of times, and even Anni occasionally screwed it up.
The raid was looking increasingly unhealthy, particularly with the healing debuff from the Pillar of Life, and Bloodrose had only just dipped below ten percent.
Bjorn: “Entangled.”
“On it . . . shit, barbs.”
[Lady Bloodrose] says: Mine, mine forever.
Bjorn sighed. “Get me untangled, and then kill Dave.”
“It wasn’t my fault, I was trying to rescue you.”
“Less QQ more pewpew.”
While they were butchering Dave, Prospero died from raid damage.
“Shit.”
[Lady Bloodrose] says: Violets are blue, roses are red, and as for you, you’re utterly dead.
[Raid][Prospero]: I fucking hate that taunt
[Raid][Ignatius]: Covering raid
[Raid][Solace]: kk
There was just too much damage and too many adds. Morag went down, then Ialdir, then Ignatius.
Lady Bloodrose was on two percent.
“We can still do this,” said Morag. “Keep Ella up as long as you can.”
Solace had hardly any mana left, Heurodis and Jargogle were clinging to life by a thread. Drew blew all his cooldowns and hoped. A rampaging minion flattened Heurodis.
[Lady Bloodrose] says: Violets are blue, roses are red, and as for you, you’re utterly dead.
“Oh shut up, you stupid elf. My DoTs are still ticking.”
They were so doomed. They were all out of resources, but Drew was kind of proud to be fighting on to the bitter end. Anni would have called it the moment Mordant had been HBed because it was an inefficient use of raid time.
But it was scary and fun and exciting in a futile Helm’s Deep sort of way.
They probably weren’t going to the opera on Friday, but they were damn well going to make this count.
Drew wondered what Kit was thinking, and if he was happy or stressed or what. He found himself wishing he was there, so he could look at him and see.
Then Ella died.
“Sorry, oom,” said Kit quietly over Mumble.
Now Ella was no longer holding her attention, Lady Bloodrose whirled round in a rush of blood and petals to face the kobold who’d been busy stabbing her in the back of the knee.
The kobold who immediately vanished.
So that just left a small, winged elf, who she took down with a single strike.
[Lady Bloodrose] says: Violets are blue, roses are red, and as for you, you’re utterly dead.
Jargogle reappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaped across the pit, and chained a sequence of flashing finishers into Lady Bloodrose’s spine.
[Lady Bloodrose] says: Raziel . . . my lord . . . I have failed you.
“You magnificent kobold,” roared Bjorn. “I would kiss you if you weren’t such a peculiar small furry animal.”
And then Mumble went wild with joy.
To [Solace]: nice healing <3
[Solace] whispers: nice tanking <3
“By the way, Kit,” said Madga, once everybody had calmed down a little. “I’m sorry I aggro-dumped on you. I was just so close to everything being off cooldown, and I thought it was our only chance to salvage the encounter.”
“Oh it’s fine,” he answered. “You made the right call.”
High Theurgist Venric was still monologuing and bleeding out in the background, but basically nobody cared. They were too busy rummaging in Lady Bloodrose’s chest (“Hurr,” said Dave, “Lady Bloodrose’s chest.”) to see what goodies they could plunder. There was a selection of the usual items, all of which went to good homes.
“And finally,” announced Bjorn, “we have . . . that tiny, little baby plant-monster thing, which is a vanity pet and therefore of no interest to me.”
[Raid][Heurodis]: [Briar Seedling]
“But I understand they are popular with some people for some reason.”
The raid immediately erupted into a menagerie as everybody pulled out their favourite noncombat companion. Drew wasn’t a big collector either, but it was impossible to play the game without getting a pet or two, just for buying expansions, doing some questlines, or getting them as random drops. He summoned a squirrel that he had no memory of acquiring. Solace had an incredibly cute baby hippo. Drew didn’t even think there were hippos in the game.
“I see what you are doing,” Bjorn went on, “and I am ignoring it. As our loot master, I have two suggestions for how to dispose of this nauseatingly cute little artefact. Either we do a raid roll like normal, or alternatively we give it to Magda as a reward for kicking the crap out of its original owner. I will now initiate a readycheck vote. If you wish to give this seedling to our kobold, please click Ready, if not, click Not.”
Drew voted to give it to Jargogle. It seemed fairest to him.
“All right, we have a nine-to-one majority. Jargogle gets the seedling, Friday