Just logged on and immediately get contacted by a tell saying to go to the gate to catch up with the group. We could take the quest as a good rogue had joined us, and we all knew we couldn’t do without.
Unfortunately as everyone had been hired OOCly, we were 9 on the job. As there were no IG reason for anyone to quit, an argument broke out and lead to a PvP. No DM was present, but we assumed the guards wouldn’t mind the fight. Since the orc got killed, no one cared and we moved on as if nothing had happened, ignoring the //insults of the player who respawned. The paladin, glad to be rid of the guy who had sold him expensive brews with his other PC the week before, looted anyways to get his coins back. The priest of orcus asked the druid to pick up an unidentified trinket, in order to twink it with his other PC.
As the party leader was afk during the fight, he thought we had solved the issue and thanked everyone on partychat for being sports. Others PCs attracted by the gathering asked if we were going to work, but we didn’t answer them, too busy do discuss in tell land yesterday’s DM run event which was really fun. The rogue did //party full so we figured no IG explaination was necessary. The paladin cast detect evil an said he wouldn’t work with a guy we didn’t know except he was low level. We all agreed, as but kept the priest of Orcus who’s a regular player, high level, and a friend of the paladin.
The arcanist said he would change his spells to fit that quest. We waited on him for about 10 mn, and then he logged. The druid said he’d go afk brb, and then he left the party to hunt roths and get the few xps he needed to lvl. We were ready to leave but the paladin said he needed to buy herbs but he’d catch up. So we were 5 now, but we didn’t offer others to join because small groups is best.
The bi-class scout-ranger ran to the employer as the others went to the lair which we all knew how to find, having done the quest 100 times. It’s a good one as you can harvest xp easily, you don’t use any ressources if you exploit the crystal that awaits a bit later in the quest, and pay is good too. Since the DMs took away the crystals, no one likes that quest anymore.
Before the quest we asked the low WIS warrior-barbarian not to rush, as we were scared to get our high lvl PC killed. He told us he’d be using ranged weapons anyways. The paladin leader gave out recommandations on what we all knew awaited us, although he got tired of rping his weird accent and switched to normal speech.
The arcanist cast his buffs and convinced the priest in partychat to keep his healing and let him do the protections, as we would probably need to be restored. We knew no DM was on so the scout stayed behind until the trapped area. When he couldn’t get a clear shot for his sneak attack, he ran in the room and back and hit the hide hotkey to get a melee sneak attack, while we got AoO on the running monster.
The hardest part was actually the entrance, and the scout unfortunately crashed just when the melee got tough. He managed to reboot quickly, and logged on with another PC to ask if the area was safe, so he could come back. The mage got felled when invisible, but the priest saw where he was on the minimap and rushed to the body, and happened cast a true seeing, so was able to heal the agonizing skinny. The later explained how he got hit because of lag, so he asked everyone to switch the minimaps off.
After that, we lured the creatures to us, explaining how they were unintelligent spellcasters, and even safely cornered some beneath the cliffs. Even then the fight was tough, because we didn’t want to waste potions, and even if it was rough the casters figured they’d better keep offensive spells for the big guy who’s got a really high AC. We encountered another hard spot, but we rushed back to the transition area, because silly IA doesn’t always follow.
Before we went down the last mile, we all drank ultravision potions as the priest said he’d cast darkness in the main room that’s always full of criters. We knew the big guy was immune to some type of damage, so didn’t bother losing rounds to check that out IG, and killed him easily. We didn’t do the other rooms as we knew there was no loot and journal said we could get our reward, and the weaker monsters got us no XP anyways. The last fight was so easy that we told the low level paladin to stay behind and watch. No use losing a level for some rp reason.
Since he had nothing else to do during the quest, the mage collected loot from the first chests, but stopped at the ones he knew were trapped and let the rogue do his thing. The end trap can’t be disarmed, so a protection was cast on the barbarian who luckily rolled max hp at each level, and he recovered the loot, knowing he couldn’t be killed even if he failed his save.
On the way back, the ground shook and we knew a DM had logged. The paladin suddenly said he had to log soon and left, and the mage was pissed because with only one warrior left he probably wouldn’t do the next quest. As expected we were attacked by a hord of monsters which had had time to build barricades with wooden furniture and crates, and even brought up balistas from somewhere. But even then our tank hacked and slashed easily through the minions. We killed a big guy easily too, because the mage dispelled the buffs the beast started casting only when it realized all his pets got killed.
But then, an even bigger guy came along and since we had killed all his clan he negociated our surrender. The priest knew it was pointless to talk as it would end up in fight anyways so instead of RP the negociation with his high charisma PC, he ran back to a safe place to get his spells back. True enough the creature attacked with his full buffs, and whiped out those in the party who hadn’t healed, because they wanted to rest at the Beacon to save on healing and coins.
Luckily, when we were all agonizing or hiding, the creature fled back to the Underdark for some obscure reason. The priest of Orcus came back then and raised the group, and we went on, most of us cursing the DMs for spicing up the quest and looting our bodies, taking all the unused ressources that would’ve use next time, maybe. Luckily we all got DM bonus XP, because, well, there had been a fight. We all had lost a level except the scout who beamed telling us he had just levelled up. We waited for him the time necessary to reroll and get max hp (-1 not to show to much), and then we went back to town.
The scout happened to cast Eagle Splendor before speaking to the employer, since we know he can give us potions if the persuade check is good. He had run ahead to lay the loot on the ground, and when we arrived a while later we did ask that he share the potions he probably got. To share the loot, some rolled 1d100 and others 1d10, so we argued how unrealistic it was, and ended up rolling 1d20. The priest said he would pick first because he had raised everyone, but we all though that was unfair.
After that, the barbarian whispered to the scout if he wanted to do another job without the others who really sucked, but we all heard because he was too close. Seeing he wasn’t wanted anymore, the mage offered to brew potions for those who wanted some, but it seems every non magic user knew how much brewing cost and thought the prices were too high.
Since no job was forming, we logged out and went on the forum, and read how great RPers we all were, making suggestions to improve the game and advice to others.