“The loot is a necklace with +2 Wisdom,” Gerald said holding it up.
Alburet and Franz both rolled to see who would get the necklace. Franz ended up with a 10 much to his dismay until he saw the 1 that Alburet got again. “Ha, dude your dice hate you,” Franz said as he took the necklace and put it on.
“I wonder if anyone sells better dice?” Alburet said out loud, half jokingly.
“Ha, yeah, dice with a +10 modifier,” Franz said, “we could call them crooked dice.” That got a chuckle out of the group as they considered the idea.
“No, ‘cause then the rogue type classes would have abilities like, ‘Once a day win any roll with a 100’, called loaded dice.” Alburet said, prompting more laughter.
“Guess you should have been a rogue then,” Franz said, “maybe then you could roll above a 1.”
With that as the last word the group went upstairs to the second floor. Alburet looked at the two bodyguard mobs and pursed his lips before smiling. “Hey Gerald, why don’t we split the group here? Tiny, Bob and Fluff on the one to the right. You, Franz and me on the one to the left. Since they have a linked enraged when one dies we might be able to whittle them down enough in tandem to defeat that mechanic.”
Gerald considered it and nodded, “Good idea. We’ll do it that way. You sure Tiny can hold up for the entire fight?”
“If it looks like his isn’t dropping first I’ll chip in on it. As long as his dies first it should be fine.” Once everyone was ready Alburet put Demonic Retribution on Tiny and Gerald. He could only give one of them Demonic Haze, so he gave it to Gerald. Once the buffs were out Gerald and Tiny rushed up the last few stairs to the two mobs.
Fluffball and Bob killed the mob on Tiny about twenty seconds before the one on Gerald died. “Well done,” Gerald said as they regained their health and mana. “Just the boss left.” He told Franz the mechanics before turning to Alburet. “This one was a bitch with the four casters at the end. We died twice on this boss on our second run. Do you think Tiny can hold up?”
Alburet nodded as his mind worked on the boss fight, “I’m sure he will be fine if we all focus kill the casters in order. If not, me and Fluff can tank a single one each like we did last time.”
Fluffball winced, “I was just getting used to not being pummeled, too.”
“I will not let them harm you,” Tiny told her in his gravelly voice.
Fluffball grinned up at the destroyer, “Ah, thanks big guy.”
“The master likes you, so…” Tiny began and Bob began to laugh.
“Enough,” Alburet said quickly, “let’s get buffed up.” Fluffball was a little pink but smiled a little noting Alburet’s own blush. Alburet didn’t look over at her though, and missed the smile as he tagged Gerald with his two short term buffs. “Okay, we’re ready,” Alburet said.
Gerald led them into the room as he rushed at the goblin. Alburet called out a warning as each poison vial was about to be tossed, which helped Franz and Marysue avoid the ones aimed at them. Tiny stood next to the door waiting to pick up the adds when they spawned. The first set Tiny picked up and held without issue. Alburet was able to renew Demonic Retribution on Tiny during that first phase.
The first set of adds died quickly, allowing the DPS to go back to the boss as Tiny stood beside the door waiting for more adds. Alburet continued to call out poison vials which let Gerald already be in motion when the boss tried to smash one behind Gerald. Gerald called out his thanks as he moved to tank the boss at a new angle.
The tricky transition came up at 50%, with adds coming in and the boss tossing a poison vial at the same time. It was here that the party learned the easy way of dealing with the adds. Alburet had shifted closer to the door as he was buffing Tiny again when the boss hit the 50% mark. Alburet dove out of the way as the vial broke right where he had been standing next to the door. Tiny stepped out of the way as well and was turning to pick up the adds.
As the adds rushed into the room they stepped into the poison cloud and began to cough and choke, their life dropping by the second. Tiny slammed one with his shield and slashed another with his axe, keeping them from moving through for another couple of seconds before he turned to the third add. By the time the two Tiny had hit left the poison cloud they were at 50% of their life. The DPS piled in quickly and killed them in short order as Alburet grinned like a madman.
“At 30% all DPS to the door. Marysue, you as well. We want that poison cloud there for the last set of adds, it fucked them up bad. Order of killing the four casters are the one on the far side from me, then closest to me, then the two who will be in the middle as they’ll take another second or two to clear the poison.” Alburet called out to the others.
They shifted around and were ready when the boss hit 30% and tossed his poison vial at the clump of them. All of them were able to vacate the area without taking damage, leaving the cloud directly in front of the doorway. Alburet laughed as his plan worked flawlessly as they dispersed into the room, away from the cloud. As he had predicted, the next set off adds had to step into the poison cloud and started to cough as their life drained away. Tiny did his best to keep the goblin casters in the cloud as the DPS focused the casters down quickly. The casters each only got a spell or two off before they all died.
Franz, Alburet and Bob stopped casting for a bit to regain some mana, waiting for the last 10%. Tiny joined Fluffball in DPSing the boss down during that time as Marysue dodged the 20% poison vial. At 12% the trio of casters started back up DPSing the boss and waited to see who was going to dodge the last vial as frenzy started. Alburet noted the boss turning towards him and was moving to avoid the last vial before it got to him.
During the frenzy phase Tiny taunted off Gerald at 5%, taking the brunt of the damage while Gerald got healed up some. Gerald taunted back at 2%, as Tiny was taking an absolute beating during that time. The boss died to a cheer from the group as they each checked their pop-up loot. Alburet smiled at the Reinforced Staff he received, which gave a +2 to Constitution and did 40 damage, which was better than the 35 his current staff did. He put it away wanting to use his old staff until it broke before using the new one.
“Good to know the poison can damage the adds,” Gerald chuckled. “That would have made the fight way easier yesterday.”
“Well now we know,” Marysue added, “fast thinking about the last set of adds, Alburet.”
“Once I knew it worked it seemed like the best idea,” Alburet shrugged. “I’m glad it worked, the boss could have easily tossed that vial at Gerald instead.”
Gerald nodded, “Yeah, but the odds were stacked by the door. I’m going to adopt that strategy as well as keeping the idea in mind for future boss fights. Well, we’re done in here. What are your plans, Alburet?”
“Going to farm goblins with Fluffball, unless she runs off on me.” Alburet said as they began to walk out of the dungeon. He noticed that the others all walked along with them, as if they’d forgotten to run since he was walking.
“No, I’m good for a bit yet,” Fluffball replied to Alburet. “Are you going to head off to learn your ability first?”
Grimacing, Alburet shook his head, “Nope. I was told by a captain in the guard to stay out of Stormguard for a couple of days. So it’s going to be at least another day before I go back.”
The others all looked at him weirdly. Marysue spoke up first, “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would an NPC guard captain tell you to stay out of Stormguard?”
“I kind of knocked out one of his guards when I was attacked. Did you know it’s illegal for a Summoner to have demons out inside the city walls?” He asked the question to lead them down a false path about why he’d been attacked.
“So you were attacked and then told to stay away?” Fluffball asked. “What the hell? That doesn’t make any sense. What happened to the guard?”