Mr. Whisker’s POV

Oh thank god. Thank god and the wonderful devs that we found a safe zone. “Guardians, we apologize for the misunderstanding earlier, and you have our promise not to do so again. If you don’t mind, we shall retire to the safe zone and prepare for heading further unto the dungeon.”

Most of the raid gave the guardians a bow or at least a nod of respect, and one of the Siyokoy waved us to follow him. He led us down the main thoroughfare, turning at the end of the reef. To the side was an arch of coral, with several mana stones embedded into it, though they were empty at the moment. The Siyokoy opened the door, hidden perfectly within the coral.

“Are all the handles made from the orange coral?” I asked, intrigued. It shook its head no, not willing to answer. I guess friend status only got you so far. Shrugging, I let the raid go through first. There were several steps carved into the coral, letting us drop down into a hidden cave protected by several inches of rock. There were plenty of hidden vents to get clean air, and more of those light stones embedded in the area.

Safe zone discovered!

Congratulations raid leader, in discovering a safe zone in the dungeon. You cannot be attacked here. In order to maintain the raid, at least 5 members must be logged in at the same time. While in the safe zone, the secondary resurrection penalty is negated. Health and mana recover at twice the normal rate.

“Alright everyone, listen up. We’ve had a hell of a time so far, and a few bumps in the road. That said, we’re still here. We’ve found a safe zone, a forward base for taking down this dungeon. As long as five of us are still logged in, we are still considered in a raid. So we get to take care of some things that are probably reaching urgent status right now. Dave, Lucy, Citadel, King and myself will stay to hold the raid for now. Everyone else take ten minutes to log out and take care of emergency items. Once everyone has finished with bathroom emergencies, we will start a longer rotation for food, and finally some sleep. Now, get going, you have ten minutes.”

Once everyone was logged out, I looked at our much smaller group. “Sorry, but I figured the leaders and members of my guild would be ok holding off on taking care of things.”

“No worries, I’m sure we would have done the same thing.” Dave said, storing his armor and plopping down onto one of the hammocks. “I’m sure you have a plan for the loot we just got?”

“I was hoping you would see the issues.” I said with a chuckle. “The boss was a team effort, I say it gets divvied up by the agreed upon split, though we can give Cinder the option for a bonus as a commendation for incredible effort. The rest was his doing. I’m up for letting him keep the spoils, or at most a tithe paid to the raid.”

“I’m ok with the tithe, as long as Cinder gets to pick what goes to the raid and what he keeps.” Lucy spoke up. “We can go by system chosen monetary value.”

“Let him keep it all.” King grunted.

“I’m with King.” Citadel agreed. “He took on incredible odds, especially for a mage. He deserves it.”

“Yeah, but if the raid was with him we could have made a difference.” Dave started.

“No.” King shook his head. “The raid would have gotten in his way. He used all area lightning attacks. Impossible with the raid there.”

“King’s right.” Lucy pointed out. “He got to go all out, without worrying about collateral damage.”

“Fine, fine, I see your point. Let’s just go with the tithe, he chooses what is paid out.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Game Announcer1: Holy cow, what a fantastic finish! I never would have thought that an Aboleth would be waiting them!

Game Announcer2: Indeed! For those that don’t know, Aboleth’s are incredibly dangerous. They can enslave and mutate people, and are born with a perfect ancestral memory!

Game Announcer1: That’s right! Melee won’t save you, as that cloud of mucus around them is incredibly poisonous. Truly a fearsome opponent. We have word from some of the developers that this is the first confirmed sighting of an Aboleth where everyone survived. For those wanting to go out and challenge the creature, be warned. It is recommended that you bring at least a triple raid group of max level characters. We didn’t see it, but the Aboleth is a level 275 legendary class creature.

Game Announcer2: I didn’t even see it face to face and I’m shaking in my seat! We do have some great news to pass along. The raid is going to be resting for at least ten hours, so those of us watching are able to take care of bodily functions. Feel free to log out at any time. At nine and a half hours from now, a mass email reminder will be sent to everyone who signs up, simply ask your waiter or waitress.

Game Announcer1: That’s all for us, we will see you in ten hours folks. Be safe, and come back to enjoy the rest of the show!

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Marty’s POV, Oblivion Café

“Derrick, you outdid yourself man.” I chuckled, having logged out while the raid got their rest.

“Thanks.” He agreed, digging in to a plate of nachos. “Was sho much fun.” He mumbled around a mouthful of chip.

“Manners.” Phoebe chided him, whapping his hand with a spoon. “I just feel bad that we didn’t get a raid wipe.”

“Not your fault hun.” Jon replied. “Never thought they would burn down the forest to prevent our attacks.”

“Speaking of attacks, what was the deal with that explosion?” I asked.

“Oh, the juggernaut drive meeting roots of the mountain?” Phoebe asked with a chuckle. “Yeah, that’s the traditional outcome. The AI gets conflicting information, and actually came up with a lovely solution. The juggernaut drive gets a damage cap of 15,000. Roots of the mountain can’t be moved, so it also gets the same damage. The conflicting skills triggers a major backlash, and both tanks are sent backward. Whatever they hit takes the max damage as blunt damage. Bones and organs are shattered. The tanks also take the same damage, so they are basically toast no matter what.”

“Ouch. How did they figure out how much damage?” I asked with a cringe.

“Crazy bastards at that knowledge guild. Offered to repair all equipment for the two involved, and had them trigger the skill in front of a city wall. The wall lost 15k durability, and got a free upgrade from the guild.” Jon explained. “Then they did it two more times, something about repeatability.”

“So You got obliterated by a human bullet, huh? That sucks.”

“Yeah. Broken ribs, internal bleeding, and landing in the remains of a forest fire did me in rather quickly. I just wish I could get another crack at that Mr. Whiskers. He figured me out entirely too fast.”

“I hear that. He’s gonna be target number one when they reach my place.” Derrick agreed. “Too bad we can’t go out hunting. That bosses must stay in boss rooms rule is killing me.”

“I know.” I agreed. “Imagine their faces if I appeared after they just beat one of you guys, only I had a resurrection scroll in my hands.” I chuckled darkly, and everyone joined me.

“Oh god, that would be so brutal.” Phoebe laughed. “You just beat a boss, and before you can recover you have to do it all over again, but they know all your tricks!”

“I’ld be done.” I shook my head. “That’s, well that’s just cruel. Hell, I hate phoenix battles just because of the half-life revive.”

“That is annoying. I would love to have it all the time instead of the spread of chances I’ve got.” Derrick acted sad.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, confused.

“Oh, that’s right. You’ve been busy running around and didn’t notice, did you? Jon pointed out the benefits of becoming a variant, and I did have a quest to hunt some phoenixes. Followed your directions on obtaining perfect hearts. Turns out, the eldritch giants have their own transmutation circle, and I became a variant. They call it semi-immortal, I call it a rude surprise.” He chuckled.

“No effing way! That’s gonna be awesome!” I laughed. “A giant boss that comes back to life. What are the chances?”

“Five percent for at full life. Sixty percent at half health and half mana. Thirty percent for quarter health and mana, and another five for failure.”

“God that’s going to drive them nuts. Any chance we can boost your full health result?”

“I have the option to increase it, but the death chance has to be the same.” He answered, shaking his head. “I could up it to fifty-fifty, but it’s just not worth it. I like having the higher chance of resurrection even if it isn’t at full health.”

“What happens to your regeneration after resurrection?” Jon asked.

“That’s the downside. No health regen for five minutes, then it is at half speed for twenty minutes.”

“So it isn’t all bad for the raid.” I muttered. “Pity that. Is that how it works outside of the dungeon?”

“Close to it. They doubled the time limits for when I’m a boss.”

“So, speaking of outside the dungeon.” Phoebe started. “How in the world did you manage to get an Aboleth to join the dungeon?”

“Well, that wasn’t me.” Derrick answered. “Turns out having Drow enchanters around can open up a lot of doors. They had an uneasy truce with the creature, and got us a meeting with one of its slaves.”

“It trusted a slave to negotiate?” Phoebe asked incredulously.

“Not at all. You have to know, these slaves are essentially blank minds that the Aboleth can control at will. It did send a greater slave as a go between for respect, but it didn’t show up itself.”

“Ok, so it sent a slave to the table as a puppet it could possess. What could you have that would bribe such a powerful creature?”

“I’m kinda wondering about that too.” Jon said.

“Slaves.” I answered. “High level slaves. It knew the rules, and that it wouldn’t actually lose any of its own slaves during the dungeon run. But if the guardians dropped enough, or the raid did something that warranted it to appear, it could try and take over any of them. It almost got lucky with that Cinderfy. Had he been tied up, the slaves would have taken the cross back and he would be enslaved.”

“They can’t do that, can they?” Phoebe asked. “I mean, there’s a reason enslavement collars only work on NPCs.”

“Relax, we talked it over with Emily.” Derrick answered her. “What happens is that Cinder is forced to take a third person view of his character, and he gets an explanation prompt. If the raid manages to save him, he gets the body back and a pretty major debuff depending on how long he was enslaved. If the raid wipes before saving him, or ends up not being able to save him for whatever reason, then the character is lost. He would have to reroll and start over.”

“Holy shit, that’s a brutal penalty.” Jon said, sitting back in his chair and staring off into space. After a moment, he continued, “Ok, so you give the Aboleth a win-win situation. Come play in the dungeon. You won’t lose any slaves, and have a chance for some incredibly powerful converts. What about the guardians? What’s the story with them?”

“I handled that.” Derrick spoke up. “They already battle the Aboleth. I knew they would see Marty had dealings with Lolth in the past, and wouldn’t listen to anything he said. I offered them a chance to see new techniques for battle, in such a way that none of their number or the Siyokoy would lose any members. If nothing else, they get a few days reprieve.”

“Derrick, were you a used car salesman in a previous life?” Jon chuckled. “That’s some incredible dealing right there. You made them doing us a favor sound like the greatest thing in the world for both sides.”

“And I did it all without lying too!” He chuckled. “Not something you want to do when one of them can read your mind.”

“Ok, so we have the legendary Aboleths’ strength figured out. How strong are these guardians?” Jon asked.

“Well, pretty weak individually. You saw the raid take down one of them. Together? You would probably need 8 of the 10 to take down the Aboleth. The sharks run interference, while the dolphins do some vicious ranged attacks. But the killing would be done by the octopi.”

“I noticed the colors, that usually means poison. What’s so special about octopus rogues?” Phoebe asked.

“Mages. They’re mages, not rogues. And instead of dual cast, they have octo cast. Imagine trying to defend from 24 simultaneous spells while rogues harass you and tanks prevent you from using your slaves. Plus they are all highly resistant to its psionic assault. The raid got damn lucky they took out a shark. Had they gotten one of the octopi or a few more members, and they would all be slaves right now.”

“Good god, can you imagine the horror going through the chatboards if thirty top level people lost their characters?” Jon asked, shaking his head. “There would be riots.”

“I think it’d be great.” I said with a chuckle. “It’s always good to give the top a shake up every now and then. Plus you could run a special event. Imagine if you had the chance to go and defeat the mutated version of a rival guild leader. If you defeat it before his original guild does, you get his gear. If the original guild does, they get their player back.”

“Holy shit. Holy shit! That would be absolute madness!” Jon got more excited the more he talked. “You could even have guilds trying to capture others and send them as sacrifices!”

“Any sacrifice that isn’t satisfactory gets the people making the offering sacrificed instead.” Derrick got in on the planning. “That could keep the offerings limited a bit.”

“If their offering is rejected, then you need to make those characters unsalvageable.” Phoebe offered.

“Do you think any players would be willing to use that as a start point as a monster race?” I asked.

“Well, the slave aspect is the downside. They would have a unique start with the aquatics bit. Definitely a chance for a unique experience. I think it should be worth a shot.” Jon pointed out.

“Phoebe, you’re a bit better with wording than most of us, do you want to do the honors and write up the proposal?” Derrick asked her.

“I had a feeling you would ask, and I’ve been doing it since the sacrifices.” She chuckled. “Anything else you knuckleheads want to add?”

“Tiers?” I asked.

“I dunno. This seems like it should be end game content. Really up the challenge. If we let them do it at lower levels, it’s just asking for abuse.” Derrick pointed out. “Maybe they’ll think of something else that could work. Capture an enemy and give them a week long debuff or something. Not stackable, and makes them immune to capture like that again for a month or something.”

“I like the delay.” Jon said. “Keeps someone from being targeted too hard and ruining gameplay.”

“Maybe make it a secondary class option?” Phoebe asked. “Hunter of Travelers?”

“OOoooh, I like that!” Jon said, eyes growing big. “Give them a slight PvP bonus when not in an arena, a few trapping and capture skills.”

“Counter them with a Liberator class. They get the same PvP boost, but only against Hunters. At least one skill to free others, maybe an aura to help those just freed to fight back.” Derrick tossed in.

“I like it.” Phoebe said. “New class, counter class to balance, and nothing obviously game breaking. Anything else before I send it off? No? Going once, going twice, gone. Proposal sent off to Emily.”

“Nice, thanks Phoebe.” I said, looking at my watch. “Ugh, I’m off to bed guys. I need to be online before the raid.”

“I’m heading that way too.” Derrick said, standing up. “Jon, Phoebe, see you tomorrow after everything is done.”

“Later guys, and kick their buts tomorrow.” The both replied, waving at us.