The group makes its first true mistake on the second pull after the boss. A fireball launched at a dying wolf sails over its head and hits an Ice Giant, sending him and his three friends running their way.
Red Beard moves to intercept, casting a spell Misha identifies as Sanctified Ground, a spell she will get at level 50. It creates a glowing circle of golden light, damaging and trapping monsters that enter. Since they find that they can't go past, they all turn on the Dwarven Paladin as intended, pounding him with heavy blows as the healers struggle to keep up with all the extra incoming damage.
"Focus down the first pack, let Red Beard hold the second until we're done. The faster the better." Cixelcid calls to the group.
Trying to keep this many people organized in combat is no small feat, dozens of different attacks and spells rain forth every second in the concerted effort to clear the first group and rescue the likeable Dwarven Tank.
When there is only one wounded wolf left Cain tells it to the group "Switch targets. I'll finish this with the Golems, you rescue Red Beard." The Dwarf is looking pretty ragged from the exertion of holding the group for that long, stepping back to catch a breather and take a drink as soon as Cixelcid arrives.
Various abilities have kept them from turning on the group, but they're highly resistant to stuns, so the Tank has had to suffer the full force of their beating since they arrived.
The last wolf soon drops under the efforts of poison and Golems, leaving Cain free to send his followers to help with the giants. Red Beard is back in the fight and things are back on track after the rocky start to the pull.
The giants are slowly brought down, as the group burned through much of their mana rushing to kill the wolves, using more damaging but more mana intensive spells and abilities.
"Well, as fun as that was, let's not do it again." Cixelcid says sternly looking at a shame faced young mage. "Take 10, eat, rest, whatever you need while everyone's mana recovers."
Char, the Shaman, has one of the Lesser Golems cuddled like a huge kitten in her lap, stroking its head while she chats with Mythryll. The two have become good friends quite quicky, and Cain suspects their party should have booked a bigger room. It's fine though, she's been in town a while, the party can just gather in the mornings like the pickup groups with random members do, should she decide to group with them regularly.
Cain notices she's got two totems right now. The healing totem over her shoulder as always, and a glowing blue one in front of her that disappears every 30 seconds.
Char notices his interested look and smiles "Mana Regeneration Totem. As you can see, they don't last long, but with everyone out, it's best we don't waste fifteen minutes waiting for them to recover."
The rest of the pulls through to the second boss Wendingo are routine, and now they're ready to face the huge mixture of skeleton and beast. He's got an enrage effect, he gets stronger every 5 seconds. You have to destroy him before he kills the tanks. Simple enough in theory, but they've discovered that the difficulty of the huge dungeon scales up with additional members, so it's going to be a hard battle.
Char promises to keep mana totems up, and one of the Rangers has a short, once daily full group damage buff he will use once the fight gets going.
Cain switches his Greater Golems from tanks to their never seen Lich Lord form and everyone gasps, startled.
"A class specific recipe from the undead dungeon. You know that debilitating curse area attack they cast? Well the Golems can use it, as well as ranged magical damage. I'm hoping that it might offset some of the enrage effect and give the healers a chance to breathe."
The boss has an aura effect that slowly damages everyone in the room, and its attacks curse the Tanks. Regular curse removal and area heals are therefore essential to the fight, as well as the ability to kill the thing before the enrage kills everyone.
After psyching themselves up, they're ready to go. Cixelcid roars a taunt and charges, turning the huge boss to face away from the group. The black circles of the Lich Lord's curse soon follow, given a golden outer ring by the Paladin's [Sanctified Ground] and the area healing spells.
It seems to be working, the effects of the curse keeping the power creep to a minimum. Cain is pouring Poisoned Multi Shots one after another into the boss, whose health is visibly fading. Just as one curse fades, Cain orders the other one cast, worried that a lapse will allow the curse stacks to reset and the enrage to hit full force.
The Lich Lord forms do cast black energy arcs that look like the base form of the Sorceress attacks that Lickity uses, but they look smaller and weaker, despite the level advantage. They're certainly not a top damage dealer like the Demon form.
[Level Up]
Wendingo dies with an eerie howl and the group celebrates, clapping Cain on the back and applauding his ability to stop the enrage.
Many good things seem to have dropped, everyone is in a better mood. Or maybe it is the level up most of them just got. Cain decides it will be more fun to check his inventory at the end of the run, so he leaves it unchecked for now and instead goes over his status screen.
[Name] Cain
[Level] 45
[Class] Puppet Master
[Race] Human
[Skills]
[Summon Lesser Golem] lv4
[Summon Greater Golem] lv2
[Poison Arrow] lv4
[Light Foot] lv4
[Reinforce Construct] Passive
[Stats] +15
[STR] 90
[DEX] 45
[CON] 70
[INT] 30
[HP] 280
[MP] 150
"Level Up again? Is this a thing we're doing now, just leveling up every boss?" Char asks, doing a happy dance.
"I hope so, I just got Level 40." Mythryll cheers back, dancing with her.
