Castle of Glass [Closed 4/4]

[Scoria]

It was a rare storm in Sarum, the normally dry and humid grasslands pelting down rain like the very ground itself was on fire. And in fact, it was. That 'mysterious frontier of Sarum' had turned into a rather intimidating sea of flames, fire spreading across the grassland quickly. Some idiot alchemist had decided it'd be a good idea to test his fire alchemy research in dry brush and the result... the result was this. Perhaps the only saving grace of this particular incident was that it was far away enough from the camp that the settlement itself would be relatively unaffected, but for anyone who could see through the storm, this probably wouldn't be something that would easily be forgotten. A small pack of adventurers had decided to expand further towards the city of Sarum itself, having done enough in terms of scouting and combat in order to stretch their borders just a little further.

The hubris of people. That was the cause of this. It really was a testament to the arrogance of Adventurers and Landers alike, those who thought they could challenge nature and come out just fine. Had the storm not been called, the fire would have certainly spread and engulfed the entire region. Not even Scoria's storms would have helped in that case, but this particular storm was not his. He could neither start nor stop the tears of the world. He simply stood there, watching the fire roar and try to combat the rain, eyes flicking from one spot to the next as his glaring features tried to decide what the best course of action was.

Just a few hours ago. Just a few simple hours ago, things had been going just fine. The camp had moved forward and started its slight expansion, taking along Adventurers and Landers of all shapes and sizes. Humanity's desire to expand had led them there, bringing even the weakest Level 1 Adventurers along. After all, so many 'strong' Adventurers were present. What would be the worst that could happen? The raging fires and the absence of most of those Adventurers told the story fairly well. The fire was doing a rather lovely job of agitating the creatures in the area, leaving the Landers that remained to attempt to fend them off. The number of Adventurers who stayed behind had dwindled dramatically to the point that Scoria figured to himself that perhaps under twenty total existed here.

If he was the highest level of them all, it would be a travesty. He wanted to leave, just like the rest, but those golems and the Landers... Augh. Alraune would have been very useful here, but she was with Kyuu. The smoke continued to rise and Scoria finally let out a sigh, pulling his blazer up in an attempt to help him breathe. They just had to beat out the fire. If they lasted long enough to have the fire die down completely, then they'd be out of here, Landers and all. The goal for now was to make sure no one died. To that point, Scoria took four strong steps towards a nearby Golem Sentry (Level 1) and activated Spear Break with both his hands, sending the creature hurtling back into the flames. Burn in hell.

[4 rounds until the fire dies out!]

[Tags: Aria Baltise Tobin Hanelli; Notes: Anyone is welcome, from Level 1 to Level 66. On my 5th post, the fire will have died out and everyone can head back to camp. On the 5th/6th round is probably when the thread will end. I use a 'rounds' system, where everyone can post in any order in between the round leader's posts. Ie Scoria, Person A, Person B, Person C; Scoria, Person B, Person A, Person C; Scoria, Person A, Person C, Person B; Scoria, and so on. Muse: ofc it's Castle of Glass]

[Aria Baltise]

Carnage. Absolute carnage had ocurred right before his very eyes. Aria had walked his way to this zone after what felt like days of travel, though he wasn't exactly tired despite that. He was hoping to explore the area so as to memorize all of the areas and be able to know what was where, how to get there, so on and so forth. When he arrived, the land was already desolate on its own, being nothing but a wasteland full of dried plants and the like. However, it seemed that an Adventurer or one of the People of the Land had gone and done something they shouldn't have, flames having spread like wildfire before anyone knew what had happened. It threw everyone into disarray, and on top of that, the mobs in the zone had become agitated and began attacking everyone nearby, Adventurers and Landers alike. The camp full of people had begun moving, but there were still people getting caught out, numbers starting to thin quicker than he could count.

The blonde's blue eyes would scan the area as quickly as he could, taking into account what was going on. There was a Lvl 21 Druid nearby taking out a Golem Sentry with his spear abilities. It seemed like he could handle himself easily. But everyone else seemed to be running around like chickens with their damn heads cut off. He was only Lvl 1, so there was very little that he could do himself. However, that didn't stop his body from moving on its own. He'd soon be darting in and unsheathing both of his Rapiers, coming in and doing away with one of the few Young Pittered Boars in the zone with a few swift strikes from his blades. He'd then immediately start giving out instructions without realizing until he had said it. "Everyone just keep calm and we'll get through this!"

He would raise his coat up slightly to attempt in helping himself breathe better through the smoke, soon finding himself calling out orders to the Adventurers who were still well enough to be active. "You there! I need you to assist the People of the Land in escort them to a safer area! Be sure to fend off any monsters that come your way! If they're stronger than you are, then simply keep running! You! Guardian! Draw the aggro while the Sorceror attacks from the back! Cleric! Switch between healing them when their health starts dropping below 50%!" All the while, Aria could simply fend off smaller monsters placing their aggro upon him while shouting out orders to the remaining Adventurers. He was playing a very dangerous game while being exposed to whichever mobs would come his way. He was playing Field Monitor for several parties while not even being a part of them. But somehow it was working. The fact that they would even bother listening to a Lvl 1 player such as himself was something that would almost never happen.

But this was something that needed to be done. It was a dangerous situation with a very simple answer for a positive outcome. The real question was, would they all truly be able to last, even with instruction? "You there! Switch off with the Cleric in healing, and make sure to keep everyone's MP up as well! Over there! Don't initiate your follow-up until your Tank has pulled the aggro upon himself!"

Word Count: 570

[Hanelli]

"Can't hit what you can't see!" ☒ Mind if I come in? ✐ 1,004 ✉ Fire, fire everywhere. Hunting List: Golem Sentry: 1 of... several I presume Skills Used: Accel Dance (active) Deadly Dance (active) Quick Draw (active) MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS

Now they’ve done it. That was what was on Han’s mind as she heard disturbing news that there was a fire an actual, honest to goodness fire breaking out near the Sarum Base Camp! In all actuality though, it was at a second camp site some distance away from the main one itself, but still… One of her fellow Elvin-kin who had the sense to try and alert as many fellow Elves as possible had managed to find her, and once he’d told her about what exactly was happening, she then set off towards the camp without further delay. Even if she was just a ranged fighter she had to at least do something in order to save the camp from burning up into nothingness. This is insane, who the hell would set the entire place on fire?! Was what she was thinking; noticing that the closer she approached the Base Camp, the thicker the smoke became, making it difficult for people to breathe. There was a distinct, acrid tang in the air, and that sent her coughing; but hopefully it wouldn’t incapacitate her; and she saw that the band of people fleeing the base camp were mostly Landers; but there were some Adventurers too; hopefully they would spread the word and have more help come in order to save the camp? She’d never know. She then knew that resisting the smoke was futile, so in a vain effort to at least keep her head clear, she then raised up the hem line of her ‘jacket’ (never mind that it was vanity clothing) in order to protect her own nose and mouth; and blocked off the incoming ash fall with her other hand. It was at that moment a harrowed-looking Elf approached her; and then told her that there were monsters who were attacking the camp; and that set her off as well. Picking up the pace, she then made as much speed as allowable, and saw that the camp was in disarray; people shouting over the flames, people carrying away valuable supplies; and in the middle of it all, there were looming shapes approaching from all directions where she knew the exits of the camp were. Ah crap, the protective enchantments are broken! She thought to herself, quickly flipping her Inventory open and dropping out her bladed weapons, holding them in each hand. before charging into the fray, however, she hefted up her ‘jacket’ even more so that it wouldn’t fall; and went towards the nearest hulking mass of an object, which she saw was a Golem Sentry. Won’t they ever quit?! She thought bitterly to herself as she quickly activated her Accel Dance; in order to pick up speed; before coming in and confounding the creature with a Quick Draw attack; catching it off-guard. Once its attention had been diverted on to her, she then launched an instance of Deadly Dance, coming from topside; bringing down a vertical slash to the Sentry that was now flailing and trying to swat its nimble target out of the air. She knew that she was much faster than the Sentry; and if she knocked it over, then she’d have an easy time taking care of the stupid thing. She then darted around it just as it swung its fists in the place where she stood a few moments ago, and launched another Deadly Dance towards it, chipping off another portion of its Health bar. On and on this went; until it exploded into bits of data; she then stopped and realized that she’d done over seven instances of Deadly Dance, all from different angles. Dang it. I need a new weapon… she thought as she took a closer look at the dulling edges of her dagger, as well as the ‘rope less’ kunai she had in her other hand. She was about to look for more Sentries to take out when she heard a scream… more like it was a screech of surprise; she then dropped both weapons back into her Inventory and rushed deeper into the camp site, batting away the smoke that was now stinging her eyes, trying to look for the source of the shouting. It was coming from somewhere off to her left; so she went in that direction, and the noise became louder. She could only cringe as it was the sound of someone in pain, so she picked up the pace and finally found the source of the noise, a Lander whose leg was trapped under fallen wreckage. “Crap,” she hissed, quickly moving in and then looking around; seeing that the flame was about to reach the place where the NPC’s leg was trapped; she then moved quickly, attempting to heft the fallen piece of what looked like a stand out of its way, therefore freeing the leg of the Lander. It took her a few tries (and much straining) but in the end, she had managed to free the Lander from his pathetic position; and she then helped him up, allowing the individual to lean on her as they wove their way out of the fallen debris that was now scattered everywhere. Seeing that there was still a party of Clerics nearby, Han then left this Lander in their care, before looking around to see if there were any more people trapped inside. Hoping that there were none, she then turned her attention and saw that there were several more Golem Sentries headed towards an adventurer she hadn’t seen before, their fists flailing, looking for someone’s skull to break in. “Look out!” she shouted in his direction (Aria) before quickly leaping into motion; opening her Inventory and then retrieving the ten-foot long rope that was originally joined to her kunai. She then shaped it into a lasso, and then moved in as close as she could manage, ducking around the lead Sentry’s flailing fists, and then holding the rope taut, pulling it as hard as she could manage; hoping to trip the Sentry and send it off balance!

[Tobin]

HP: 82% Mana: 78% Word Count: 709

This entire scene very much reminded Tobin of a British summer back in the real world strangely. Whenever there was a holiday, it rained. Whenever there was a fire, a party gathered. So naturally, every summer party with a BBQ drew people, it rained. That British summer was not too dissimilar to a raging inferno, aside from the main course being sentient flesh, and the party goers being any mobs allured by it; the dwarf just had the misfortune of being the undercooked pork sausage that was going to give them indigestion. Of course, the simple curiosity of how far the adventurers had gone was probably going to cost an arm and a leg, needless to say no one expected a Alchemist to carry out fire based alchemy in the centre of what was effectively a improvised bonfire.


“FOR FREKS SAKE I just wanted ta see what were out here, not to be an main course on a BBQ! COME!”

The dwarf had immediately set about trading blows with a golem sentry twice his level, the lack of finesse made up for with sheer ferocity as he met the downward punch with a grapple, minimising the impact by remaining close to it’s personal space. This was immediately follow by him his leg behind it’s knee and while pulling back with his weight, the dwarf twisted sharply to his left as he used the the creatures own momentum to topple onto it’s back before he pounced on it’s chest; pummelling it with an barrage of punches into its face. A counter punch in the stomach interrupted this attack, casting him off as he barely regained his footing with a skidding halt.

“That… All you got, I felt pregnant cows kick me harder... Actually, they do kick kind of hard.”

Was the grunted retort, a crimson glow erupted from his foot as he initiated the -Wyvern kick-, with a running start towards the creature of stone as it attempted to rise, the dwarf jumped into the kick as his leg erupted into flame, transferring the channelled energy of youth the power directly into his chest.

“WAARRRHHHHHHH”

It’s chest fractured from the impact as it was flung to the feet of another adventurer as it was promptly finished off. The dwarf paused to steady his racing heart. Thus far only a steady stream of random curious mobs had gathered, though they generally seemed attracted to any weakness in the camp formation, though this offshoot would likely be the only camp consumed by the mob tide. A quick glance around himself told him that many of the adventurers had simply turned tail as the blaze began. Some hero’s they were, after all, there was some rudimental barricades erected around the campsite, so defending the outpost for a short period wasn’t impossible.

The dwarf couldn’t help but see his eyes settle on several figures. The druid he recognised immediately from his unflinchingly heroic, yet entirely impassive exterior, and he had vaguely remembered seeing a ninja as part of another group he was in and at the middle of the mess, at the centre of one of the breaches, golden hair billowing as he issued orders in a gallant manner. This also was attracting a fair bit of aggro, judging by the increased interest of the golems. Getting involved in the only way he knew how, by charging down and delivering a mildly satisfying drop kick to the downed creature nearest them, before wrapping his body around it’s arm and crushing it back, leaving the creature wide open to punishment.

“THE FIRE IN OUR HEARTS HAVE BEEN IGNITED! Consume these mobs with the inferno that is our PASSION!”

It probably sounded a bit mad, the dwarf didn’t really care too much about that at the moment, he bore several signs of the fighting, though thus far had settled largely with blindsiding creatures and letting more capable adventurers finish them off and had avoided the worst of the fighting. Upon dispatching the creature, the dwarf would offer a quick introduction, as it was likely that two of them didn’t know him well.

“I am Tobin, the flame of the party, lord of the drink, nice to meet ya”

Yeah, the dwarf dripped in irony that day.

[Scoria]

While Aria was doing an impeccable job as Field Monitor for several parties at once, Scoria was doing the same thing for the entire camp. His view was on the entirety of the situation, eyes flicking left and right. Not a single druid spell in sight. Lovely. He was the only druid in the entire goddamn camp. Probably explained why he was the only person pissed off at the disrespect everyone was showing to nature. The settlement far from the camp was burning fairly bright, but Scoria figured he'd give the storm a hand. Call Storm activated, calling on a greater torrential downpour. While he might not have been any good in protecting people, he could eliminate the problem more quickly. Just a little bit. Tobin's thunderous cry caught Scoria's attention quickly, his eyes locking onto the golem that was soon going to try and crush Aria where the player stood.

Tobin's interception was pretty well timed, perhaps in part thanks to Hanelli's speedy attempt to trip the golem up. Scoria personally thought tripping the golem was a dumb idea, because it'd fall and land on Aria, but the problem had been resolved so whatever. "Token dwarf, join the fellowship." Two party invites were shot out quickly, one to Aria and one to Tobin. If these guys were going to actually do something, then Scoria would do what he could to keep them from ending up dead. The point of the party was not for his party healing skills (he didn't have any yet), but to monitor their respective health bars more easily. Hanelli was a high enough level she could handle herself, but Aria and Tobin... His eyes kept flicking about, hands clenching and unclenching repeatedly. Ah, that was something he could do.

The storm Scoria had called and the one that raged above them combined together, dropping the elemental resistance of every opponent by one and dousing the flames faster, but obscuring vision even more. Scoria's hands flicked out to cast Heartbeat Healing and Cure Bloom on the dwarf, eyes flicking around towards the Landers. Allure activated as he bellowed loudly. "Landers near the center!" As people who actually died when they were killed, Landers were the most fragile. Certainly, no one wanted to die, but keeping the Landers closer to the center while the fires were doused... this was taking too long. "Tobin, Aria... When I kill the fire, whatever golems are on the other side will swarm through and go straight for me. I'm requesting cover."

Scoria could do it alone. He'd get out very roughed up, but he could do it alone. Still, getting Tobin and Aria Baltise to help was something good for their experience and for their ability to handle shitty situations. That, and everyone deserved to feel like a main character at least once. The golems were going to flood through when the flames got weaker anyway. Scoria was just going to breach one point in particular. He glared at the two of them seriously, as if demanding that they help him, then walked straight forward into the fire, taking burn damage along the way. His health dropped rapidly and his vision was completely obscured by mist, rain, smoke, and fog. Right up until he tapped his foot and cast Glacial Freeze, creating a 5 meter radius circle of ice. With nothing to burn and no air to feed off of, the fire died immediately and the golem sentries on the other side charged right in. If Aria and Tobin didn't give him a hand here... well, Scoria would be limping out of this. Be the main character, you level 1 pricks.

Hanelli could just go do whatever. She was level 20, she could handle herself just fine. So long as she didn't get in Tobin or Aria's way, Scoria wouldn't complain. The glaring druid pulled his hands in front of each other in a guard, unable to brace himself on the ice. If he cancelled the spell too early, the embers would rise up into flames once more. Those two had better help him out here.

[3 Rounds Left!]

[Aria Baltise]

BGM: It's Fightin' Time!!

Aria would turn at the sound of a voice, bracing himself as a Golem Sentry came charging in at him. However, he would hear the force colliding into it, sending it tumbling to the ground a few feet away. The blonde would turn to find a stout, but very strong looking Dwarf greeting him with a smile. The Swashbuckler would smile and return the gesture, bumping a fist to the others' as he introduced himself. "Aria Baltise. Aria's good enough. Pleasure!" He would soon turn his attention back to the field to take a count of how many mobs were left. It seemed like things were slowly starting to die down, some of the parties of Adventurers able to free themselves up and assist other groups. Good. This was good. The more groups could secure a part of the zone and help others, the better their chances of getting through all of this.

However, he would soon turn his attention to the level 21 Druid who had managed to douse an area of fire with an ice spell, only to have a handful of Golem Sentries come charging at the caster in moments. Aria didn't even take time to think about it. His body immediately moved on its own, rushing over to the area and leaping over Scoria with a battle cry. He took hold of both Rapiers and swung with all of his might, a bright flash emitting from the tip of the blades as they collided with the first Golem Sentry, the creature falling apart and dissolving to dust. He'd apparently gotten very lucky and scored a critical hit! One strong enough to be considered a one-shot. Upon landing, he would find himself slipping and sliding on the icy surface, panicking a bit as a Golem Sentry charged in to throw a large fist at his face. Lucky for him, he'd managed to slip in a way where the fist barely grazed him, turning with the momentum and thrusting his Rapiers forward to the joint of the amrs, using Viper Raise to inflict a bleed status as he passed by it.

Not nearly as graceful as he would have liked to appear, but he was making the most of the opportunity while he could. However, his calm was starting to fade as he found himself doing all he could just to make sure he wouldn't take too much damage from the oncoming Golems. It seemed that he was starting to pull all of the aggro, and that he would be in real trouble. However, he would be somewhat surprised as he noticed that not only was his HP being healed, but Scoria's as well. The Clerics he had instructed earlier had run over to their area, soon Guardians, Assassins and Sorcerors running to their aid, having cleared another part of the area of mobs. Aria couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief, but would immediately dart back into leading the charge once more with more battle tactics. It was odd how he had very little experience in an MMO, but seemed to give off the feeling of years of experience in strategies to keeping a party alive. He would never consider himself one, but perhaps there was a bit more of himself as a leader than he would think?

Word Count: 552

[Hanelli]

"Can't hit what you can't see!" ☒ Aria Baltise, Scoria, Tobin ✐ 1,274 (got carried away, geez) ✉ Hunting List: Golem Sentry: 7 total eradicated, guessing there's a whole load more incoming. Skills Used: Accel Dance (active) Deadly Dance (active) Hide Walk (active) Quick Draw (active) Shadow Bind (active, debuff) MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS

Now that Han had somehow managed to avert a potential disaster by sending the Sentry toppling off to one side, she saw another familiar face join the fray; it was the Dwarf she’d remembered seeing from that particular quest she’d done with Caer some time ago; and she also heard a rumor that the poor dwarf almost became a Frenmic Rabbit breeding post, give or take a few details. But that was then, this was now… the Sentry had now flopped over to the side and was now flailing about uselessly; and she began stringing her attacks together; first going off with a Deadly Dance attack, flipping through the air and landing squarely on the toppled Sentry with a downward slash; before picking up speed with Accel Dance and coming in for another hacking attack. She then continued with Quick Draw (even if the Sentry was now flipped on its side anyways) and released a sudden strike, shaving off another portion of the Sentry’s health bar. She then kept up with the constant chaining of Accel Dance, then Deadly Dance, and ended this Sentry’s existence with a final Quick Draw attack; since it was half-stuck on the ground anyway, she hopped away and watched it explode into bits of nothingness. Seeing that they were busy shepherding the remaining Adventurers who were now apparently following orders from a blonde-haired individual, she then decided to keep busy by drawing the ‘interest’ (a.k.a. the aggro) of the incoming Sentries to herself; the next skill that she used in order to sneak up on the unsuspecting Sentries was her Hide Walk technique; due to the number of shadows being thrown around by the raging fire (and crumbling debris) this was the next available choice. Now that the Sentries were looking around in confusion, she then darted around so that she was behind them, and then decided to break the silence by launching another incoming Deadly Dance attack! The good thing about Deadly Dance was that apparently it didn’t have a cool down time, so she could ‘spam’ the hell out of the technique; and she had just managed to catch two Sentries off-guard with the downward slash; what with the way they were clustered together. This then caused the two to spin around; clobbering and hitting the other Sentries in the pack… which was what she was aiming for in the first place. She was dealing with a group of five Sentries right now; and two of them were now flailing around quite uselessly; adding up to the damage they were causing… on their fellow Sentries. She chuckled for a few moments, watching the pandemonium, before getting an idea: why not try knocking their heads off and see what happens? She then activated her Accel Dance once more and came in for a hacking attack; before bounding away and then jumping and re-activating Deadly Dance once again; coming down on the clustered group of five Sentries that were now trying to hit their airborne target (her) with their flailing fists. After the downward slash was executed, she then landed on one of the Sentry’s outstretched arms; and then pushed off from it, delivering another Deadly Dance to the one she’d just used as a spring board. This time, the one she’d attacked suddenly ‘lost its head’ so to speak, and she heard it clatter to the ground before rolling off; and now utter chaos ensued within the pack she was dealing with. The other four were trying to break free from the ‘clustered’ formation that they were in, but due to the antics of the now-headless Sentry, this was proving to be a problem, what with its fists failing about everywhere endlessly. She then resisted the urge to laugh; because with one Sentry causing mayhem on the other four, her work load would be lessened to a certain extent. She then propelled herself into a running start, before flying through the air and launching another instance of Deadly Dance; this time it was aimed at the Sentry with the lowest Health bar. This one took the hit full-force, and it let out a roar… before exploding into bits of data, startling the four remaining Sentries. Apparently ‘Mr. Headless’ was one of the remaining four, and it was now flailing around, hitting its fellow Sentries with its fists, knocking off even more of its companions’ Health bars. Taking this chance, Han then cut across them, and used her kunai to perform the Shadow Bind technique on one of the three that was somehow managing to clamber away from the group, so that it remained well within clobbering distance of ‘Mr. Headless’, stabbing its runaway shadow and barely missing getting hit by an incoming fist that was intent on knocking her flat into a pancake! She then continued, using Accel Dance to increase her speed; and with a few more attacks the next Sentry with the lowest Health bar exploded, leaving its presence with bits of data. Now that there were three remaining, she decided to take the battle up close; attacking the one whose shadow was bound by Shadow Bind. It was at this moment a fist then came in from behind, and she was totally caught unaware; only noticing that there were stars in her field of vision a few moments later… and her own Health bar had taken quite a hit. “Ouch… stupid thing nearly broke my back…” she groaned, picking herself up and seeing that her Health bar was at approximately 80%; which was a bit much considering that she had yet to get her actual armor fixed and stuff. Better be careful now… she thought to herself as she then activated Hide Walk once more and then snuck around Mr. Headless in order to get to the next Golem that had a steadily-dropping Health bar, no thanks to the headless one that was clobbering its own allies, thinking they were enemies. She then broke the enchantment of her skill and then come down upon it with another Quick Draw attack; before disappearing into the shadows and activating Hide Walk again. This Golem didn’t know what had hit it; and therefore sent its fists flailing, clobbering the headless Sentry that was whacking it mindlessly for the last few minutes or so. She then heard the bits of data explode; apparently the headless Sentry had just finished off the one she’d pummeled a few short moments ago. Now that there were only two of them remaining, she then came up with another Quick Draw attack to the other remaining Sentry that still had its head on; before jumping and launching another instance of Deadly Dance and then hacking away with additional attacks; before giving it another slash and backing away for good measure. She had barely jumped away when Headless’ fists came whirling in, smashing its fellow Sentry to the ground; and she was about to attack when she saw that another fist-pummeling attack did this Golem in; and she heard the familiar exploding sound before feeling a grin creep across her face. Now, I wonder how to use this headless Golem so that it’ll do all the dirty work for us… she thought with a smirk; and then she saw that there were several more incoming Sentries, this time from the burning portion of the camp site! “Ah, hell no…” she growled; quickly darting in towards Headless; and several more attacks later; it too, was gone. She then hissed a few choice swear words and went off in the direction of the fire, if but to head off the incoming platoon of five more Golem Sentries.

[Tobin]

(OOC: Forgive me if a tad dry. Alcohol needs to be the solution!)

HP: 78% Mana: 71%  Word Count: 532

With the manly greetings out of the way, the dwarf tossed the lump of rock from his free hand and, becoming a member of the fellowship, listened to the draft of the plan. Personally, he didn’t see why the barricades had to be put out, since the Landers could have used the energy to grab anything of value and lead a fighting retreat but it was more fun this way anyway.

-Only issue is, the surface is pretty slippery…-

“Rightio, one moment.”

For a minute the dwarf went the other way into camp, towards the flames, returning moments later with a sturdy crate of mead, he only paused long enough to rip a bottle out before he pushed it out onto the ice, taking a deep swig of the draft as he ‘sailed’ out to the centre of the ice, gently cruising out to intercept the golems coming from the right with a long wooden pole serving as his propulsion.

“Peh, warm mead tastes terrible, but i'mma sharin' person.”

Came the dry mumble as he cast the bottle in the general direction of some of the mobs, which was followed by the casting of more bottles that stowed just moments before on the ice around him and before the general party. Making the surface considerably slipper for any trying to cross it. There he simply waited, the mobs stumbling as he continued to hum quite patiently as he holstered the pole on his shoulder.

“I don’t need ta fight ya to know I won, the environment is in my favour.”

He flicked the improvised weapon out at once of the clumsy creatures to thwack it upside it’s head, though the damage was fairly minimal the creature was toppled onto it’s back where a second flick would send it into the path of another behind it. The muscular dwarf in his soaked manly vest continued to draw aggro by twitting several of the creatures with hefty swings to keep them loitering around, the rain adding to the slippyness of the surface to make this angle practically unapproachable to the clumsy bipeds. The party near him would also find the surface nearly impossible to stand on, something that they would probably use to their benefit, or detriment if they were not too careful.

When the pole inevitably snapped, he let a loud booming laugh rip out from the billows of his chest and preformed a –Wyvern Kick- on the sentry closest to him, sending the bowling ball hurtling into the comrades behind it as the landed on the create again, shattering it under him and spilling more flammable liquid around him. That thought gave him an idea, largely because he was beginning to draw quite a large backlog of wounded, but angry sentries with a lack of a prodding implement to keep them at bay any longer.

“Hey Ice Queen, gotta light? It’s getting’ a bit frosty over her’.”

Needless to say, if the request was approved, the dwarf was going to dive and skid along the ice to relative safety. Alcohol was the solution for this mob infestation problem! The immense fire produced would be short lived, but likely wipe out many of the sentries that were trying to get past there.

[Scoria]

Ho. Nice. Although Scoria would never readily admit it, he was mildly impressed and relieved that both Aria Baltise and Tobin had come to his aid. It seemed like Hanelli was having herself a solo adventure, good for her. At any rate, Teddy's one-shot strike and courage in the face of an altogether ridiculous force had Scoria quietly hoping more adventurers were like this one. Well, maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all. By the looks of it, Aria was one of those "strategy game protagonist" type heroes, who didn't look like much to start but just so happened to coincidentally be freaking great at strategy. Yeah, too many of those might be problematic. Just one was good. The main reason that Scoria could get away with saying this was that the druid was not used to having support. Even when he was clearly on someone's side, unless he had directly talked to them, no one went out of their way to help them.

The very fact that people outside their ragtag party had come to help was a testament to Aria's leadership skill. Good on him. On the other hand, Tobin's specialty seemed to be something like strategy and terrain manipulation. As someone who did the same thing, Scoria held a quiet approval for the dwarf and his plans. Sure, the natural barricade kept the golems out, but it also had the reverse effect of keeping the Landers and Adventurers in. Those barriers had to be eliminated if anyone was to get out of here. Well, at least one side of the barriers. Speaking of barriers, Tobin had suggested a rather lovely idea. "Time to pull back a bit." The message was mostly towards Aria who might not know what was coming next. Scoria didn't have a light on him exactly, but his spear materialized in his hand, flicking out to a nearby fire as Scoria moved to the edge of the ice. Leaning backwards and letting gravity do the work for him, Scoria slowly retreated and let the smoldering edge of his wooden spear touch the alcohol.

FWOOOOOOOOOSH.

Scoria himself tumbled backwards on the ground, latching onto his spear in an attempt to make sure he didn't accidentally stab anyone. He didn't, actually. What had happened was that Tobin's rather fantastic set up and Aria's rallying cry had created the perfect timing and distraction needed for Scoria to execute on their simultaneous work. The massive ball of flame ripped a hole straight through the golem line and it was entirely thanks to the two adventurers. Anyone who said Level 1's couldn't do anything were full of hot air for sure. Stuffing his spear into his inventory, the druid pulled himself up and quickly cast a Cure Bloom on both Tobin and Aria. For an act like that, Scoria wasn't about to let either die. He was still glaring, yes. In fact, he didn't look appreciative at all. The reality of the situation was straightforward though, and no glaring Scoria or anyone could pretend that Aria and Tobin had not made that entire plan what it was. If either player looked around, they'd catch a few admiring glances from the Landers and Adventurers who were scattered about.

The fires were dimming to about half what they had been before and Scoria began to wade through the smoke, eyeing the camp in the distance. If people were going to do something, Aria was the one who was going to get them to do it. Where was that brat? "Try and get everyone to start migrating closer to the camp. The fire won't let us leave just yet, but the closer we are to the camp, the better. No?" Equivalently, the less fire around them, the less chance the entire place would go up in flames and the less chance someone would get seriously injured thanks to smoke inhalation. Wait, was that even a concern in Elder Tale...?

[2 Rounds Left!]