>>2285761
As you all ride through the snow, DesertFox and DanTheMan easily blow through the mobs that come to attack you. Having level 90s around is convenient for travelling, especially when the enemies are low 80s. You will definitely have to remember to ask them if they want to come along if you ever decide to leave Portage. The one downside of them shredding all the mobs is the lack of EXP that you and Paradigm, the only ones under level 80, end up receiving. When you actually get to the dungeon, they will start using the Mentoring system to bring their level low enough for you to benefit, but until then it's probably for the best this way. Hiro and company are waiting after all.

One other interesting problem that you never really thought of was how dark and snowy it actually is out here. Its probably worse than 8 out of every 10 whiteouts you have been in. Much like car headlights on earth, Paradigm’s magic light doesn’t seem to give you any visibility at all through the torrent of snow, so she isn’t even bothering to use it anymore. Fortunately, you have the light from the noses of DanTheMan and DesertFox’s Jingle Reindeer. You didn’t even know they did that before, but the soft red glow somehow seems to light your path to several hundred feet out and about a hundred feet around you. You are pretty sure it’s magic, as the snow and the bodies of the deer themselves don’t impede it’s path at all. You will definitely have to buy one as soon as you hit 80. Actually, thinking about it, does that even matter anymore? In the game 80 was the level requirement to use one, but you flew on DesertFox’s before… Hmm. Interesting.

>>2285764
Anyways, where were you? Dark and snow?
Oh yeah!

You can’t forget to mention the cold either. It has to be at least 40 or 50 degrees colder here than in town. In other words, you are pretty sure it’s below zero… Before the wind chill... You are basically freezing your ass off despite how warm your Bully Moose set usually is. Despite living in new england, your experience with cold this brutal is mostly made up of the times you went skiing on particularly cold days, and your winter gear IRL was at least a bit warmer than your gear now. Every now and then you make sure to activate your Burning Hook to warm your hands up. At least that has a leg up on handwarmers. You are definitely envious of the higher level players on the gear aspect. Except for Brolaire who seems to be keeping warm by using some sort of holy fire ability you don’t actually know the name of, all their current gear looks much warmer than yours. Yet another advantage of being not a scrub.

At least one good thing comes out of it. Paradigm is using the cold as an excuse to ride on the back of your moose and wrap herself up in your tail. Feels good man. Something about the sensation is very soothing despite the bitter chill of the freezing night.

[ ] Ride In silence until you get there. It’s too fucking cold to talk. (Skip to dungeon entrance.)
[ ] Talk with DanTheMan and DesertFox about <TouchFluffyTail>. Joining has been looking more attractive to you recently since you figure that maybe you can convince them to let Paradigm join since DesertFox apparently holds some sway in the guild’s leadership.
[ ] Ask the higher level players what the dungeon is like. You have never done it before and its much higher level than you, so you should probably try to know what to expect going in.
[ ] Talk with Paradigm. (Write in subject.)
[ ] Talk with someone about something else. (Write in)

>>2285768
[X] Ask the higher level players what the dungeon is like. You have never done it before and its much higher level than you, so you should probably try to know what to expect going in.

>>2285768
>[ ] Ask the higher level players what the dungeon is like. You have never done it before and its much higher level than you, so you should probably try to know what to expect going in.
>Try ti see how much control you have over your tail and squeeze the dwarfu with it's fluffly warm.

>>2285768
>[x ] Ask the higher level players what the dungeon is like. You have never done it before and its much higher level than you, so you should probably try to know what to expect going in.

>>2285768
>[ ] Ask the higher level players what the dungeon is like. You have never done it before and its much higher level than you, so you should probably try to know what to expect going in.

>>2285792
You already know roughly how much control you have over your tail. You can swish it back and forth, move it around, make it stand up straight, or curl it a bit, but you can't really put any strength in with it.
You can also manifest 6 ghost tails if you feel like it, but they don't actually do anything besides look cool since they are illusionary.

>>2285806
So we can't even pile her upwith ourtails for extra warm?

>>2285786
>>2285792
>>2285797
>>2285799
[+1 Knowledge:Devil's Lair]

>>2285843
Since you have a bit longer before you get there, you should probably figure out what you are about to be up against. You at least know that it's definitely going to be a lot harder than anything you have fought yet. As a rule of thumb, dungeon mobs are pretty much always tougher than regular ones of the same level since they are made for parties of players, second off, the dungeon is 8 levels over you and 11 whole levels over Saya. Going in blind would basically be suicide. To make it slightly less suicidal, you ask DesertFox “So, what should we know going into this?”

Paradigm turns over to listen as well.

“Hmmm~ Where to start?” she says putting a finger to her chin in a thinking pose. “Its a medium length dungeon, like the Frozen fortress, so there are twenty three groups of mobs and two bosses. The mobs come in groups of eight skeletons and zombies for the first three, then it switches over to devils who use magic intermixed with skeletons and zombies for the next six groups. Try to focus down the zombies since they hit a bit higher than the skeletons and have less HP. If you see an Imp starting to use a spell, try to stun them or it will do some rather strong damage to everyone.”

You nod your head to tell her you got it.

“After the 7th group, there is an alternate path that leads to a loot chest, but its guarded by a Lesser Devil and some more imps which might as well be an extra boss fight… The loot is alright at about 10k each with a small chance of a raid item. If we choose to go fight him, you will probably be in charge of controlling the adds, they dont do much damage so you should be alright on them. Paradigm, you will want to focus on buffing the DPS and dodging the fire, if you have extra time between cooldowns, help Will out with the adds. I doubt you two will have much of a problem with them, especially considering what Hiro has told me about his flare arrow.” You feel her nod her head through your tail that she has employed as a scarf.

“After we kill him and the next two groups on the main path, we will be at the half boss, the Abominable. He does alot of damage, but almost all of his attacks are telegraphed and dodgeable, so just make sure you aren’t in his AOE. Since you cant see the markers now, watch his fist and get away from wherever he swings it, because ice spikes out of the ground where he hits. Ice falls from the ceiling wherever characters outside of its melee range are, so make sure you are moving around all the time and you won’t get hit Paradigm. About half way through the fight, he will use his abominable breath, when he does, he will inhale for a few seconds, run behind him as fast as possible to avoid it, and Paradigm, you will want to run behind one of the pillars.”

“Alright, sounds easy enough.”

“Its a pretty forgiving boss.” OnTheFence says from behind you. “They went a bit easy on him in my opinion, but the final boss makes up for it.”

File: red light in the blizzard.jpg (57 KB, 852x480)

57 KB JPG

>>2286094

“What is that like?”

“Lots of freeze status conditions.” DanTheMan says. That’s the first time you have heard him talk. He sounds like a kid, maybe around 16 or 17? It's somewhat impressive that he has a level 90 at that age, but it's also no wonder he is having a hard time with being stuck here…

“Thats right~” DesertFox says. “He always freezes someone, and whenever you cleanse them, he freezes a new target. On top of that, if you don’t cleanse them within 20 seconds, they and everyone near them will take some huge damage.”

“It's probably one of the most annoying bosses to fight if you have a party low on support characters.” Brolaire says.

“Thankfully, we have 4, 5 if Paladin and Holy Warrior counts.” Looks like you lucked out.

“It does, so it definitely seems so, although we might be a bit low on DPS.” he says

“Well, having more healers will probably be better since we have a bunch of underleveled players. None of the monsters in this dungeon really have any time limit to kill, so we can take our time while keeping everyone topped up.” DesertFox says.

“Sounds good to me.” you say.

You feel pretty good about this. It’s exciting trying a new dungeon, and from what DesertFox said, you feel like you guys can definitely do it, even if it’s overleveled.

Looks like she finished with some fairly good timing too. Up ahead, you can see another red light cutting through the screen of white, which you can assume is coming from Hiroshima’s reindeer. It’s a good thing he got 80 before coming out here, in the game, there was a particle effect of snow flying across your screen, but being in this world for real, you doubt that it would be possible to navigate the pitch black blizzard without one.

You have made it to the Devils Lair.
Hiroshima, Dank Tank, and Catler are standing just inside the mouth of the cave to keep out of the snow, and they look ready to go.

What formation should you use?
[ ] Dank Main tanks, Brolaire Offtanks, you DPS.
[ ] Dank Offtanks, Brolaire Main Tanks, you DPS.
[ ] Dank Main tanks, Brolaire focusses on healing, you Offtank.

Secondary: (not mutually exclusive)
[ ]Pass out brews.
[ ] Anything else before you get started? (write in)

sorry that post took a while, I had to re-download flash to use my image editor since my laptop is still new.

>>2286101
>[ ] Dank Main tanks, Brolaire Offtanks, you DPS.
>[ ]Pass out brews. (except for Dan. Ask desert fox first.)

>>2286108
It's fine.

>>2286101
[ ] Dank Main tanks, Brolaire Offtanks, you DPS.
[ ]Pass out brews.

>>2286139
Support

>>2286139
Seconded.
Also, I’m sad we only have one swashbuckler. Swashbuckler best class

>>2286101
[X] Dank Main tanks, Brolaire Offtanks, you DPS.
[X]Pass out brews

>>2286194
The raid for just 10 players. But as it was mentiined to post before we are lacking at the dps.

>>2286139
>>2286164
>>2286195
>>2286194
[+ 1 Offensive Formation]
[+ 1 Drinking Age Concern]
[-1 Drinking Age Adherence]

>>2286192
woops somehow i missed clicking on you... you were counted as a vote though sorry about that.

>>2286213
After some quick greetings all around, you all dismiss your mounts and head into the mouth of the cave. As a first order of business, all the higher level players turn on the mentor system, reducing their level to 83 to make sure you and Paradigm can get exp.

“Alright, where do you guys want me?” Brolaire asks seeing as you have 3 tanks.

“I guess you should offtank? I don’t really know much about Paladins though.”

“Offtank would work well.” Hiro says. “You already know the raid, right?”

“Yeh.”

“Alright, we’ll leave that to you then.”

“You got it.”

“Everyone ready?” Dank asks.

“Wait, before we go in, I got brews.”

“Oh yeh, nice! Pass me an Iron Helmet.” You toss him a bottle of it.

Everyone else gives you your orders one by one until you get to DanTheMan and stop.

“Wait, how old are you?”

“T-Twenty Two...” His eyes are telling you that’s a lie as if his voice didn’t give him away.

“Are you sure about that?” you ask. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnXKnUxRRIY)

“No lying now Dan~”

“Alright, I’m 17. You guys just have all the fun without me.” He sighs and crosses his arms dejectedly.

“Alright, good boy~” she says. “Now, what drink do you want?”

He looks at her in confusion.

“Well?”

“Im not 21.”

“So what?~ Its not like this is earth. Theldesia has no drinking age! I was just saying you aren’t supposed to lie to friends!”

“O-oh.” he says looking surprised. “Ummm, in that case, I’ll have a-” He pauses, looks above your head at what you assume is your status bar, and thinks. “Yeh, give me an Iron Helmet too I guess.”

You shrug and toss him a bottle of it. He tries a bit of it. “This isn’t really that good…”

“Beer is sort of an acquired taste.” you say. You hated it at first too, but it, along with other (often much harder) forms of alcohol really grew on you after your parents disowned you. Honestly, you probably have no right to be thinking about a drinking age anyways…

Well, at least you drink moderately responsibly now...
-Or at least you did until you ended up in this world. You haven’t gotten blackout drunk in a while before this but have already done it twice here.

Anyways… “Alright, now that everyone is drunk, let’s get this show on the road!” Hiro yells.

Everyone cheers and you head into the dungeon.

Looks like the first group is up ahead!
5 Lair Skeletons (lv 83 melee mobs) and 3 Corpse Archers (lv 83 ranged mobs)

(Combat System and Character sheet are linked at top of thread)
[ ] Combat Start! (Submit a player made turn. This will take priority over a QM turn with up to 1 vote more. Also specify what brew you used since I forgot to prompt for it)
[ ] Attack one of the Corpse Archers. (QM will make a turn)

>>2286406
Extended vote time for this one since combat can get complicated.

>>2286406
>[ ] Attack one of the Corpse Archers. (QM will make a turn)

>>2286432
Hmm, not getting many votes, I will give it till 6:30 then just go.

>>2286463
[+1 QM generated turn]
[+1 round of combat]

>>2286406
[X] Attack one of the Corpse Archers. (QM will make a turn)

I’d like to make a turn but I’m on my phone and copying and pasting is hard enough as it is.

>>2286537
No problem. Its a confusing system as it is.

Since some players are on discord rather than in thread, posting their replies here for archival purposes.

Post from discord player G-san:
As a D&D player, I say focus fire on the archers, having Dank and Brolaire aggro the melee adds. Will focuses on stuns for all and damage on one. I don't know the combos, so I will stay as generic as I can like this.

Post from Discord Player K-san:
something something geek the mage first

>>2286532
Dank Tank Runs up and uses cross slash on one of the zombie archers to pull aggro. His attack does some damage, but nothing grand as one would expect of a tank. 2273 pops up in red and about a sixth of its hp drops off its bar. All of the undead quickly turn to him and attack, almost instantly knocking him to 3136, just about a quarter of his HP remains after their combined assault. You were expecting them to do some damage, but it’s a bit more than you thought, even with one of them missing.

Brolaire rushes in and uses Healing forge, then smacks one of the archers dealing 4480 damage and healing Dank for the same amount, bringing him back to 7616.

OnTheFence raises his rapier and a gleam of light shines on the blade, then he disappears and several slashes trace through one of the archers as he reappears behind it and about 3/5ths its hp falls off its bar in 5 increments of around 1600 damage each they fade away before you can actually add them up properly, but it looked like around 9k. Seems the archers have 15k or so max.

DesertFox Draws an arrow, as she does, she strums a note on her lute-bow. A blue aura surrounds everyone in the party, so you know she is buffing magic damage. She fires the arrow and it does 5520 to the skeleton Dank hit.

You activate soul infusion, shift into your tiger stance, then run in and shout “Grizzly Slam!”, stunning one of the archers nobody has hit yet. You jump up, activate Aerial rave, and use beat up to strike it with 3 more attacks. Lots of little hits with a buff does fairly good damage for you, especially with your Brawler's brew. 4723 fall off its bar in total putting it around 2/3s.

AssAssin Fires an arrow into the air and after a second, it seems to split into like a hundred arrows, and they all rain down on the group of mobs. It doesn’t do alot of damage, only around 2k each but there are plenty of mobs, so it adds up.

Paradigm uses Mages Howling and Hiro starts yelling.

Hiroshima uses chain lightning. 11177 damage to every mob. Damn thats broken. Between that and the previous damage, all the archers instantly drop, bursting into bubbles and gold. Paradigm levels up to 73. Nice.

The Melee skeletons are each at around half HP now.

DanTheMan yells “Holy Flare!” and they each take another 4451 damage putting them below half.

Catler uses Heal on Dank Tank, bringing him up to 11031 HP.

[ ] Next Round (Post a turn)
[ ] Attack one of the skeletons. (QM generated turn)

>>2286682
Also roll 1d100 best of three. Forgot that last time so I just ended up rolling it, my bad.

Rolled 64 (1d100)

>>2286682
Tiger stance.
Dodge.
Turning swallow.

>>2286694
You don't really need to dodge, the others are managing aggro right now.

>>2286694
want to use the Turning Dragon combo?

Tiger Stance> Dragons Tail>Aerial Rave>Flurry of Blows>Turning Swallow (Total 6 auto attacks)

>>2286697
Change it to Backhand then?

>>2286701
you aren't actually being attacked since Dank Tank and Brolaire are managing aggro, backhand is a reaction to being hit.

>>2286704
Ok mantis action. Too many reactions desu.

>>2286682
g- san on discord: "Rinse and repeat I guess"
(Rolled 30)
[ ] Attack one of the skeletons. (QM generated turn)

>>2286706
Tiger stance >Mantis action > Dragons Tail>Aerial Rave>Flurry of Blows>Turning Swallow

Is this alright?

>>2286713
Yeah, trying out some new stuff.

>>2286713
>>2286719
[+1 round of combat]

>Paradigm levels up to 73.

Holy shit just the first group and already she managed to reach our old level base.

I got some feedback for this combat system.
I know there a legit RPG-style official Log Horizon system or something but it's much easier to vote for combat choices if you give us something to respond to. Like 'several of the skeletons are closing in on you and one winds up for a swing, wat do?' instead of just saying 'The Melee skeletons are each at around half HP now.' I'm no expert but I think it would help you get more votes.

>>2286800
I will keep that in mind
I might make that become the combat system later on when game mechanics stop being so prevalent

File: Well that doesnt belong there!.jpg (69 KB, 736x886)

69 KB JPG

>>2286736
All the skeletons turn away from Dank Tank and start walking towards Hiroshima, but he doesn’t let them get close. Dank activates his Anchor Howl and blue energy washes over the mobs, forcing them to turn back and attack the much more solid tank again. This time, they only take him down to around half hp, leaving him with 5309. Those Archers were a lot of the DPS in this group.

Hiro yells “Just DPS them! Dank will be fine from now!”

DesertFox strums her instrument again and another bolt of chain lightning arcs from her bow, dealing around 3k to each of them. You are pretty sure that’s Maestro Echo. Too bad she doesn’t benefit from all of Hiro’s buffs.

Brolaire shouts “Smite Evil!”, bringing his sword down on one of the skeletons and killing it.

OnTheFence whispers “End of Act.” then swipes his sword horizontally through the chest of one of the skeletons, and it bursts into rose petals instead of the usual bubbles as it dies.

You activate your mantis action then kick the closest skeleton into the air. You jump up after it and unleash a flurry of mid air blows on its bitch ass with Triple blow, then swing your leg into it slamming it into the ground. 9186 damage falls off its bar as it explodes into loot and exp.

Hiro fires a single flare arrow at one of the last two sending it back to hell where it belongs.

AssAssin puts it down ending the fight.

DanTheMan and Catler heal Dank Tank back to full HP.

That was actually a lot easier than you were thinking it would be. The party has some pretty good AOE and the Holy damage from Brolaire and DanTheMan do a ton against these skeletons.

Then again, these are still just mobs…

The party continues on through the next few groups.

Something isn’t right here… DesertFox said there were devils in the groups after the third, but you have yet to see one. Its still all just zombies and skeletons. And not all Lair Skeletons and Corpse archers either. That last group had 2 level 86 Frozen Skeletons and a level 84 Frostbite Archer in with them. You are pretty sure you aren’t the only one who has noticed this either. Dank and Catler don’t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary, but all the higher level players seem a bit on edge.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Paradigm asks as she dispatches the last of the group you were fighting.

“I… Don’t know.” DesertFox says.

“Something is definitely going on here.” AssAssIn says. “I have run this dungeon like a million times and it's always been the same mobs, give or take the skeleton that random spawns.”

Oh boy. What have you run into now?
[ ] Continue on. Worst thing that happens is you die and respawn in town. Even if the mobs are different, they still give exp.
[ ] Stop here and go back home now. This is giving you some bad vibes.
[ ] Leave and wait for the mobs to respawn then go back in and see what happens.
[ ] Other (Write in)

>>2286827
>[ ] Continue on. Worst thing that happens is you die and respawn in town. Even if the mobs are different, they still give exp.

>>2286827
>Leave and wait for the mobs to respawn then go back in and see what happens.

>>2286833
Will change to this.

>>2286827
>[ ] Continue on. Worst thing that happens is you die and respawn in town. Even if the mobs are different, they still give exp.

This is interesting apparently there is something else going on. But then again a raid boss did appeared last time near the town. Wouldn't be strange if the demons started to walk away from the dungeon.

>>2286827
[X] Continue on. Worst thing that happens is you die and respawn in town. Even if the mobs are different, they still give exp.
>Joke that the Skeleton boss from the over dungeon could have invaded

>>2286860
>>2286857
>>2286847
>>2286833
[+1 Continuing on]
[+1 ?????? ??????????]

need to break for dinner for a bit, will be back shortly

>>2286827
>[ ] Continue on. Worst thing that happens is you die and respawn in town. Even if the mobs are different, they still give exp.

>>2286879
Eat well!!

>>2286879
back and writing, sorry about the delay.

>>2286999
No problem i'm doing my dinner myself

File: A fucking chest.png (116 KB, 378x304)

116 KB PNG

>>2286879

“Well, as long as they still give exp, does it really matter?” you say. “We can still fight them easily enough, and worst comes to worst, we die and have to respawn in town. Half of the party wouldn’t even really lose anything but durability since everyone is using the mentor system.”

“I guess that’s true.” says Hiro. “And its not like doing nothing will make it any less weird.”

“I’m with Will. Say what you want about it, but after everything that has happened, I trust his instinct on this more than my own.” Paradigm says. You are happy that she trusts you, but then again, if she is including the being possessed stuff under “her instincts”, maybe its an obvious one.

“We came all the way out here, so we might as well, right?” Dank says. Catler nods to agree.

“Plus if something bad really is going on, maybe we can put a stop to it before it gets too out of hand.” Brolaire says.

“Yeah, we don’t want another raid boss threatening the town again…” OnTheFence agrees.

DanTheMan and AssAssIn still look a bit apprehensive, but before they can make an objection, Desertfox says “Alright~ Sounds like thats a majority then. Next stop Lesser Devil Chest!~”, forcing them along for the ride. Maybe that’s for the best? Even dying and coming back is probably better than just doing nothing all the time.

The group moves on and trashes the next three groups of mobs before heading down the fork in the path to the extra fight. When you get there, the room is empty except for the chest.
“Hmm.~ Now that’s weird.”

“Welp, I won’t complain about free loot.” AssAssIn says.

“Same.” Dank says walking over to it.

“Think it’s a trap?” he asks standing in front of it.

“Never was in the game, so I doubt it.”

“If it is, rez me, ok?”

“Yup, I got you.”

He opens the box…

Slowly…

Carefully…

File: Abominable jacket more or less.jpg (83 KB, 736x1106)

83 KB JPG

>>2287125
It creaks open as its hinges are fully extended and the top flops over the back.

Thankfully it doesn’t explode or anything.

“Ohh, lucky you Will.” he says grabbing something from the box and handing it to you.

Oh, you got a raid item.

[Abominable Jacket- Lv 83 Raid Class Jacket(Monk) +600HP, +5% PD, +3% MR, +10% Ice Resist]
Nice. Its stats are a good deal better than your Bully Moose jacket and it has a 10% ice elemental resistance as a bonus. You can’t equip it until you are level 83 unfortunately, but at least you won’t have to farm for it later.

Actually, weren’t you just thinking about this earlier?

What the heck, might as well give it a try.

You take off your bully moose jacket.

“Will, what are you doing?” Paradigm asks you. Ouch. That stare hurts. She is looking at you like one would look at an idiot.

Now everyone else is too.

“Nice abs.~” DesertFox says.

“I know, right?” you say and flex for a second to show off your monk muscles.

“Answer the question Will…”

“Sorry, I was just thinking, its a level 83 armor, but what’s stopping me from putting it on now?”

She looks like she is about to say something but she stops herself. “Actually, that’s an interesting idea.”

[ ] Try it on. What do you have to lose? (Roll 1d100)
[ ] Actually, maybe that’s not a good idea. You aren’t sure why, but something in the back of your mind is telling you not to…
[ ] You will try it later when you aren’t in the dungeon. What if it unequips on you as soon as you are in a fight or something?

Rolled 89 (1d100)

>>2287154
>Try it on. What do you have to lose?
Roll now?

>>2287160
yep, best of 3

>>2287154
>[ ] Actually, maybe that’s not a good idea. You aren’t sure why, but something in the back of your mind is telling you not to…

GAME RULES! If we start breaking then other creatures will start breaking it too.

Rolled 5 (1d100)

>>2287154
>[ ] Try it on. What do you have to lose? (Roll 1d100)
check my 100

Rolled 48 (1d100)

>>2287154
>[X] Try it on. What do you have to lose? (Roll 1d100)

>>2287196
>>2287179
>>2287160
[+1 Mechanics Test]

>>2287208
Ah, I forgot the flavor text of the Jacket

"A Jacket made from the skin of the mighty Abominable. It smells slightly bad, but its very warm."

>>2287220
>It smells slightly bad

Nah that is just manly musk.

>>2287208
After a second of hesitation, you put it on. Its big, a bit bulky, and very warm. Also it smells a bit bad. You will have to wash it. Checking your stats, it seems to have conferred the proper bonuses. Its not instantly unequipping itself either, which is good.

“Someone hit me real quick, I want to make sure it doesn’t unequip if I enter combat or something.”

OnTheFence stabs you. “Fuck! Ow!” That was quite painful. It felt like you were actually stabbed, but your HP drops only a few thousand. The bonus health and physical resistance from the armor is seemingly non-existant. That’s a bit dissonant. Usually hits feel a lot lighter than they really would. Maybe this is the penalty for equipping something overleveled? The jacket exists, but the game doesn’t recognize you the wearer as an entity able to benefit from it…

Weird. You wonder if the reason you could ride the reindeer was similar? The game world recognized the deer as existing and you as an existence that could ride on it, but maybe it wouldn’t recognize you as someone who can summon one?

“I’m assuming that means no luck?” he says as Catler heals you up.

“Nope.”

“Oh well, it was worth a shot.” Paradigm says as you take the jacket off and put it away in your inventory then re-equip the Bully Moose Jacket.

“Let’s head on then.” Hiro says, “No use burning twilight.”

You shrug and the group heads back to the main path. After clearing through the last two groups, you still haven’t seen a single devil. In front of you, a door carved in the ice leads into a large room that you can just barely see through its translucent surface.

Brolaire opens it up and the stench of rotting meat leaks out.

You are pretty sure that’s wrong. There shouldn’t even be any undead in this room from what DesertFox said.

“Shit is it really supposed to be this bad? I know it’s supposed to stink, but this is overboard.”

“Fuck. That’s just gross.”

“What the hell?”

A plethora of other confused and disgusted words come from the remainder of the party.

“Something is definitely wrong in there.” you say. “It’s not the abominable making that smell, the coat smells like ass, but this is like something is rotting …”

Almost in response to your words, a massive white furred form in the corner of the room stands up slowly and turns to face the party. Its missing an arm and its face is exposed bone surrounded by rotting flesh.

Above its head is [Abominable Abomination lv 97]

[ ] Nope.
[ ] Nope.
[ ] Nope.
[ ] Nope.
[ ] Nope.
[ ] Fuck it, lets all die now.
[ ] Nope.
[ ] Other? (Write in)

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>>2287277
Forgot image.

>>2287277
>Nope.
It has been lvl grinding?

>>2287277
Uh yeah time to run like a bitch. Pick up dwarfu and GTFO

>>2287277
[ ] Nope.

Holy shit it was killing the devils to make himself more powerfull!

>>2287285
>>2287305
>>2287324
[+1 Nope]

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>>2287339
You look at it.

It looks back at you with its empty eye sockets. The massive undead beast lets out a roar and begins to charge towards the door.

“Nope!” you yell.

You quickly slam the door back into place, pick up Paradigm, and bolt in the opposite direction. You are almost instantly joined by the rest of the party who all seem to agree that Nope is the best course of action here.

The higher levels deactivate the mentor system and their proper levels return. After a few seconds, you hear a massive boom as the beast collides with the frozen door. The cave shakes around you, but you keep on running. Paradigm casts haste on Dank who is falling behind, and he quickly passes by you. DesertFox draws her bow and begins playing the song of speed. You aren’t sure if it is still chasing you or not, but you are almost out of the cave.

As you round the last corner of the cave and reach the first chamber, you see several skeletons and a level 90 Skellhound coming in from outside.

“Fuck! Are you kidding me!?””

Give me a d100 regardless of the option you choose.
[ ] Run past them without slowing down!
[ ] Yell to CC them and escape!
[ ] Combat Start!
[ ] Other?! (Write in)

>>2287371
If you choose to start combat, also give me your actions or suggest a general strategy and I will make a turn.

>Holy shit raid bosses can level up

Well now if this wasn't a good reason enough ti make raids i don't know what it will be.

>>2287377
You doubt it is possible that that happened naturally, 90 is still the hard cap for where you can gain exp, at least as an adventurer. Something else might be going on here...

>>2287371
>[ ] Yell to CC them and escape!

>>2287371
>[ ] Yell to CC them and escape!
Stun stun vanish fast!

>>2287371
>[X] Yell to CC them and escape!
SHSHA!

>>2287371
>[ ] Yell to CC them and escape!

>>2287386
>>2287402
>>2287422
>>2287424
>>2287381
[+1 Explosives Mastery]
[+1 Daring Escape]

Rolled 18 (1d100)

>>2287371
Don't forget your rolls people.
Yell to CC them and escape.

>>2287428
Wait,m nevermind, the post for explosives was deleted.

[-1 Explosives Mastery]
[-1 Daring]

Still need the d100s folks.

Rolled 2 (1d100)

>>2287371
>>2287424
Oh yea, forgot to roll

Rolled 97 (1d100)

>>2287430

>>2287449
You fucking saved it.
Crit Success > Crit Fail as long as its not a nat 1

Rolled 4 (1d100)

>>2287430
Gotta run fast

>>2287430
Nope x100

Rolled 21 (1d100)

>>2287520
lol wrong field

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>>2287430
>>2287428
“Stun them and run!” You yell.

Everyone in the party unleashes their stuns on the group of mobs, Paradigm’s and Your’s miss due to the high level difference, but everyone else manages to land theirs and you all dart past the crowd of immobilized skeletons.
As you run out of the cave, your whistles sound off one after another, and a stampede of hooves rush towards the group illuminated in a dull red light. As your moose passes, you hop onto its back with Paradigm, and led by the light of DesertFox’s reindeer, you gallop off into the endless night towards town.

Its not over yet though.

You may have escaped the abomination, but you are being pursued.

Behind you, you can just see a pack of Skellhounds in the last light from the reindeer.

You can’ really do anything to them, not only due to your low level, but also due to your unfortunate lack of range…

Hiro stops two in their tracks with a double Astral bind, but that does little to stem the tide.

You are in their territory after all.

Brolaire shouts “Turn Undead!”, and a couple more run off into the night, but they are seemingly endless as several more rush in to take their place in the pursuit.

Just ahead of you one comes rushing out of the darkness in your direction!

DesertFox and DanTheMan’s Reindeer jump into the air and narrowly soar over its head, but your moose isn't so lucky. The skeletal dog crashes into its legs and you barely jump off it in time with Paradigm in tow.

>>2287549
You manage to grab onto the leg of DanTheMan’s Reindeer, which hollers in surprise. It quickly starts losing altitude from being overburdened with three people, but Paradigm grabs her own whistle summoning her moose and the two of you drop down onto it as it runs in from the side to catch up with the group.

Behind you, you can see your moose bite the snow. The skeletal dogs quickly swarm over it, and within a few seconds of it being left behind by the reindeer’s light, you can tell mentally that it is dead. Fuck.

At least it seems to have bought you some time…

“10 Miles to the barrier!” Shouts DesertFox from in front of you.

“Keep your eyes out! They just took out my moose!” you yell.

“Shit!” you hear OnTheFence yell as a dog jump at him out of the darkness to the side and he narrowly ducks out of the way.

You probably aren’t gonna make it at this rate!
For any action roll 1d100. Best of 3
[ ] Think of a better plan! (Write In)
[ ] Drop Explosive barrels behind you and have Hiro shoot them!
[ ] The reindeer are much faster! Have two of them get people out of here while one stays back to give the remaining players light! They can each take one more person, but at least it won't be all of us dying! Maybe they will even make it in time to make a second trip!
[ ] Keep using speed buffs and pray you make it!
[ ] Sacrifice yourself!

>>2287551
>Sacrifice self

They did us a favor after all. Let's return it

>>2287551
[X] Drop Explosive barrels behind you and have Hiro shoot them!

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Rolled 9 (1d100)

>>2287551
Keep using speed buffs and hope you make it.

>>2287551
[ ] Sacrifice yourself!
[ ]Preferable with as many explosives as we can carry
Good time as any to check out what dying is like

Rolled 24 (1d100)

>>2287596
Also dice roll

>>2287551
>[X] Drop Explosive barrels behind you and have Hiro shoot them!

Rolled 26 (1d100)

>>2287551
>[X] Drop Explosive barrels behind you and have Hiro shoot them!

>>2287617
that timing tho...

Barrels it is.

>>2287617
>>2287614
>>2287590
[+1 Barrel Bombing]

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>>2287620
Think! Think! Think!
How can you get yourself out of this one!?

Fuck!

You open your inventory and grab an explosive barrel.

“Hiro! Shoot the Barrel!”

“Got it!” he yells from ahead of you. You throw it into the snow and as the dogs swarm over it, Hiro unleashes a flare arrow at it and it bursts into a huge explosion.

You can feel the heat on your back and hear the pained yelps of the skeletal dogs caught in the blast. At the speed you are moving, you quickly leave it behind and after only a few seconds you can barely see the burning fire left in the distance.

But it’s not enough. Charging forwards covered in flames, the skeletal dogs remain steadfast in their pursuit. They look like propper hellhounds wreathed in fire and brimstone now. More importantly though, they seem far from giving up..

At least you can see them now…

As you are thinking this, another skeletal dog that is not on fire charges in from the darkness and nearly takes you off the moose. Thank you monk dodge…
You drop another barrel and Hiro shoots it again. One of the dogs goes down, but there are just too many! Your barrels will run out before you can even put a dent in their numbers.

Another barrel. Another boom.

“8 miles!” DesertFox calls out.

There is just too much distance!

For any action roll 1d100. Best of 3
[ ] Think of a better plan! (Write In)
[ ] The reindeer are much faster! Have two of them get people out of here while one stays back to give the remaining players light! They can each take one more person, but at least it won't be all of us dying! Maybe they will even make it in time to make a second trip!
[ ] Keep using speed buffs and pray!
[ ] Sacrifice yourself!

>>2287628
Low rolls too strong.

Rolled 92 (1d100)

>>2287628
Can't we call ahead for backup? Run towards the city while others run to us?

>>2287634
The city is roughly an hour and a half ride from the barrier, you will reach the edge of the barrier in roughly 8-10 minutes. Even with reindeer it would still take way too long for help to arrive.

Rolled 2 (1d100)

>>2287628
>[X] The reindeer are much faster! Have two of them get people out of here while one stays back to give the remaining players light! They can each take one more person, but at least it won't be all of us dying! Maybe they will even make it in time to make a second trip!

Rolled 77 (1d100)

>>2287639
Backing this then

Rolled 44 (1d100)

>>2287628
>[ ] The reindeer are much faster! Have two of them get people out of here while one stays back to give the remaining players light! They can each take one more person, but at least it won't be all of us dying! Maybe they will even make it in time to make a second trip!
Tempted to sacrifice but I guess this is the best option given the situation

>>2287628
>[X] The reindeer are much faster! Have two of them get people out of here while one stays back to give the remaining players light! They can each take one more person, but at least it won't be all of us dying! Maybe they will even make it in time to make a second trip!

>>2287639
>>2287646
>>2287651
[+1 Evacuating]

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>>2287663
“We aren’t gonna make it! There are too many, its too far, everyone is low on mana, and I’m out of barrels!” you yell.

“So what do you suggest we do?!” DanTheMan yells back at you.

You are tapped out of ideas. Nothing else is coming. There is no way you can think of left to stem the tide or escape its wrath.

“The only thing we can do! Evacuate who we can!”

“That’s your plan?!”

“You got a better one?!”

His silence pretty much tells you that you are correct.

“Pull the reindeers down a bit so we can get some more people out of here!”

“Who is staying behind?!” Hiro yells over the wind.

“I will!” you say.

Brolaire, 4Dank2Tank0, OnTheFence, and Paradigm also agree to stay.

Thats too many!

“Alright!” Hiro yells as he pulls his deer down next to Catler. The druid hops on and his moose pulls away from the pack and is quickly overwhelmed by the horde. Hiro ascends higher into the air.

DanTheMan comes next, and AssAssIn climbs on the back of his deer. The two take off and another moose falls away into the dark.

DesertFox shouts ”Alright! Who is coming with me! No point in all of you staying!”

You message her to save Paradigm on Telepathy and she quickly draws back towards you.

“You are a noble man Will.” she says into your head.

Before she can realize what is happening, you pick Paradigm up off the back of the moose and hand her up to DesertFox...

(Rolled 2) Critical failure.

Just as her hands brush the back of Paradigm’s coat, another wolf jumps directly at you from the front, completely taking you by surprise.

It hits you squarely in the chest and you and Paradigm go tumbling back into the snow. The skeletal hound’s bone claws shred through your underleveled gear and skin like paper, and the last thing you see before you black out is Paradigm’s face covered in blood next to you in the snow with a blank expression. The rest of her body is nowhere in sight.

Your vision fills with bubbles and light.

[ ] End Session.

>>2287694
Next session will probably be Wednesday the 14th at 2 PM. I may be able to get an extra in somewhere, but I can't say for sure.

Thanks for playing tonight everyone! Long session, but a good one in my opinion.

As much as I would like to stick around, I need to head off to bed now so I can wake up in 6 hours and go to school for ten hours straight! Goodnight everyone and thanks for playing!

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>>2287694
>the last thing you see before you black out is Paradigm’s face covered in blood next to you in the snow with a blank expression. The rest of her body is nowhere in sight.

Well that's horrifying. I get the feeling that Wills not gonna forget that

>>2287697
It was as Dank said we may ressurect in the cathedral, but that doesn't mean it that dying is pleasant

>One of the dogs goes down

So does that count as our kill or as Hiro's kill? Because dam the barrels plus flare just took down a lvl 90 mob.

>>2287764
You weren’t the only one attacking it, the others in the group had also been firing skills into the mob of skellhounds. More than that one went down, that was just the only one your barrel got. The darkness made it almost impossible to tell, but you would guess there were at least 30-50 still chasing you all at the end.

>>2288349
I could arque that in game terms since it was our barrel to land the kill we should get the exp. But that is useless and we can just have the lost exp (the one that occours when one dies) to be the exp we would have gotten from the kill.

>>2288361
Unfortunately, you don’t get much exp when you are in a party with people who are much higher level than you. The higher level players stopped using the mentoring system and returned to their original levels back when you were all running from the Abominable Abomination (>>2287371).

Sorry for the inconvenience, but next session time will be Wednesday the 14th at 4pm rather than 2pm because I forgot I had a doctors appointment then.