TQG 41. Courtyard

The auctioning off of the rewards from the Practice Dummy Golem took ten minutes, and the contest was fierce.  Knowing that there would never be another opportunity to receive these items, many of the players bid extravagantly with their contribution points, particularly on [That Cloak That Malkios Used To Wear].  Six other items dropped: a set of grieves, a pair of gauntlets, the bastard sword that the golem had been using, and three rings.

“Okay, so that wasn’t too hard, just annoying,” Father said.  “Don’t expect that things will continue to be easy.  Scouting squads, we’ll be taking the stables next.  Go figure out what we can expect.”

Thirty rogues and ten rangers entered stealth mode and made their way to the stables.  I could only see them thanks to the fact that I was allied with them at present.  The scouts were gone for just a moment before they came running back out from the building, a colossal stallion made of iron and shadow breaking through the stable wall to chase them.

“It saw through our stealth!” one of the scouts shouted.  “Incoming!”

“Tanks to the front!” Father shouted.  “Shadow aspected horse golem!  Fire and light damage are back on the table!  It’s a shame we left half our [Pyromancers] on the bench, but we’ll use what we have!  Melee, attack from the flanks, do not stand behind the horse unless you want a horseshoe to the skull!  Tanks try to hold him steady – nope, seems it’s a charger.  Tanks, spread out and protect the healers!”

The raid lit up with magic as the casters began flinging their spells at the rampaging stallion, which charged and trampled anyone in its path.  It did not seem to target anyone specific, but rather seemed to select its targets at random.  Fortunately, while the horse moved quite fast, the raiders were skilled and avoided being trampled.  Despite the danger, melee did their best to ambush it when they came near, but it was the ranged who carried the day.

Twice did the stallion golem charge Tarisha and I.  The first time she used [Wind Walk] to arrive in a completely different part of the courtyard, while the second time she was able to simply avoid the rampaging beast without the use of skills.

Either charge would have been the end of me if it were not for Tarisha’s skilled avoidance.  I was quite overwhelmed.

“There’s no aggro table, so go completely nuts folks,” Father shouted.  “Just don’t get trampled, that’s a Dee Kay Pee minus!”

As though he had jinxed the Traveler, a second later the horse golem trampled an [Elemental Archer] who had been lining up a shot.  The green motes of light dissipated a second later.

“Wesly, that’s a dee kay pee minus!  Come on man, you’re ranged!  I’d overlook it if you were a rogue, but you’re better than that!”

I was in a panic throughout the fight, thinking that things were out of control and that the horse boss would trample us all.  However, only three travelers were lost beneath its hooves, and after ten minutes of chaos the horse fell over and burst into motes of darkness.  The raid let out a cheer.

“Okay.  So I was expecting a bit of trash before the next boss, but I’m just fine with how things are working out.  Let’s see what Are En Gee has for us this time,” Father said, and he stepped over to the chest that materialized.  Yet another cloak had dropped, and a [Lucky Horse Shoe] which would summon the shadow golem stallion as a mount.  That particular item went for more dee kay pee than all the rest of the items that had dropped so far together.

“This is somewhat intimidating,” Tarisha admitted.  “These raiders are even more skilled than I thought they would be.  If we had come in here with <Peasant’s Revenge> and her sister guilds instead, we would have lost twenty of our number, at least.  They have only lost four, and have equally skilled replacements simply waiting to fill the empty spots.”

“You’re as good as they are,” I told her.  “I know you are.”

“Don’t worry, I am confident in my own skills, Lord Hail.  I shall keep you safe,” she promised.

“I know you will, Tarisha,” I said.  “And Father will clear the raid for us.”

“Alrighty ladies and gents, next up is the southern guardhouse!  Scouts, lead us in.  Be careful not to face-pull this time, okay?  Assume that anything you see can see you,” Father said, and we moved to comply.

I never went inside the guardhouse.  Instead, teams of twenty scoured it room by room while I waited outside with Tarisha and the majority of the raid.  Within were humanoid [Living Statue] golems dressed in guards’ outfits, but they were not boss monsters and did not require the entire raid to put down.  Clearing the barracks took twenty minutes, and was somewhat boring from my perspective, until I noticed something on the roof.

“Father!  What is that!” I called, pointing.  Surprisingly, Gideon looked at the indicated location and cursed.

“Everyone stop what you’re doing and get outside, now!  The boss is spawned and incoming!” he shouted, and as he spoke, a nine-foot tall suit of armor leapt from the roof of the guardhouse, fire and smoke emerging from under its faceplate and between the gaps of its black plate armor.

“Enemy is a fire-elemental wearing armor,” Father shouted.  “Adjust damage profiles accordingly.  Abilities unknown, so prepare--”

The boss held out its hand and a giant sword of flame manifested, then the elemental charged into those who had been waiting outside for something to do.  My father rose to the challenge, pulling a silver greatsword out of his inventory and meeting the foe head on while the rest of the raid rushed to organize.  He glowed bright white as buffs and shields were cast upon him to prevent any damage that slipped through his fierce defense.  Several blows did land upon him, but with the mitigation, he survived.

“I am holding aggro, keep me alive until we get in position.  Boss appears to have a traditional aggro table and is tankable during this phase.  Hold dee pee ess until everyone gets their act together and we’re ready to proceed,” Father said calmly, his sword connecting with the elemental far more often than he himself was struck.  He was unable to avoid all of the blows, as the fire elemental knight was quite skilled itself, but he put my own swordsmanship to shame.

The guardhouse was quickly evacuated.  Several of the groups came running out with their ‘trash mobs’ still alive, and the raid collectively put them down swiftly.

“I am running out of cooldowns,” Father announced.  “I need someone to switch out with me.”

“I’ll take him,” a large man said, stepping up to the front.  He had dark skin and a bald head, and he wielded a battleaxe with a shield.

“Buffs and shield and hots on Nial.  Switching in five, four, three --”

The rest of the countdown was silent as Nial switched in with my father and my father retreated.  Nial skillfully interposed himself to prevent the elemental knight from chasing after my father and quickly took control of the fight.

“Okay folks, looks like everything is under control.  Begin dee pee ess, but keep an eye out for adds!”

Rogues and warriors charged into melee range as the mages let loose with their magic and the few rangers in the raid began firing their arrows.

“Approaching ninety percent health.  Keep an eye out for any phase transition,” Father called out in a move that proved to be prophetic.  Phase one ended, and in phase two the tactics changed considerably.  The giant sword became a spear, one which the elemental knight threw into the range at any group.  The spear flew swiftly and exploded, dealing massive damage and inflicting ongoing burning damage that would have finished off the most hearty of the raiders were it not for swift intervention from the healers.  After each explosion, the knight would manifest a new spear and repeat the process.

“Shit, watch the en pee sees!  Keep the king alive at all costs!” Father called.  “Tarisha, you had better keep Hail alive!”

“Leave it to me,” Tarisha answered.  Five times the flaming spear landed near us, but each time Tarisha had already activated her [Wind Walk] ability before it landed, bringing her to an entirely different part of the courtyard before the explosion could end my life.

Terrified, I buried my face in the crook between her neck and shoulders.

“You’re safe in my care, Lord Hail,” she assured me, although even she sounded concerned.  We moved to the limits of the courtyard to find that a wall of force was keeping us from escaping.  The distance from the boss did help with Tarisha’s avoidance, however, and so we remained at distance.

Father called out to watch for possible transitions every five percent of health, but it was not until fifty percent that he was finally correct.  The elemental knight’s spear transformed into a warhammer, and it began leaping into the air, coming down in a thunderous shockwave that knocked our allies off their feet.  Immediately after landing, the knight would swing its mighty hammer of fire at the nearest player until a tank re-established control.

“Tanks, spread out! Protect the healers, but more importantly protect the en pee sees.  It’s game over if they die, people, so keep them alive!” Father shouted.

At twenty-five percent, a strange thing happened.  The elemental knight turned toward the stables and whistled.  However, nothing came charging out of the stables to answer his call.  Father saw this and laughed.

“Good thing we checked out the stables, boys and girls, this would have been a nightmare if we’d gotten both bosses at the same time!” he called.

Unable to summon his mount, the elemental knight instead summoned dual scimitars of fire and began laying about with rapid, nearly unavoidable strikes.  Three tanks stood up to soak the damage, Nial and my father and a tall woman I didn’t know.  They glowed white and green and gold alternatively as healing magic kept them alive to face the onslaught.

I watched in awe as my father and his allies repeatedly soaked attacks which would have done many times my maximum health worth of damage.  The damage the boss was putting out was higher than at any previous point in the raid, but the healers and Father and the two other tanks had the elemental knight firmly under control.  The knight could not say the same, and the damage the raid inflicted upon it quickly reduced it to zero health.

With one last burst of fury, the boss exploded, dealing little damage to those around it.  Its armor clattered to the ground, empty, and a moment later the armor returned to the darkness.  A cheer went up through the raid.

“Alright folks, that’s three bosses down of an unknown number of bosses,” Father stated.  “We’re making good time despite this not being a speedrun, but we still need to be careful.  It’s unclear whether the raid has been throwing us curve-balls or if this is standard for the new instance.  Expect the difficulty to spike at any time.  But first, we distribute loot!”

Once more, the items were auctioned off one by one.  Another [Malkios’s Spare Cloak] had dropped, as did fire elemental weapons, a greatsword and a warhammer.  And a few more accessories which generated some interest.  Aside from the cloak, none of the items were hotly contested.

“Alright folks, we’ve done as much as we can outside.  It’s time to head into the keep itself.  Keep an eye out for shape-shifting golems and hostile candelabras!”