The Nettle Tea Chronicles

Marissa

Marissa grinned to herself as she clocked out early. It was going to be a little less than a half day for her, leaving work at 7 a.m.

It was finally December 3rd. Patch day. And Clan Nettle Tea had unanimously decided that everyone was going to take off today to get started on the patch as early as possible, which had led to the planned meet up time being 7 a.m. for her, and 10 a.m. for the East Coast people.

Everyone other than her had complained about taking the day off but not getting to sleep in, so they had compromised on the slightly later Eastern Timezone time. She was already getting up at 3 a.m. anyway, so it didn't bother her. If anything, being able to prep for the bakery worked out well for her.

Firo, being the only other West Coaster, hadn't complained either, so it seemed to work out.

As soon as she was able, Marissa left the bakery to Sarah and Julie and rushed back upstairs to her apartment. She had left her PC on earlier to let the game update while she worked, so when she slipped into the room to check on everything, she was able to get the game booted up.

More than that, though, everyone else was already in chat. She carefully slipped her headset on, trying not to get flour on it, and joined the chat.

" - seems really awesome." Nyx was saying when she joined. As the game was loading up, Marissa walked to her bathroom to wash off her arms.

"Hey Bisky." Ash said.

"Morning. Sorry I'm late? I was working." Marissa said as she got the water running.

"You're still covered in flour, aren't you?" Kieran laughed. Marissa joining chat as soon as possible before she cleaned up wasn't exactly uncommon.

"Yup. Game's booting up while I get cleaned up." She said, her voice bouncing with the rhyme. "It won't take long."

"Never does." Jazz agreed. Marissa wasn't sure if she was being sincere or sarcastic, but let it slide anyway.

"So, anyone log in yet? See any of the new stuff?" She asked.

"Not yet." Evie said. "We were waiting for you."

"Nyx was telling us that she just saw some minor stuff on social media. Everything seems pretty positive so far?" Firo said, prompting Nyx.

"Yeah. Y'all were right, it seems like they did some pretty interesting things with the update." She said, "I didn't want to spoil myself too much so I didn't actually like…look at stuff, though."

"Well, are we all ready then?" Marissa said as she sat down and selected Hibiscus to log in.

"Let's go!" Evan basically sang as everyone logged in.

"The quest line for the raid starts in -"

"Falias," Kieran said. "Apparently, you can pick up the quest in Lugh's Courtyard."

"Meet everyone there, then." Evie said.

"I'm already here." Firo said. "Logged out by Grand Arcanist Sioda." Marissa nodded; that was the [Invoker] trainer.

"You don't actually get the quest from your trainer, do you?"

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"No, doesn't look like it." Firo said. "Or at least, my trainers don't have any quests available…" He trailed off, and Marissa assumed he was looking at the map to find the quest. "Oh. Oh, I see." He said, sounding suddenly intrigued.

"What? What do your crow eyes see?" Evan asked. There were a few snickers in response.

"The quest giver. It's Lugh." Firo said.

"Oh?" Kieran sounded excited now too. "That should be interesting."

"You said that traditionally, Lugh in mythology is a hero, right?" Marissa asked as she ran through [Falias'] streets to reach the [Courtyard].

"Yeah. among other things. He's also Cu Chulainn's father and a great king. His spear is also one of the "Four Jewels of the Tuatha Dé Danann", usually just referred to as "Lugh's Spear", but I think it was named "Gae Assail"."

"Huh." Firo said. "I'd heard of Cu and his spear Gae Bolg, but never Lugh or Gae Assail."

"Yeah. For some reason, pop culture really likes Cu." Kieran said.

"Well, everyone pick up the quest and we can start working on it." Marissa said.

"Can't." Firo said.

"Can't what?"

"Work on it. It actually requires you to have a full party to start." Firo answered.

"Oh. That's not going to go over well online." Evan said.

"No. No it's not." Jazz agreed.

"You don't think you're locked into doing the whole thing with the party you start the quest with, are you?" Evie asked, concerned.

Firo laughed. "No, you're not. They at least thought ahead enough to tell you that much up front."

Marissa finally maneuvered Hibiscus into the [Courtyard] and found her way to the center of the place, where [Lugh of the Long Arm] stood waiting.

The man looked impressive. He was larger than basically everyone else in the area, the looming presence adding to his heroic, almost deific appearance. As someone far more versed in Greek and Roman myth than Celtic, Marissa immediately likened him to a Greek or Roman god in her head.

[Lugh] was a big, well muscled man, but not in the body-builder way. He looked like a fit warrior. His armor was on the light side, mostly appearing to be leather, adorned with a rich forest green mantle which flowed over one shoulder like a scarf. It complimented his dark strawberry blond hair - which was mid length and curly - so well that the colors must have been picked as a set.

There was a well crafted black-dyed wooden round shield strapped to his back. The center of the shield featured a bright white metal shield boss that stood out against the wood's color. At his hip was a sheathed sword in a scabbard wrapped in what looked like bloody bandages.

And finally, perhaps the most notable feature, was the spear he carried in his right hand. He had the butt resting on the ground while he held it upright, the spearhead, though, was covered in some kind of wrap. Altogether, it was taller than him. The weapon would be giant for just about any player character in Mag Mell.

[Cu's] [Gae Bulg] had looked vicious and dangerous, as if being cut by it would be immensely painful. [Gae Assail], in comparison, looked potentially lacking.

The haft of the spear looked to be made of beautiful wood. On her screen, Marissa could see the work that went into rendering the wood's grain and color - it looked so natural and lovely that she hoped she could find a bow of similar design.

The spear's head being wrapped in some kind of dull cloth dampened the overall effect. Given the wide shape, there must have been more to the design; it looked almost like there was a vase or something under the wrap as it flared out much wider than the haft. But it was far too angular to be rounded like a vase.

And the more that Marissa looked at it, the more sure she was that the wrappings looked almost…wet.

Deciding it didn't really bear worrying about right now, she interacted with him.

[Lugh of the Long Hand]

[In Defense of Gorias]

[Quest can only be undertaken in a [Large Party]]

[Accept] [Decline]

The [Accept] option was grayed out, so she couldn't take the quest, which made sense given they hadn't gotten their party started yet. When she hit [Decline] and the dialogue pop up went away, she noticed a note in the game's chat.

[Note : Quest chain does not require you to continue with the same party members to complete.]

"I see the message you saw, Firo. It's smart of them to put that disclaimer there, otherwise the internet would eat the devs alive." Marissa said, while opening the Clan window to send out party invites to everyone.

"That would've been one hell of an entertaining shitshow though." Evan said, as Marissa watched everyone's names pop up in the party list.

"Fiona!" Kieran gasped, "Language!"

Chuckles followed as Evan responded, "The kid's not even one yet. I have time."

"You say that now, but you should build up that curse filter now while you have time to adjust." Kieran returned. "I dropped an f-bomb in front of Aoife once by accident when she was barely two, and she repeated it for the rest of the day. Nat nearly killed me. I was lucky she didn't really remember the word the day after."

"...I'll take the advice under advisement." Evan said. "Also, I'm nearly to the courtyard."

"Good." Evie said. "You're the last one."

Marissa looked around, taking stock of everyone. The whole Clan was on their normal [Dedications], geared up and ready to go.

Marissa had dressed Hibiscus as usual for the occasion. Darker natural colors abound with her leather armor. She looked like the archetypical elvish archer, as Marissa had intended, just with the addition of her [Fae] wings.

Which, she noted to herself sourly, had not yet been used for anything. This wasn't the first time she regretted picking the admittedly beautiful dragonfly-like wings instead of the stat boosts for being wingless.

Firo was also sporting a classic fantasy look, with roomy and comfortable wizard robes of a deep azure. They managed to look good against his dark crow feathers, despite the old adage about navy and black clashing. His weapon, a beautifully gnarled wooden [Staff] was slung on his back, tipped with a large fiery red ruby.

Aleister was dressed as usual, looking a lot like a classic noble, though Jasmine had opted to go for an even more ornate option than usual, adding a golden filigree to his jacket that made him look even more fancy. To complete the look, he had a [Rod] type weapon currently equipped that looked a lot like an ornate cane. Marissa wasn't sure if that would be the weapon she ran through the raid with, as Aleister usually wielded a [Foci] type weapon, but she couldn't deny the aesthetic appeal of the [Rod] in this case.

Evie had often swapped color palettes, bouncing between the various eponymous 'eeveelutions'. She had gone with the basic brown and white-yellow for patch day, however, wearing a robe that looked like it was made of furs matching the expected colors. It was more body hugging than the loose robes Firo wore, showing off Evie's body shape a bit more, but not in any notable way. Her fluffy Cait-Sidhe tail was actually what drew the eye the most.

Her weapon, a [Foci], hovered behind her back, a floating circle of stones revolving around a central emerald gem. The green stood out against her main color scheme, but in a good way.

Nyx was dressed the same as always, in all black. The [Shroud] gear suited her sense of fashion well, allowing her to not only look like a solid fantasy rogue, but also play into a little bit of the more modern fashion. Her top was basically an altered hoodie with some leather straps over it, all dyed black. Marissa thought it looked good. And her weapons, dual wielded [Knives], allowed her to keep the more modern flair, as she had picked a set that looked almost like chef knives.

Caoimhe and Mellody, as always, were dressed in completely different outfits. Kieran had chosen to dress Caoimhe for the actual time of year, and probably the local weather in Minnesota. She was wearing a cute powder blue sweater with a big gray scarf that covered the bottom half of her face. Woolen-looking black tights and fur boots covered her bottom half, and a knit winter hat completed the look. Her long white hair had been swapped into a low ponytail to control it from spilling down her back.

She also had a massive [Greatsword] on her back that was larger than she was. Caoimhe had also chosen to keep her wings, and the brilliant blue and black of the butterfly-style wings were as impressive as always. The sword sat between them, its curved single-edged design looking sleek despite its size. Caoimhe often swapped between sleeker weapons like this and huge metal slabs with a handle, but Marissa thought this was the better look.

Ash had decided that Mellody would go full-on pop star for patch day. She had a frilly white outfit with a poofy skirt and pink accents. She was also sporting a cute, slightly off-center flat hat between her cat ears, and tights with elaborate boots. Being a [Muse], the looks really worked for her, even thematically. And at her hip was her [Flute], Ash's favorite of the [Revel] weapon options.

And finally, the last to arrive was Fiona. She was a taller Elf, and the tallest character in the party, just barely edging out Aleister. She was pretty, with long dark blonde hair that was always up in a ponytail, ready for battle. She was wearing heavy plate armor that was one of the more functional designs - Evan had always preferred the more realistic looking armors. Or at least the ones without too many fantasy adornments.

It was still designed a little more for the female form than was probably necessary, mostly in the waist and hips. But Marissa was at least glad that Mag Mell didn't usually opt for using the fantasy classic "boob plate". Fiona's armor was undyed, shining a brilliant steel finish complete with gauntlets and grieves that matched the style, utilizing leather and metal to look a little more fantasy.

On her back was a solid looking wooden banded [Round Shield] type shield. Evan had always favored [Round Shields] as they were the most counter-style focused option. The use of the wooden shield aesthetic was apparently also a conscious choice; he had said at one point that he just liked the look better.

Sheathed at Fiona's side was a fairly simple looking [Longsword]. It was the balanced weapon option, and one Fiona often used, though she swapped to [Maces] fairly often as well. The [Longsword] appearance that Evan favored was a low-level one that was made of cold iron, for anti-Fae lore reasons. He felt it was fitting, especially when Kieran was playing a Fae.

Once the whole team had gathered, Marissa finally approached [Lugh of the Long Arm] once again.

"Everyone ready?" She asked.

And then immediately clicked on [Accept] before anyone could respond.