hate this fight, but I really like this part of the maze.
Drew mouse-looked round, being careful not to accidentally trigger the fight. It was a bit like the high elf areas, except it was crumbled and corrupted, with the occasional bloody rose forcing its way through the cracks.
[Raid][Orcarella]: dude your just really into wrecked shit
[Raid][Solace]: Hehe
[Raid][Solace]: I guess I am
[Raid][Dave]: emoooooooooooo
[Raid][Solace]: I’m not being emo. Ruins are not just about loss, they’re about time
[Raid][Solace]: You’ve got things that used to be something
[Raid][Solace]: And now they’re something else
[Raid][Solace]: I find it kind of hopeful
[Raid][Dave]: youtube/watch?v=xilOgjeEwPg
[Raid][Orcarella]: It’s not emo to like stuff.
[Raid][Dave]: lol
[Raid][Ialdir]: I totally get it, Kit.
[Raid][Ialdir]: You get a real sense of history
[Raid][Mordant]: made up history
[Raid][Ialdir]: In some ways, that’s even cooler.
[Raid][Morag]: Yeah, man, anything can be real history.
[Raid][Ialdir]: And it’s not just about the lore. I’ve been playing these games for nearly twenty years so it’s kind of my history too.
[Raid][Jargogle]: Some of us actually have history, children.
[Raid][Ialdir]: It was right after Desert Storm and I was stuck in this crappy army base in the middle of nowhere, and all I had was a battered old IBM, and a copy of Legends I, Pirates Gold, and fucking Myst.
[Raid][Ialdir]: And we were still under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
[Raid][Ialdir]: So basically it was the most miserable time I’ve had in my entire life
[Raid][Dave]: soz man
[Raid][Solace]: *hugs*
[Raid][Ialdir]: Anthariel was one of the major quest givers in L1 and she used to hang out in this rose garden with her own theme tune.
[Raid][Ialdir]: I hadn’t seen roses in a year
[Raid][Ialdir]: And Raziel’s sort of falling in love with her
[Raid][Ialdir]: I’d never seen something like that in a game before
[Raid][Ialdir]: And it reminded me that there was more to life than being shot at in a desert.
[Raid][Ialdir]: This garden we’re in now is that garden.
[Raid][Ialdir]: So that’s important to me.
“That’s a lovely story, Jacob,” said Bjorn. “But perhaps we can do the fight now.”
[Raid][Jargogle]: I am Bjorn’s complete lack of sensitivity.
[Raid][Ialdir]: I’m good, let’s raid.
Things finally came together and the Council of Tears went down.
“Okay—” Bjorn crackled over Mumble “—and first up is the Bewailing Breeches.”
[Raid][Heurodis]: [Bewailing Breeches]
Drew let the looting go on around him. He manoeuvred Ella to go stand next to Solace. Their shoulder pads clipped through each other, which was probably the closest you could get to holding hands in an MMO. Solace bounced up and down on the spot. That made Drew smile.
[Solace] whispers: Hey you
To [Solace]: hey you back
[Solace] whispers: <3
To [Solace]: :)
Next up was Lady Bloodrose. She was a pretty familiar sight to Drew these days—one of Tempest’s many not-quite-naked-enough-to-get-the-game-an-R-rating women, wrapped in a few strategically placed climbing roses as she hovered over a dark pit in the middle of the final chamber.
High Theurist Venric had somehow managed to get ahead of them and was standing there, waiting politely for the party to give him permission to have an angsty conversation with his ex-girlfriend. Heurodis sprinted over and got him started while the rest of the party renewed their buffs and sat down to eat their fish.
[Raid][Heurodis]: starting HTV off now because this speech is really fricking long
[Raid][Morag]: Do you want to do the tacs for this one, Bjorn?
[Raid][Heurodis]: a rare display of intelligence undoubtedly fleeting
[Raid][Ialdir]: you know Dave wasn’t born when that game came out
[Raid][Jargoggle]: Stop giving Bjorn responsibility. It goes to his head.
[High Theurgist Venric] says: Anthariel! It is not too late. I have forgiven you for your betrayal, as I have forgiven Raziel for his. Turn back to the Light, and you yet may be redeemed.
[Raid][Morag]: Oh man, High Theurgist Venric got friend-zoned.
[Lady Bloodrose] says: I have been lost in the dark so long. Come, my love, that I may look upon your face again.
[Raid][Mordant]: ITS A TRAP!!!
[Raid][Dave]: wait what game
“Anyway,” interrupted Bjorn, “while High Theurgist Venric, who presumably holds a position of authority in Whitepeak, walks slowly to his doom like a total noob-basket, we should run down the tacs for this fight.”
[High Theurgist Venric] says: Anthariel . . .
[Raid][Dave]: hey what game
“So like all good boss fights, Lady Bloodrose is in three phases. In the first phase, she will hover over the pit and send her briars to tear the raid to pieces. The briars come in four kinds, Thorned, Barbed, Entrancing, and Entangling. Thorned Briars are large and hit heavily in melee, so they need to be tanked or killed by ranged. Barbed are smaller and faster, but stack Heartsblood on you. Various things in this fight will hit you with Heartsblood,