The Path of Death, Destruction, and Mayhem

Chapter Five: Amateur Hour

Finally vindicating myself of the Iron Golem stigma I decided to change my homebase. Keeping to the South Dires as my main hunting grounds while moving my lifestone tie to Glenden Woods proved less time consuming than I thought. I ran north from Mayoi to Hebian-to and used the portal to Cragstone, losing my tie to the South Dires portal by Mayoi. I then ran from Cragstone to Glenden Woods, lifestoned, and used a Subway gateway summoned by one of Talon's friends. The Subway is an interesting subterranian collection of portals leading to many of the major towns on Dereth, and allowed me to zip back to Mayoi and retie to the Douth Dires portal. I hadn't learned the spell to tie myself to a portal yet, so I needed this route to retain the soft tie, as I've taken to calling it.

In Glenden Woods I was introduced to a number of new friends by my old compatriots Talon and Krystin Ashenheart. Among them were Among Ra and his noteworthy son Among Ra Jr, Jr's sweetheart Zyr Ra, and Zyr Ra's vassal Tigar. Among Ra was a name I knew frrom my old life, before I answered Asheron's call. He was an archer with a heart of gold, and talent enough to support his utopian ideals. Among Ra Jr was a chip off the old block, except his talents surpassed his fathers by a significant degree. Zyr Ra was an intrepid explorer, capable of leading Jr into the foulest pits in Dereth with promises of adventure and fun. They were a perfect match.

I continued to hunt in the South Dires and associated with my new friends in Glenden Woods, even participating in some rather challenging quests they deemed necessary to undertake. While hunting with them I felt out of my element and outmatched by their skill, so I maintained my solo hunting patterns in the South Dires and grew in power and knowledge off that area.

One day, while preparing to embark on another hunting trip and conversing with Tigar, I offered to show her around my latest stomping grounds. She and I were near enough in power, but she had been spending her time slaughtering Lugians in their Citadel while I was in the wild hunting Drudge Raveners. Her interest at finding new lands with new monsters was considerable, but she was hesitant on account of the "Dires Mystique". Some people, I've learned, have a preconceived notion that the Direlands is a place only for the most powerful in Dereth. It took some convincing, but soon Zyr Ra's vassal and I were standing in the South Direlands.

Shortly after arriving we were accosted by an unfortunate melee hunter who had lost his equipment to some Drudge Raveners. He was in need of assistance and truly did seem out of his league. What I should have done was tell Tigar to wait there and helped this fellow. What I did was commit both of us to assisting him. With this being Tigar's first trip to this area, she was ill prepared to navigate between the various spawns and depended completely on me to show her the correct paths, and most effecient way to hunt here. Justin (name changed to protect the stupid) led us to his corpse, which was in an area very well known to me. Stopped a safe distance from the Granite Golems and Drudge Raveners, we cast our spells preparing us for the coming combat. From this angle we had to take out the golems first, but that was no real concern to me after proper preparations and I laid waste to them receiving a little help from Tigar and Justin. The Raveners, on the other hand, were present in a number that made me uneasy. There was no way I could handle eight of them alone, but here I counted on Tigar and Justin to draw at least two each, leaving four for me. That would still be a difficult combat, but I was confident in my ability to survive long enough for one of the others to defeat their opponents and come to my aid.

And so the combat began. Indeed, four came to me and two split to either of my fellows. But even as I dropped the first Ravener, I heard Justin's death cry to my right. Tigar was to my left, so the Raveners moved from his corpse to me, the closest enemy available. As I dropped the second Ravener, once again facing four, I heard Tigar's death cry. Now facing six of the beasts, I quickly determined the wisest course of action lay in retreat. I was in no fear of immediate death, but facing six of the spell casting Raveners at half health and mana, it was imminent.

As I reached the entrance to the South Dires, Tigar and Justin both arrived via the portal. Now faced with their weakening death experiences there was more weight on my shoulders to be the one to clear a path for corpse recovery. Tigar had a look on her face that at once said, "This is entirely your fault" and, "This is exactly what I expected in the Dires." This wasn't going well at all.

Tigar followed me up a ledge that I knew was a safe route to hers and Justins corpses, but Justin took off on a direct route. We made it to the far side of the Granite Golems, which had respawned, without disturbing anything on the way. Justin approached from a different direction, obviously having made a detour somewhere to avoid some spawns, and ran directly between the golems towards us. I had been resting on my backside preparing myself for battle when I saw the great rock constructs lumbering towards us with Justin leading the way.

Completely unprepared for this fight, I was left little choice. Vuln, Drain, blast, blast. Repeat. Heal. Refresh mana, blast, blast, heal. It was a violent and bloody combat which we were lucky to have survived. And it was totally unecessary.

Enraged at the incompetence that drew the golems to us I spun on Justin and exclaimed, "What is this, amateur hour!? If you want help recovering your corpse, stop leading shit towards us!"

Properly chastised he silently pulled out a healing kit and began to heal his own, quite serious wounds. Tigar and I resumed our preparations for the coming battle with the Raveners. It took us nearly twice as long as it should have, having to recoup from the fight with the golems. Finally we were ready, and Justin stood with us as we scanned the field of battle.

"No," I said. "You both stay here." Of the six Drudges, two of them were still injured and at least one of those was already vulned. Two spells for that one, three for the other. Then I'd be facing four drudges again, which I knew I could survive... albeit barely. I wanted no rookie mistakes by Justin getting me killed, and I wanted Tigar to be kept out because there was the very real possibility of getting a 4-2 split with four on her. Judging by her first experience with Raveners, I simply didn't want her to die again. That look in her eyes had said it all. This was my fault.

I approached the Raveners as close as I dare, Justin and Tigar barely 30 feet behind me. When I cast the first spell, I knew I would emerge victorious. I had found the Ravener Tigar was fighting before. It was injured but unvulned. Now it was vulned. Four spells later I reassessed the situation. I had killed the two injured drudges and still faced six. Wtf?! The two I had killed before must have respawned! Now I felt some serious doubt enter my consciousness. As I blasted at one I was nicked at more and more. There were too many. Four would be difficult, but I knew I could take them. Six was just too much. Now I was in danger of immediate death. Drain. Sweat ran down my face in rivulets. Vuln. Fear tickled the back of my brain. Drain again. Here comes the spell. Pain as the lightening bolt drove through my body. Blast. Five to go. Drain. Here comes another spell. Drain or I wouldn't survive it. Pain. Spell coming. Drain another. A blinding flash of light and I had to drain again. I had hit them all, and they wouldn't yield as much from a life giving drain now. All were injured, none were vulned. I converted my bodies energies into health, suddenly more alive than at any other point since this fight began... but I was running out of mana and nearing exhaustion.

Then Tigar was there. She vulned one, I killed it. Next. Spell coming my way; Tigar killed it before it could complete. Next. Now three of them, two on Tigar. I vulned one of them, she literally made it blow into multiple pieces with her spell as mine hit me with another lightning bolt. Fair enough. One on one, we each took down the others.

Bleeding but victorious, I stood guard as Tigar recovered her corpse. Justin was there, but I ignored him. After he got his equipment he ran off alone, back to killing mosswarts I hoped.

I showed Tigar the valley and how to negotiate between the "bad spawns", but I knew it was pointless. After a time she told me how exciting the day had been, but that she wasn't ready for such a dangerous place yet. And so she returned to the Lugian Citadel and I continued to hunt solo in the South Dires.

(To Be Continued)

Original Post : The Path of Death, Destruction, and Mayhem Chapter Five