But, it's also been a while since there's been anything particularly interesting to blog about.
Until last night, that is.
We've finally had enough Face Stabbers return to the game, that we were able to put together a level 10-13 Dragon Raid.
Surprisingly, everyone showed up with raid-ready characters. In the past, it's seemed that there's always been one person who wanted to join us who hadn't yet completed all of the Vault of Night prerequisite quests. I guess everyone *really* wanted to run a raid.
In fact, for most of us, it'd been close to a year since we'd last paid Velah a visit. (Perhaps that's why she was so cranky last night.)
Unfortunately, we didn't have a full raid group. But, at least we came up with nine players: two Clerics, Factotum (Belzur) and Zorgon (Sorgon); two Fighters, Zothra (Craygar) and Bingster; two Rogues, Fatti (Kruella(h)) and Trinarias (warforged Trin); a Paladin, Robinous; a Ranger, Cranish (Bashal); and a Bard, Plagiarist (Tanision).
You'll note that, of the group, none of the characters were Wizards or Sorcerers.
That fact would eventually play its part in the adventure.
Although we only had nine players, most of us were in the level 12-13 range, and we ran the raid on Normal difficulty. (So much for priapism...) This meant that we were a bit over-powered, relative to the recommended level/difficulty setting.
However...
We only had nine players...
And, we're all Face Stabbing Misfits.
Always a strong influence to be carefully considered.
Still, we gave it a go.
And, it was slow going at first. After all, it's been nearly a year since most of us had been in the Vault, and nearly three years for some. *cough* Kru... *cough* Craygar... *cough*
'scuse me... where was I???
Oh, yes...
So, it was a little slow at first. Mostly because none of us could quite remember exactly what to do, what order to do it in, what we should have done first, those sorts of things.
But, we had only two deaths in the Vault of Night (chapter 5), leading up to the actual encounter with Velah.
Yes... Trin was one of them...
And, yes... Trin still has an affection for going skinny-dipping in the lava...
But, at least, this time, Trin wasn't carrying the Voice or the Ring when he did.
No, instead, I had the privilege of incessantly (and annoyingly) reminding Robinous *NOT* to fall off anything into the lava.
I'm surprised no one asked me to stop repeating myself.
But I was pleasantly surprised that we'd all managed to find our way through the vault, all the way to the portal, guarded by Arach d'Kundarak, that would transport us to our encounter with Velah, in the Plane of Night.
However...
The encounter with Arach didn't go quite as expected.
You see... the folks at Turbine tweak things, just a bit, each time they release an update to the game.
And, there had been at least three updates to the game since any of us had last had a chat with Arach.
Y'know... he has more mechanical hounds now.
Four, in fact.
And each represents an element.
Fire, Acid, Ice and Lightning.
'course, we didn't know this until we all gathered 'round the Golem and asked Arach to let us through.
And we nearly wiped.
In fact, the only one left on his feet who could do anything to help us was Plagiarist.
But, his most immediate priority was to keep running.
Before the first seven of us had died, and Robinous had become incapacitated, we had only made a minor dent in the Golem's health.
And, we hadn't done *anything* about the hounds.
Y'know... thinking that, like the good ol' days... just beat down the Golem and the hounds will go away...
Umm... no.
We're not entirely sure, but it seems as though the hounds provide a kind of health/defense mechanism for the Golem.
It wasn't until Plagiarist had managed to revive Factotum, Zorgon and Robinous, that we had a chance to even *try* to deal with the hounds.
But, once back on our feet, with Plagiarist still the focus of the Golem and hound's attention, we finally managed to isolate the hounds, one at a time, and give Cranish, Zothra and Bingster a chance to work on the Golem.
Granted, this is not a new trick on the part of the developers at Turbine, but it was unexpected.
I'm not sure about anyone else, but I was glad that Plagiarist had survived to prevent us from having to re-run the entire Vault.
*That* would've been especially disheartening.
But, we made it.
In fact, it was especially nice that Turbine now fills up a character's health an mana when they successfully complete an adventure. It proved quite useful when we entered the Plane of Night to face Velah.
But, that's when things started falling... Bingster... Factotum... apart.
Yeah...
Turbine had also done us the favor of tweaking the encounter with Velah.
None of our old tactics worked anymore.
And...
We eventually wiped.
I think we had a good plan. It simply needs some adjustment.
And, some practice.
Which is why we re-scheduled the raid for another attempt next week.
'course... it'd be nice if, say... Althena and Maeric would grace us with their presence...
I ~know~ they both check in on us every once in a while...
They would be *MOST* welcome.
And we wouldn't necessarily promote them back into their old positions...
Unless they ~wanted~ us to...
HINT! HINT!!!
C'mon, Boss Lady! I know you're watching. We need our figure head back.
And, you, too Maeric. We haven't anything close to a master-mind anymore...
But, if you just want to leave us to deal with Velah, ourselves.
And, to die a lot...
Well...
So be it...
Just remember... we miss you guys!
In the mean time... there're preparations to be made! (Ya gotta love Q!)
I know I have my old notes on this raid... somewhere... dusty... ... ... somewhere...
Oh, well. We'll keep trying.
Keep it fun!
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