[Closed|PVE] Dog's Den

[Deleted]

SPOILER: Click to show

(This thread will be a dungeon crawling thread. Looking for party members that would be valuable together in a short, low level dungeon. Please don't post here as a level 10+ character. If you want to participate, you'll need to RP your character at a lower level.)

"Grrr. Where is it?" Nothaveld growled as she walked past the same destroyed apartment complex for the forth time. The street layout was a mess. She must have walked around this peninsula twice by now. "It has to be here some where..." She muttered to herself, taking another corner down a road that eventually just led to a dead end. She was going to just call it quits here soon if she doesn't find the entrance. She wished the game still had a minimap somewhere.

What she was looking for is a dungeon called the Dog's Den. It is a low-level dungeon with an entrance within the safe limits of Londinium on a peninsula called the Isle of Dogs, bordered on three sides by the Thames. In real life, the peninsula is dug out in several places and used as artificial harbours. Due to neglect, though, several of the harbours are dried up or filled with mud. Since Great Britain got its own server, the entire area was changed, but Nothaveld remembers coming here on many occasions via the inter-city transport gates while she played on the Scandinavian server, which at the time included the British Isles. The Dog's Den, introduced in the patch previous to Noosphere Pioneers, was a favourite low level grinding dungeon for Nothaveld since it was instanced and the monsters inside scaled in difficulty based on a party's average levels. This made it somewhat easy to solo. It was also easy to exploit if you bring a high level tank to raise the monsters' levels up, tank the attacks, and let the low level character get a few hits in before the tank takes out the mobs. You could get a fresh character up to level 50 in no time at all this method. Though this exploit was probably patched in Noosphere Pioneers. It was quite the problem balance-wise for the Scandinavian server compared to the other servers.

Since most of the adventurers on the shiny new UK server were probably new to the game, she doubted anyone not familiar with the Scandinavian server would have been here yet. So before she left the area of the city most people congregated in, she wrote up a little advertisement with a crudely drawn map that pointed to the general vicinity of the dungeon entrance and placed it on a bulletin board in the guild hall lobby. The advertisement basically said "LFP: Lvls 1-10, no higher. Need Tank, DPS, and Support. Meet @ Dungeon Entrance."

She darted through an overgrown park and back onto a street. She wondered if anyone was waiting for her at the dungeon entrance now. She didn't want to keep anyone waiting, but she was lost... Would the dungeon even still be there after the new server replaced the Scandinavian version of Londinium? She tried to remember what the area around the dungeon entrance looked like. She had seen it so many times on a monitor, but she wasn't looking at the world through a monitor anymore.

[Dantès]

WC - 426

◀

I'm going on an adventure! ❤ Dantès wandered about Londinium at what seemed like random for many hours. He was unwilling to admit that he was lost- he was infact simply on an adventure. So this place was different than he remembered back in the day but then again he had a topographical map then. Pausing for a moment, the young swashbuckler put a hand on his hat and paced from side to side. The inn had to be arou-- hello, what was this? Removing a flyer from a wall the contents caught his eager eyes. As a writer with no tales to tell the idea of a dungeon crawl did not seem so bad. There was a crudely drawn map on the flyer but he had navigated worse before. At the very least they were so kind as to give directions to this rather than simply name it and pray. Resting a hand on his rapier, he smiled and thanked the sun for his good fortune (praise it). He did not dawdle in his quest to find this dungeon. Though most might have found him quite odd as he was reading the map aloud. Dantès liked to work things out aloud as it was easier for him to keep track of where he was at in his one sided conversation. "A left? No, perhaps a right. No, no. This is clearly suppose to be over here.." he said as he rubbed his chin. The fact that he had no beard to rub made him quite sad, he would have to ask the dwarf how he obtained such a glorious man bush. It was hard to navigate without any land marks. It was even harder to navigate without vision. In fact, Dantès was quite unaware of the girl until he was about to collide with her. Instead of doing so he would come to a stop and sort of do a twist that allowed him to move around the girl. There was a short sigh of relief at his avoiding the misfortune before he turned to apologise. "Truly sorry. I was reading this dungeon map and.." he started until he noticed it. Another one- there was another dwarf! The race was making a come back, he could feel it. Was this a female dwarf? He honestly wasn't even sure that the option had existed in the character select screen considering their popularity. Realizing that he was gawking, Dantès put on his best rougish grin. "I don't suppose you can make much sense of this, can you?" he said, holding out the map. Embers ★

[Leo]

Being a monk, and someone that had little luck with gold could be bothersome, especially if your play style was all about getting drunk. Lack of alcohol was a huge curb to ones effectiveness, after all Leo could live on scraps for only a fixed period of time, and it was by far too long already. Today though seemed different, brighter, as if something miraculous was about to happen, and as the werecat laid on a flat, dirty roof up on which he construed a makeshift tent, his yellow eyes fell up on the most eccentric individual. His ears heard him first though.

He was dressed colorful, wearing quite the expensive looking clothing, had a blade and probably knew how to sue it and carried a map of sorts, which could lead only to one conclusion. THIS MAN WAS A PIRATE, ad pirates always find hidden treasure, this was his chance to finally earn some coins.

Without hesitation, using his acrobatic skills, the werecat brought himself down the building, using the natural holes that appeared in the stone walls of this deserted building. Actually, he didn't notice that until now, but there were plenty of places which nobody occupied, yet. 

Sneaking was a skill of the Assassins, but that was back when this world was just a game, now everyone could sneak, better or worse. Leo kept to the darker corners, hid behind trees and wreckage, occasionally slumping down in to a hole, all to stay unnoticed. Though the longer he fallowed the man, the stronger it hit him, that the colorful man might have been lost. He felt as if they go in circles, again, and again. Didn't they pass this rock already?

Finally though, after god knows how long, the man was forced to stop his jabber and stride, in order to chatter up one of the other adventurers. Was that a dwarf, and a female to that or maybe just a human that was this small when it comes to their real size. He heard in one of the taverns that some people choose their avatar to be a woman, when they were man in the real world, and later had to drink a shape shift potion, in order to return to their normal looks. Horror.

Both didn't seem like Player Killers though, so perhaps it was time to say hello. His black furred figure slid out from the shadow of a great growing tree, the expressive, yet villainous eyes gleamed for a couple of seconds. With every step he took though, the "intimidating effect" of a black cat, faded, being replaced by a wide, toothy grin and a joyful, welcoming tone.

"You guys seem lost, perhaps I could extend a helping paw..." he stopped no more than an arms reach from the two, eyeing the map with untold interest. Drooling a bit. His curiousity was getting the best of him and his perked ears, were a dead giveaway at that point.

/WC 495/

[Crimson Blood]

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA"I laugh hysterically as I walk through londinium. I am a man with long silver hair and I am clad in blood red beginner's gear yet I cannot find a party to go dungeon crawling with. "I can't wait!" I yell excitedly "Soon I'm gonna join a party and go into a dungeon" I continue to walk and talk to myself. Then I suddenly see a small dwarf girl that looked lost. "This looks interesting" I say to myself in a quiet voice "I think I'm going to follow her. Maybe she knows where to find a party. I should probably ask her instead of stalk her though. Meh whatever" I say to myself as I start to follow her around. eventually I followed her to the guild hall lobby. She put something on the bulletin board. Once she started leaving I went to the bulletin board to look at what she put up. When I looked I saw a crudely drawn map and a circle near the Thames river. The only thing it said was "LFP: Lvls 1-10, no higher. Need tank, DPS, and Support. Meet @ Dungeon Entrance". my eyes widened "This is my chance" I whispered to myself. I turned around and the girl was gone "Crap! I need to follow her" I ran out of the building and saw a bunch of plants that were stepped on in and overgrown park "She must have gone that way" I started running on the makeshift path through the overgrown park. Soon I had cought up. "Just in time. I was almost unable to run more" I say while panting. Suddenly a guy comes running at the girl and just barely avoids her. He then showed her the map I had seen in the guild hall lobby. "This guy must want to join aswell" I say to myself "And from the looks of it he's a swashbuckler. A must have for a dungeon" I continued to watch waiting for the perfect time to reveal myself. I love making a flashy entrance. Then suddenly a black werecat wen't up to them and extended a paw. "I think I should make my entrance now" I whisper to myself. I walk out from hiding "Hello I am Crimson Blood but you can all call me Crimson" I bow in an extravagant manor "I would like to join you in the dungeon"


Word Count: 419

[Deleted]

Ineircied saw the advertisement in the guild hall as an opportunity to give Ceidi some dungeon experience. If someone was capable of organizing a full sized party, which they should have been able to do with an advertisement like that, there should be members of the party there to cover up for any mistakes she makes while on the field. For the most part, they had just been sticking to the two-person party set up and attacking passive animals outside of the city. But there wasn't much in the way of experience points for killing weak animals.

He already knew exactly what and where the dungeon was. He had programmed Ceidi's predecessors to level up in that dungeon all the time while in the Scandinavian server. It was easy exp since the monsters scaled up in levels. He wondered how the dungeon would have changed now that it was part of a new server along with the additions of the Noosphere expansion. It was the best time to check out the additions, while their levels are low.

Ineircied and Ceidi were on a horse together, Ineircied at the reigns while Ceidi was riding side saddle behind him, hands holding his waist to stay balanced on the animal. Well, there wasn't much of a need for that at the moment, since they were at the dungeon entrance, waiting for whoever was supposed to be coming. The map was poorly drawn, so whoever was responsible for it obviously wasn't a scribe. "We'll wait here for another five minutes, then head back to the guild hall where I can form a party myself. Whoever wrote that paper was an idiot."

And then Ceidi chimed in, letting him know that she had seen someone while they were sat here. He could tell she was nervous, but still wanted to please him. He wouldn't chide her for not telling him about the idiots wandering the area. He guided the horse with the reigns back onto the street. He rode them toward an intersection, looked down all streets. "Where was this person heading?" He waited for Ceidi to point out the right way, then rode the horse over to the next intersection. Down one of the roads at that intersection, he saw four people all gathered up talking to each other. Four people, perfect, a full party if he and Ceidi joins.

Ineircied felt Ceidi's head press harder against his back and she asked a simple question, to which he responded, "That's your job to tell others, whether you want to or not. For now, it doesn't matter." She didn't want others to know she wasn't a real person, at least not on Earth. She was just a bot who got caught up in this and become his daughter in this world.

He rode them over to the group. Two humans, a werecat, and a dwarf from the pointy ears and the height. "Which one of you drew the map? Honestly, I'm surprised you got this many people together with that vague ad." He was annoyed and he didn't care if he offended anyone. He was here only for Ceidi to learn. "We're already in a party, I'll just invite the rest of you." He pulled up his UI and dragged each person here into their party. They would each get a little dialog pop up asking them to join. One level 1 dwarf bard. One level 1 human swashbuckler. One level 1 werecat monk. One level 1 human bard. With him and Ceidi, that made the group somewhat well rounded. But he was still surrounded by supposed noobs. Two tanks, two support, and two DPS. He was not looking forward to this.

"My name is Ineircied. I am an Elder Tale veteran. Behind me is my daughter, Ceidi. I'm assuming we're all here for the same reason, the Dog's Den is two blocks over, follow us." He turned the horse around and was walking it slowly enough so that the others could follow them to the entrance of the cave. This is where they got off the horse. He lifted his lance off the small holster on the right side of the horse and Ineircied dismissed it with a pat on the back. He slung the pole weapon over his shoulder and held its end with his right hand.

"Alright, one at a time, you all explain what you are, your skills, and what role you are going to play and I will tell you what you are going to do. I am a summoner. I am going to summon a skeleton once we enter the dungeon and I am going to be up front attacking the mobs as well. Ceidi, explain your role."

[Deleted]

Ceidi wasn't looking forward to the dungeon. Fighting off the weak slimes and smaller animals around the south of the city was one thing, but fighting off rabid dogs in a dungeon was another. She knew exactly what to expect in the dungeon, that is if the dungeon was still the same as it was in pre-Noosphere Elder Tale. There's no guarentee that is was. There's no guarantee that it would have even still existed. Well, actually, she knew it did, because the cave was right behind her. She sat on the horse, hands around her father's waist, just thinking about what to expect. Well, at least she knew the mobs wouldn't leave the cave. This let her observe the area around them.

Her father spoke up, his patience was wearing thin, she could tell just from his voice. He wanted this to be a successful dungeon crawl more than anything. "They might be lost. I saw someone a block away a little bit ago cut through a yard." Oh why, why did she have to say that. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and just let her head rest on her father's back while he took off to go find the people who were probably wandering through the area looking for the dungeon.

She held onto his waist as the horse was galloping. They stopped at an intersection and he asked her to be more specific as to where she saw the person heading. This particular area of the city gave off a musky smell since it was surrounded by the Thames on three sides and was full of mud pits. This would not be a good vacation spot, but it is where the dungeon was and where their future party was, probably. She lifted her armored hand over his shoulder and pointed down a road that was most likely where the person she had seen was heading. Then he started heading that way to the next intersection.

She looked up and saw the group of four first. A short woman with bright purple hair was being towered over by three others. Two men dressed up in red and a black werecat. She wouldn't be able to tell their classes until they got closer. She had little in the way of interaction with others, so she was very nervous and shaking. She pressed her head harder against her father's back to get his attention, "Daddy, can you not tell them about me?" She mumbled, just loud enough for him to hear. His response was what she needed to hear. She didn't want people to treat her differently because of what she was, and all she wanted was to learn how to be human.

They approached the group, and she hid behind her father as best as she could, though it was difficult to hide since she was wearing heavy plate armor with two large shields towering over her shoulders strapped to her back with her legs sticking out from the left side of the horse. When her father introduced her, she just waved sheepishly and mumbled, "h-h-hi^Ii..." Her voice chirped while she was speaking, her face went white and she just wanted to bury herself into her father's back. Her voice was something she couldn't control perfectly yet and that chirp was an electronic ring that she hoped, she prayed, they wouldn't notice.

They walked the group over to the cave entrance to the Dog's Den. There, they hopped off the horse and Ceidi immediately took her position behind her father. Her father spoke to the group very sternly, he wanted to gauge how each party member thought, then control them. He was sort of heartless in that way, but he was a very cold man when he needed to be. Then he called on her to explain herself. "I-I-I..." She froze up for a couple seconds, then continued, very calmly and almost monotone. "I am a cleric. I will tank. My build is that of a shield cleric, I will pull aggro by healing myself and dealing minor damage with my shields. Is... is that good, daddy?" He didn't actually acknowledge her question at the end, but that meant she said what she was supposed to, so she was content. She would wait silently behind her father while the rest of the group explained themselves to him, including their individual play styles. Not that that would matter if they didn't adhere to his plan on how the dungeon crawl would work. That's just how he worked with others.

[Deleted]

All at once it seemed like people just started crawling out of the woodwork. First there was a man who just about ran right into her and her legs wouldn't have quite been able to jump out of the way if he was going to hit her, instead he did a little twist to avoid her. He said something about following a map, then held out the flier she had written, drawn, and put up. "Ohhhh, you took it?" She was defeated just like that. She wanted it to stay there for as many people to read it as possible. Instead, the first person she met took it down to follow her crudely drawn map. "Well, I put that up. And sorry about the map, it was just supposed to be a general thingy to get people into the area. I didn't think the dungeon would be so hard to find..." She snatched the flier out of his hand and pocketed it.

Then applicant number two showed up. A black werecat who seemed to have been sneaking up on them. Probably not someone who had seen the flier and just someone who was in the area. Still, new face. "Hi! I'm gathering a party to go raid a beginner dungeon near here, but I am not sure where it is, heh heh heh, I'm lost without the minimap..."

Then applicant number three showed up! Nothaveld's mood was brightening with each new person that showed up! Another guy in red, but unlike the werecat, who seemed to have followed the first red guy, Crimson came from where Nothaveld had come from. Maybe he did see the flier too? Well, Nothaveld wouldn't dwell on it for very long. They were already four people strong! "Hiya, Crimson! Uhh," she pulled up the UI for the other two players, "Leo! Did you want to raid a dungeon? And, uh, Dantes! I'm Nothaveld, let's all party up and split up the find the dungeon entrance? It should be around here somewhere~" She was alight with joy, chipper and bouncy. Her mood shot up like a rocket at soon as she saw two more people show up on horseback no less!

Aaaand that's when her mood started to turn sour. The man trotted up to the group, then immediately insulted her. It's not like the map was good by any stretch of the imagination, but he didn't need to say that out loud like he did. The man immediately took control of the whole gathering and his condescending attitude was starting to anger her. Still, she accepted the party request. The role of party leader needed to goto someone, Nothaveld was not exactly the leader type. Cheer leader maybe, not war leader. She remained silent until the girl spoke, she was very clearly nervous. The daughter of this man? How cruel... "Hi, Ceidi~ I'm Nothaveld!" Like the party window didn't already say that. But she didn't want to be rude to such a sweet looking girl who obviously got the shorted on luck in terms of a father. Nothaveld's opinion of Ineircied was not very high, to say the least.

She followed the horse with Ineircied and Ceidi to a familiar street, then off the beaten path, behind a lot of tall grass, was the enterance to a cave just large enough for a human to enter. This was the Dog's Den.

Ineircied spoke down to them again, just what was this guy's problem? She listened to his brief explanation of his own plan, then she listened to Ceidi speak her role very matter-of-factly, like it was something she was told to do and not what she wanted to do. Nothaveld felt sorry for her again... "I am a bard, I haven't put much thought into my build really. I have a halberd, so I was going to do melee fighting. I know Resonance Beat and Aura Saber, those are my most useful skills. I can also quickly swap to my lyre to play a victory tune when we beat the boss! OH! I am an Elder Tale veteran too."

Dantès

[Crimson Blood]

After the two people on horseback led us to the entrance of the dungeon they introduced themselves and said what role they would be playing. I guess I should do the same "I am Crimson Blood but you can call me Crimson. Like you I am an Elder Tale veteran. My previous character was Red Rose, you might have heard of me because I was slightly famous" I notice everyone looks bored "I apologize I was just re-living good memories" I smiled. But it was a sad smile "Oh! I should introduce porky" My face immediately lights up "Everyone, this is Porky my Young Pittered Boar companion and he will be helping us with this dungeon" Porky squeals as a sort of "hello" "And by the way Ineircied, I do not like the way you are talking down to us. everybody is an equal and a true gentleman, like myself, should know that. Now, everyone else should introduce themselves"


Word Count: 178

[Dantès]

WC - 497

◀

I'm going on an adventure! ❤ Dantès smiled sheepishly when she asked him if he had taken the flier. At the time he didn't think about it- this was probably the only one of it's kind. Without the map she had tried to draw, however, he would not have come this far. The dwarf did not seem so happy about this, not even a name was uttered before she snatched the paper from the man. Perhaps he should not have been so hasty but it would have been wise for her to use multiple copies. "No, it's quite alright. I am also sorry, I did not mean to put a wrench in your plans. When I took the map I assumed there were more of them, my mistake." he said with a bow to her as he heard someone else coming now. By the look of it they were about to be in the company of a giant cat- a were cat to be specific. He had almost forgotten they were a playable race in the game- everyone he encountered thus far was human or half-alv. Her mood seemed to have improved though as more adventurers started to gather; including the man in red. Taking off his hat, he bowed once more to everyone else before replacing it upon his head. "Sounds like a plan. I assume you will be starting the invites then, Nothevald?" he asked as he looked at the notifications section of his UI. He was prepared to accept the invite immediately- until he became distracted by two others approaching. Another man and a woman in search of the Dog's Den. It only took him a second to read the man- he was definitely lacking in general manners. The girl however he did not have a read on but seemed to be following the rude one. "I'm sure Nothaveld did all she could with the map. It takes a decently high level scribe to produce a map." he said with a cheery tone. He wasn't going to let her go undefended, even if she seemed to let it roll off of her. With that he followed behind the mounted man with his right hand resting on one of his Rapiers. "If it was not clear by my gear, I am a Swashbuckler. I prefer to use a single rapier, though I have a second incase I require the speed." he said patting the left side of his coat where his rapier hung. While he was no veteran player, he did understand this type of game well enough to not slow anyone else down. "Resonance beat huh? That will be lovely for my rapid fire attacks." he said with the same cheerful tone. "I've never heard of a Shield Cleric though. Have you found this build to be effective?" he asked. It was mostly curiousity, not concern that drove him to ask. He could look out for himself but he also wondered if such a thing was a viable play style. Embers ★