We have patrols and trash packs to kill first,” Marysue reminded him.
“Right,” he nodded at Mary, “the packs mostly come in shield, melee and caster trios. I will grab all of them. Kill the caster first, then the melee and finally the shield user. Any questions?” No one spoke so Gerald nodded, “Right. Alburet, give me your buff and then go to the end of the hall and tag the caster, then back around the corner behind me. We’re going to 'line of sight' pull as many as we can to make things easier to handle. Once I hit the caster you can all jump in on it. Leave the others alone in the meantime, I’ll have to work to keep them from aggroing on Mary as it is.”
Alburet cast Retribution on Gerald before walking down to the corner with the others behind him. He glanced around the corner, spotting the first group standing and talking in the hallway. He conjured his first Fire Blast before stepping out and hitting the caster right in the head like he was throwing a baseball. As soon as the spell hit the caster, the other two goblins ran at him and the caster started to conjure something of its own.
Alburet ducked back around the corner before the spell was done, ducking behind Gerald who was waiting. “Let the games commence,” Alburet said as he got another Fire Blast prepared. “Follow the leader, Bob.” Bob shook his head while he prepared his own Fire Blast, staying silent for once.
As the two goblins turned the corner Gerald shield bashed the sword goblin, stunning it for a second as he slashed at the Shieldbearer, scoring a hit. Both of them stopped focusing on Alburet and turned on Gerald instead.
Gerald did his best to mitigate the damage as he struck twice more with his sword. One hit the melee goblin, but the other bounced off the shield of the Shieldbearer. Just then the caster goblin turned the corner and everyone tensed, waiting for Gerald.
The Goblin Elementalist was level ten, but only had 558/600 health and 650/700 mana, it also carried a flaming ball in its hand. It tossed the fire onto Alburet, who yelled in agony as the fire burned him before Gerald could hit the goblin in turn. The others attacked the goblin caster with fury, easily cutting it down, allowing it to cast only one more spell with Gerald as the target.
The group turned its attention to the melee goblin and dispatched it easily as well, leaving the Shieldbearer for last. Alburet pursed his lips and hit it with Sap Strength as a test. The goblin looked stunned as the tower shield slipped from its arm and clattered onto the ground. Everyone else paused for a second as well, surprised by that turn of events. Everyone came back to their senses as Bob laughed and hit the mob in the face with a fire blast.
“Well done Master, stripping its strength made it unable to use the heavy shield,” Bob cackled as the group resumed the attack.
After the mobs were dead and looted, Gerald turned to Alburet. “Why didn't you do that on the pull?”
“I didn't know it would work,” he replied. “I was hoping it would drop the spear, I didn't think shields had strength requirements.”
“Yeah, my kite shield is right at the edge of my strength right now. It takes forty strength to use a weak tower shield. So I guess we know it has less than that once you weaken it. Next time we pull start with that on the Shieldbearer instead of hitting the caster. You seemed to feel that fire bolt he hit you with.”
“Yes, it was not fun. Playing full immersion sometimes is a right pain,” Alburet admitted. “Thankfully, when Marysue heals me the pain vanishes. We good for the next group?”
Gerald frowned at him but nodded, “Yeah. We go down the hall to the next corner and repeat the last pull.”
Once everyone was set Alburet looked around the corner to find another group of the same kinds of goblins waiting there. He buffed Gerald with Retribution then turned the corner and cast Sap Strength on the Shieldbearer. The Shieldbearer dropped its shield and kept trying to pick it up as the melee ran towards him and the caster began a spell.
Ducking back behind Gerald, Alburet advised them, “Caster is trying to cast and the Shieldbearer is trying to pick his shield up, it should take a minute.”
Gerald grunted and slashed the melee goblin as it came around the corner. “Okay, we’ll have a minute or so to kill the caster.” As he finished talking the caster came around the corner and he cut it. “All on the caster.”
The caster was down and the melee almost down when the Shieldbearer came around the corner. It slammed its shield into Alburet before anyone knew it had made it to them, stunning him for two seconds.
Gerald switched over to the Shieldbearer and used his taunt to get aggro. “Finish the melee first,” he said as he began to build more aggro on the defending goblin.
Once the stun wore off, Alburet cast Sap Strength onto the Shieldbearer, again stripping it of the protection it wanted and allowing the others to cut it down easily. “This looks like it’s working out good, but I think I'll stand further back next time.” Alburet chuckled as Marysue’s healing took away the pain from his bruised face.
“Well, looks like you might be useful for something after all,” Rocksure said with contempt. “Get your loot so we can move.”
“Is your mom yelling at you about the time, Rock?” Alburet asked blandly as he picked up his fifth Goblin Supply, finishing that quest for him as well as another Defender armband.
“Fuck you dude, just cuz I slept with your mom last night,” Rocksure said bristling.
“So you’re a necrophiliac? Guess you’re playing the wrong class then, eh?” Alburet rejoined quickly, smiling broadly, knowing he was lying about his mother being dead but wanting to needle the fucker.
“Knock it the fuck off, both of you,” Gerald said firmly. “The next one to snipe at the other will be removed from the group.”
Alburet held back the automatic 'yes mom' reply that tried to get out. He nodded, “We going to keep clearing the patrols before we tackle any of the bosses?”
“Yes. We’ll clear this floor before meeting the Captain in his room. It won't matter for the adds, but that's the way I want it in case we die during the fight.” Gerald said as he motioned Alburet on, “After you, puller.”