The day after the party, the Misfits started helping Seona level in earnest. Having leveled two other characters that were behind the main group now, the Misfits had developed a rhythm for pulling mobs and boosting their friends. Within a few hours, Seona was level 20 which was high enough to bring her up to some of the more advanced areas in the mid-30 range. After level 30, the group had found a steep drop off to the amount of leveling that could be done per hour or even per day. It was obvious that AO was designed to provide new players with significant training wheels for the first few levels as they learned their abilities and got used to the game.

Cheezus was currently level 44 and was one or two levels above everyone else. After he had scouted out the pirate city and learned that there were several high-level elites along the port next to the ships, the Misfits had agreed that everyone needed to up their levels to at least 40. Personally, Cheezus was hoping that he and a few of the other Misfits might hit level 50 before they had to challenge those creatures. Having seen them up close, and considering that most of the city would also be attacking them if they weren’t careful, it would pay to have a few extra levels under his belt.

However, since hitting level 40 he’d noticed that things had become even more difficult. He had started accessing areas high in the Nandewar Mountains that were now the encampment for several troll villages. The monsters themselves had also grown far more cunning. The early strategies of having each player tag a different mob and then the group focusing down one mob at a time wasn’t nearly as effective because the trolls used similar guerilla tactics and would often try to kill the weakest member of their party. That made it difficult to bring the lower level players like Smashit and Seona this far into the mountains, so while those two continued to grind alligators and swap mutants down in the low-lands, Cheezus led the rest of the crew deep into the troll infested mountain forests.

“There are four patrols circling the village. Two immediately in front of us, one to the east, and one to the west. The north is protected by a steep cliff face that I don’t think we can make our way down. The village is surprisingly well defended,” Cheezus reported back to the group.

Deathberry drew out a crude map in the snow below them based on the information Cheezus had gathered. “You mentioned earlier that you saw several casters within the village as well. It would be much better if we knew what they were likely to cast. They might even have divination spells setup to prevent surprise attacks,” Deathberry said, contemplating their options. They hadn’t run into anything like that yet in AO; however, Champions did have enemy casters that had used ‘seeing spells’ to divine where their enemies were coming from. Those had been some difficult battles and in that game they’d had the distinct advantage of being able to throw themselves against an enemy again and again with little consequence. Here, if their characters died so did their Gears and any chance of them ever escaping this crazy game.

Linca spoke up, “If we can capture one of the trolls from the patrol we can induce them to provide some answers as to what their casters are doing and how the security is setup in the village.” Linca was talking about torture.

Considering that she was a priestess of the light that was a pretty messed up suggestion. “Don’t you think that’s a bit extreme coming from you?” Cheezus asked.

“These trolls are evil and we’ve seen evidence that they have killed many of the survivors. There are several miners in that camp right now who are being held prisoner, waiting to become a troll’s dinner,” Linca replied, anger evident in her tone. “I don’t need a lecture about what’s right and wrong. The light is meant to vanquish the darkness and trolls definitely belong in the evil column.” The rest of the group looked at Cheezus. He was never going to get off her shit list with his righteousness. Linca might be a bigot but she wasn’t wrong about those trolls. Besides he was one to talk considering his modus operandi was to sneak up behind his enemies and slit their throats. Figuring out right and wrong in a fantasy world was a pain sometimes.

“Ok, I can’t disagree with that reasoning. I’ll go in first and try to get the drop on the eastern sentry. Thag, you stun him so we can get a gag in his mouth,” Cheezus suggested.

Everyone nodded and the plan went forward. The Misfits got into position and Cheezus used his stealth ability to sneak up on the lone troll. He quickly stabbed the creature in the back but was sure to minimize his damage so he didn’t instantly kill it. While the creature was trying to figure out what happened, Thag charged in and bashed it over the head, knocking it unconscious. That was one way of ‘stunning’ the troll. A few minutes later they had dragged the hapless creature to a cave that the Misfits had cleared out earlier for just this purpose. They gagged the creature and Linca went to work. Cheezus had to wonder how much she’d picked up from their former Mystic Assassin, Krok, because she made a scary arsed holy torturer. Only twenty minutes later, Linca had extracted all the information the group needed to know about getting into the troll’s village, what exactly their spell casters and village elders were doing, and the she had murdered the poor troll with her holy powers. Cheezus reminded himself not to get on her bad side.

It was show-time. They quickly dispatched the remaining sentries soundlessly. From Linca’s questioning they’d determined that the casters didn’t have any divination power which was a small miracle. However, they were strong evokers and could cast with some serious fire-power if the group let them. That wasn’t going to happen though.

Using stealth Cheezus snuck into the village soundlessly. There were about a dozen huts in a snow covered clearing that was the only thing on this mountain not covered with pine trees. Outside men were locked in rough-hewn timber cages and there was a large fire and pot in the middle that suspiciously looked like it was filled with the remnants of last night’s human stew. Linca was right about one thing these guys were definitely the baddies and torture was totally acceptable.

Cheezus hit the first caster in the neck with his backstab and killed one more before all hell broke loose. Seeing Cheezus out of stealth, Thag immediately rushed in and stun-locked two of the other casters. Charge and stun were powerful combinations that put even the most dangerous spell casters on quick lock-down. The problem was that this ability had a ten-second duration and a one-minute cooldown. Normally, that might be a problem except that the Misfits had dangerous casters of their own. Out of the darkness came several deathbolts:

-450 unholy

-347 unholy

-44 overkill

The first of the casters was blasted off their feet and into one of the nearby huts. A warrior rushed Cheezus with a large ax and he no longer had attention to spare to what was happening with the casters. Hopefully, Deathberry had been able to take them out. The ax came whizzing in Cheezus’ direction:

-227 slashing

He returned the favor with a whirlwind attack consisting of a dozen knives:

-157 piercing

-608 critical piercing

-127 overkill

The warrior troll went down after the barrage of knives hit him squarely in the chest. Spinning around Cheezus saw one of the casters about to hurl a fireball at Thag. He took two of his daggers and threw them into the sorcerer’s back:

-207 piercing x2

-82 overkill

The Misfits had cleared most of the combatants in the village. Many of the children and those without the ability to defend themselves had run off into the forest. Thag was fighting two warriors. One was similar to the one that Cheezus had fought and the other was a monster among monsters. The creature stood twelve feet tall and unlike his brethren he was armored in a thick tan armor which had a strange symbol on the front. Additionally, the troll was armed with a massive two-handed sword, the likes of which Cheezus had never seen. The creature had one good eye which was blood-shot red with rage and spittle flew from its mouth as it gnashed its tusks at the Misfits.

Cheezus looked around to see what had become of his companions. About thirty yards away Deathberry was locked in a contest of magic with another arcane user who must have been the village’s shaman while Linca healed him and cast defensive magic of her own. The two of them looked completely engrossed in their own fight and Thag needed immediate help. Cheezus finished by killing another warrior who stepped between him and Thag’s massive opponent. Looking at Thag’s health bar he could see that she was slowly giving ground to a more skilled foe. Fortunately, Cheezus wasn’t concerned about fighting fair so he did what he did best and dropped in low, sweeping up with a twin slashing dagger attack into the creature’s abdomen:

-137 piercing

-204 piercing

The creature didn’t even notice Cheezus’ attacks, but swiped him aside like a fly using the back end of its ax. Even still, he went flying into a tree:

-407 bludgeoning

-101 tree

Cheezus was bleeding pretty badly after just one hit. Thag was staggered and down to one knee. Their friends were still engaged with the other sorcerer so Cheezus knew he was going to have to pull one out of the hat for all them to survive. He scanned the creature carefully trying to figure out whether there was some weakness or any sort of gap in its defenses. There, he thought. The creature tends to favor its left side ever so slightly. The boss troll started to bring his ax back in a final blow to finish of Thag; Cheezus dashed in and threw a whirlwind dagger attack at the creature’s right flank. It started moving that direction and Cheezus shifted sides and brought his remaining dagger back under the creature’s right armpit and drove it home in a gap in the armor:

-704 critical piercing

Instakill

***You have learned a new General Skill: Discover Enemy Weakness***

***Congratulations, you are level 47***

Numerous other screens popped up and Cheezus swiped them away to reassess the situation. It looked like while he and Thag had finished off the leader of the troll village, Deathberry and Linca had finally managed to overwhelm their shaman. More importantly they had discovered something entirely new. Apparently, the game had skill sets beyond the standard ones you acquired by leveling. There were skills that required you to look at the world in a completely different way to see if there was a way to accomplish something.

Cheezus had a feeling that they might have just learned of a way to overcome the pirate city and steal the boat that they needed to rescue their erstwhile employer.