Looking for Group - Alexis Hall Page 0,43

that the Fetid Morass was just a bit dull. It was all grey-brown pools of water, grey-brown trees, and the occasional creepily glowing mushroom. He followed Aconite’s bobbing snakes to the edge of a vast, dismal lake.

[Group][Aconite]: So you sort of have to swim down to it

[Group][Efthalia]: omg

[Group][Efthalia]: wtf

[Group][Efthalia]: are you seriously telling me that the entry-level group content

[Group][Efthalia]: is hidden at the bottom of the swamp

[Group][Aconite]: That’s how they rolled in vanilla

[Group][Aconite]: It was actually pretty exciting the first time I came here

[Group][Aconite]: Jacob brought me on an alt run

[Group][Efthalia]: did he tell you the whole history

[Group][Aconite]: Actually, there’s surprisingly little lore on this one

[Group][Aconite]: It sort of ties into the cult thing in TB but that never comes up again

[Group][Aconite]: Basically we swim in, beat up some evil frogmen, and fight an elemental

[Group][Efthalia]: bring it

They plunged into the murky water and, painfully slowly, swam towards the centre of the lake. About halfway through, Drew noticed his health going down quickly.

[Group][Efthalia]: wa11111wwaaaa

[Group][Efthalia]: help

He frantically swivelled the camera around until he located his attacker: an implausibly large fish that was chewing on Efthalia’s defenceless nethers. He attempted to summon the elemental forces of fire to defend himself but the relentless assault of his fishy opponent kept interrupting his spellcasting.

[Group][Aconite]: omg

[Group][Aconite]: omw

[Group][Efthalia]: ahhhhhh

Efthalia was killed by Irate Turbot: bite (4)

Efthalia has died.

Efthalia’s body floated limply in the brownish water.

[Group][Aconite]: I will avenge you!

There was an explosion of purple shadow.

[Group][Aconite]: My name is Aconite. You killed my . . . the other medusa I hang around with. Prepare to die!

As Drew watched, the evil fish was consumed by tendrils of dark magic and flipped belly up alongside Efthalia.

[Group][Efthalia]: rez plox

[Group][Aconite]: Um, this is a pure DPS class

[Group][Aconite]: You’re the one with the rez

[Group][Efthalia]: ffs

Drew clicked Release Spirit and the world faded to shades of grey and blue. His ghost appeared at the nearest graveyard, and he began the undignified jog back to his corpse.

A few minutes later, Efthalia was alive and doing her ridiculous swim animation, as the two medusas continued their descent towards the Bubbling Mire.

You have discovered The Bubbling Mire.

Another loading screen: this one showed a frogman with a spear. It wasn’t exactly threatening, but since Drew had just been killed by an angry fish, he was withholding judgement.

Efthalia and Aconite appeared in the mouth of a dripping-wet cave, illuminated by more of the glowy mushrooms he’d seen on the surface. Ahead of them, two frogmen were standing around, ready to be killed.

[Group][Efthalia]: tacs

[Group][Aconite]: Um

[Group][Aconite]: Well, I thought we could tank it with my Doomshadow

[Group][Efthalia]: you want me to heal your pet.

[Group][Aconite]: Well, it’s got more health than either of us and it’s the only one in the party with an actual taunt.

[Group][Efthalia]: this does not feel like a pro move

[Group][Aconite]: Welcome to healing

[Group][Aconite]: Dignity is something that happens to other classes

[Group][Efthalia]: I could try to storm tank it

[Group][Aconite]: And I could keep you alive with my zero healing spells

[Group][Efthalia]: . . .

[Group][Aconite]: Honestly. You tanks. You really do think your health stays up on its own, don’t you?

[Group][Efthalia]: ok ok

[Group][Efthalia]: just let me spend my ONE talent point

[Group][Efthalia]: and quickbar my TWO healing spells

On some level, Drew was aware he might be taking this too seriously. He set up a couple of targeting macros and rearranged his interface to centralise his party’s health bars. Beside him, Aconite jumped up and down, and finally started the longish ritual to summon the blobby demon that would be responsible for keeping them alive and unmolested in the dungeon.

[Charnos] says: I have been called

[Aconite] says: Yes. Yes you have.

[Aconite] says: Now, pay close attention, this is a three-phase fight and your top prio is keeping the mobs off the healing team.

[Group][Efthalia]: lol

[Group][Aconite]: Right. We’re probably going to die horribly because I’ve never played a tanking class or a pet class

[Group][Aconite]: And I’m really not sure Charnos was paying attention when I told him the tacs

Charnos was, in fact, gazing around distractedly. It was probably just a quirk of the animation, but it wasn’t very reassuring. A couple of raid markers popped up over the heads of the patiently waiting frogmen.

[Efthalia] says: Dude, focus.

[Group][Aconite]: I’ll send him against star. We probably need to give him a couple of seconds to establish threat

[Group][Aconite]: Do you have [Incapacitating Wind]?

[Group][Efthalia]: yeah but i’m taking something for it

[Group][Aconite]: Okay, so you wind dildo

[Group][Aconite]: Charnos will take star

[Group][Aconite]: And . . . we’ll see if we live.

Efthalia stepped forward and began to gather the elemental forces of the storm.