[Misfortune Event! Snowed In!]

[The outpost’s airlock has been blocked. The malfunction will be corrected by tomorrow morning. Thank you for your patience.]

This was definitely the worst Misfortune Event yet. It guaranteed that not only was the attack delayed, but the entire team would put up a big fat goose egg for points on Day 8. I was feeling frustrated, the trio was feeling tired out, and the rest were feeling bored, So, I decided to go “what the hell” and shell out a total of 14,000 points to trade in the normal rations for high quality rations. Those wouldn’t arrive until the next day, but I also held a feast / “party” for us, giving everyone double normal rations. Betty even thanked me for thinking of their morale, though she phrased it in a backhanded way.

The trio wasn’t enthusiastic about trekking over 20 miles in the blizzard the next day. Honestly, I was having second thoughts about risking them myself, but doing otherwise was riskier. “The thing is, guys,” I said, “we need at least four of us over there to make sure Outpost 1 is maintained once we take it. The four of us can handle the blizzard for that long, but I’m not so sure about the others. If you don’t want to join in the fighting when we get there, that’s fine. Think about it—all those gains, and you don’t even have to fight along with me, come on.”

So, we headed out. With the trio along, it took about 3 hours before Outpost 1 came into view. “Map system shows a total of 14 life-signs,” I said, “someone check the map screen and see how many of them are MacIlisters.”

“Looks like all 10 of them are still alive,” said Caleb, “and the Crushers have lost four people.”

“Doesn’t sound good,” I said, “what I’m thinking is, the MacIlisters are expecting us, and they offered an alliance of some kind to the Team Magicka intruders. They killed the Team Crusher people together and are lying in wait for us.”

“So what now,” said Darril, “do we retreat?”

“Hell no. You guys keep a good distance though. We don’t want them coming after you if they manage to slip out.”

“They’ll be stronger than the usual contestant on this game,” Darril warned, “they clearly weren’t given the Primary Vein site so that they’d entertain people losing it. That means those ten people were chosen for the game to win.”

“They may have been called to play this game to win,” I said, “but they’re not gonna be chosen.”

“What’s a line like that from?” said Barnett, “I just got shivers.”

“Never mind that,” I said. It wasn’t really an appropriate reference at all, anyway. “I’m going in.”

It took 30 seconds for the hacking tool to open the outer airlock door. The inner door opened a minute later. On paper it was to purge the harmful levels of cold from the habitat. It also gave any occupying team ample warning time if this wasn’t a planned return of an expedition party, if they had bought the Airlock Alert item.

Judging from the obnoxious klaxon I was hearing, of course the MacIlisters had. Fortunately, it was also way more than enough time for me to prepare a Fiery Deflection as my opening move.

This lot of Throskarts were definitely stronger than the usual. The MacIlisters brandished strong-looking weapons, but the enemy who stood out to me the most was a large man with a brown robe and gnarled hardwood staff. While his three teammates sent mere Mana Bolts at me, and two of them got the damage applied to themselves instead, he cast some kind of Earth spell to try to entangle my legs.

My reflexes just saved me, and I shot a Flame Javelin at him and followed up half a second later with an Explosive Fireball. Flame Javelin had a defense reducing property, and the Explosive Fireball also damaged the two casters flanking him. The Earth caster was knocked on his ass, groaning. The other casters panicked at this.

I took a shot, based on my latest Conjecture #10: That this guy was the Magicka’s Captain. “Get your captain out of here if you want to survive!” I yelled as I dashed at the path I had created out of the allied flanking circle through the Earth caster. The casters were still wearing their anti-cold suits. My Flame Javelin had punctured its target’s, of course, but there were ways of ensuring someone could recover, if you’d bought them in advance in the game store.

Or alternatively, as I noticed to some amusement as I squared off at some distance from the outmaneuvered ten MacIlisters, you could carry a tube of the repair gel with you I guess. The mage who hadn’t been hit had rushed over and was applying the gel to the Captain’s suit already.

Two of the MacIlisters used bows, but it was hardly a problem to keep up Fiery Deflections to keep them at bay. I kited the entire group halfway across the dome and back, quickly building up lots of damage on them. They were much more resilient than I expected, though. Only three of them had actually fallen. I decided to step up my tactics.

I made as though I was making a break for the Vault. I took a little damage from an arrow to the back, but when I looked behind I saw that as I wanted, they were chasing after me in a panic. I aimed at the spot ahead of them that they would be and hit them with Firestorm. They struggled to leave the area of effect while I bombarded them with even more attacks.

Three of them made it out, none who had any fight left in them. I finished them quickly.

“Well, that worked up a sweat.” I contacted the others. “All clear. Let’s claim the prizes.”

--------

[#1: Outpost #17, 1, Team Firebrand: 3,842,937]

[Team Firebrand Game Rank: #117th]

We’d looted not just millions of coins/points, but a large supply of Luxury rations, before taking a few hours to complete the needed maintenance tasks in Outpost #1. I felt a bit silly buying the High quality ones now. The trio had set back off for Outpost #17. Darril would stay and be designated the Adjutant who would fulfill the Office role there for the rest of the game. Caleb would also stay—as the member of the trio with the least risky fighting method, he’d already managed to handle the monsters at a Green treasure site on his own.

Barnett would be going back and forth for a while, escorting three other team members to Outpost #1, and staying at the new acquisition to be in charge of defense. I was wary about counterattacks from the Magickas. Letting them leave yesterday’s battle alive had been a mistake.

“All right, that’s it for the easy part,” I muttered to myself as I left the airlock.