Hail friends,
News has reached my ear that a new artifacts are being discovered deep within the deadliest of caverns. I take this news as a direct challenge by the entire land of sosaria! I hear thine breath and spit upon thee like unwanted cattle! I step on thine grandfather's grave and sleep with thou mother's sister!
Have at thee!
To Shame I go, to test my metal.
...
Hallway to hallway, I scour the landscape... but with none a soul in sight. Through the earth elementals, dull copper elementals, water, poison, and blood, I do not find what was promised to me this night.
And as soon as I had arrived, I begin the long journey home...
...
(What's this?)A lone R@GE?
(Don't be fooled. Everyone knows they travel in packs.)
I hold fast...
...and they begin to multiply.First one, then three, then seven, then twelve!
An unholy alliance between R@GE & FARM.
But where was the party? Did I miss something? They're not fighting each other, I see no one else, and I'm not so lucky as to stumble upon a Harrower. I'm intrigued. So I watch and I wait.Even if I wanted to leave, they wouldn't let me. A contingent of four were holding the fort and fielding out an unseen enemy.
I wait.
And I wait.
And I wait some more!30 minutes has passed. I lose my patience and take a nap. I wake again and all is quiet.
Whatever happened, I'm sure it wasn't anything special.
...
(At least, that's what I tell myself.)
Who am I kidding? I can try to fight it and I can try to ignore the signs. Off to Despise I go.
(The artifacts will have to wait for another day.)
I take the long way around and it looks like I arrived just in time...Veileious of R@GE being chased by none other than Darth Vlad of KOS and my good friend Kalador! (He always has the best scrolls. ^^)
The fight blisters blows by me and I make my way to the island only to find another KOS. I take advantage of his pre-occupation.No artifacts, no scrolls worth taking, and only potions & bandages to be had.
(Looks like I'll have to do this the hard way.)
I move to the island and find that Veileious has yet to fall. Round and round they go. Inbetween the action, Vlad decides to cast a heal and... an earthquake!
(Shit.)
I take three steps to my left but I get hit anyway.
...
Vlad doesn't notice a thing.
::excellent::These three KOS, the R@GE, and now War Panda of KOA.
Even now I have no idea what allegiance War Panda holds. The entire night he was just running from one bridge on to the island and out the other bridge. Running in circles over and over and over.
(No matter.)
Baracoon was loose, Vlad had Veileious busy, and Kalador moves in to do his thing...
...and so do I.I risk it and take a pre-emtive jump. Who knows how fast they'd be out of my reach with other detractors around? I needed every second I could get and this was the only way.
(He doesn't notice a thing.)
Baracoon falls, spells are being tossed all around, I lick my fingers and take a look at the booty.My fingers are only out paced by my eyes. I move quickly now.
I shove the 110 eval out of the way and find the only thing that was quench my thirst! A 115 Ninjitsu!
--BUT NOT SO FAST!
Kalador, no standing directly on top of me, moves another scroll to the side of his pack.
I take a look.115 Bushido!
Decisions, decisions.
...
(I go for the 115 Bushido.)(And then... an idea.)
I don't move.
...
Tick.
Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
I use Kalador's own body and the body of his huge swampy as cover. Darth Vlad was busy with his guest. The remaining KOS was a ghost looking for a heal. The KOA was still running in circles.
I take the 115 Ninjitsu."Kalador is attacking you!"
Half-way towards the gate with two scrolls in my pack, I'm under attack and he doesn't look too happy.
To the starroom we go.
I summon a pair of mirror images, but he doesn't bite. I head to the teleporter to Terathan Keep with nothing in between me and my own glorious victory!--Nothing in the way except an entire dungeon full of spiders!
My stamina has already taken a hit and the spiders surround me.
My first mirror falls.
I fumble to find my teleport spell, but it seems that I've misplaced it!
My second mirror falls.
I take out my dagger, thrust in his direction, and into the shadows I go.
...
The spider's poison reveals me.
(DAMN.)
I prepare another shadow strike, gone again. And again the poison.
Some of the spiders are on Kalador now. He casts a pair of holy lights to ease his pain. The light clears the path and off I go!Now out in the open, he's no match for me. I soon lose him and grin like I've never grinned before.
VICTORY!
But what happened to his friends? Where was the backup? I follow my gut, drop the scrolls off, pick up a bag of sending, head back into Despise, and find the gold exactly where I left it.(If they were too busy to help Kalador hunt a low down dirty thief, then they surely were too busy to vacuum up some gold.)
I pocket the one-hundred and forty-thousand gold pieces and call it a day.
'Til next time!