The Nettle Tea Chronicles

Marissa

The full party wipe kicked them all back to the beginning of the instance, on the boat. They spawned in a little further back on the main deck, and there was a lightly glowing blue line across the middle of the deck. Crossing it probably started the whole scenario again. As it was, it looked like they were moving in the water, but the shore wasn't getting any closer.

"So, we needed to be spread for that last mechanic." Evie said. "The kindling debuff basically said if you were burning when the timer ran out, you would explode and deal damage to you and those around you."

Marissa scrolled back up through the chat box, looking at the running tally of combat messages. And sure enough, it looked like everyone took several instances of a few thousand damage each.

"Okay, that's easy enough." Ash said. "And I think we over-mitigated for the attack that gave us all kindling. It barely did much damage, but applying ten stacks of burning plus kindling…what exactly do we do differently?"

"I did try to knock him out of the attack, but it did nothing." Kieran put in.

"Did anyone see anything to interact with around the town square area?" Firo asked. "The buildings on the sides of the area didn't seem like they were interactable in any meaningful way. I think we could enter them though."

"That doesn't seem useful, yeah." Marissa said.

"There was a fountain in the middle of the square?" Nyx said, sounding unsure. "It wasn't running or anything, but it was there."

"Maybe we should try smacking it? Maybe if we break it, water will come out?" Evan said.

"You expect a not working fountain to start throwing out water if we break it like a hydrant?" Evie asked.

"Did you know that most hydrants wouldn't do that? There's a valve inside that -"

"Yes, Kieran, we know." Marissa said, rolling her eyes. "I think hitting the fountain is worth a shot. Or maybe just trying to see if you can interact with it before we try breaking it."

"It is the only thing that we saw that has anything at all to do with water." Jazz said. "And given the sheer number of stacks of burning we all had, I can only assume we need some way to remove them."

"Especially if the buster gives you twenty of them when it hits you." Evan added sourly.

"To put that in perspective," Ash said, "I think each tick of damage from it is 400 per stack, with a little variance. The DPS with one stack were taking that much after getting it applied without any mitigation."

"At least mitigation does seem to work." Evie added. "Fiona, you took around 7k per tick with 36 stacks, right? So that would've been with 50% mit on it."

"Those numbers are ridiculous for a stacking DoT when you can get that many stacks." Evan said. "There's gotta be a way to remove them, or that buster is basically a death sentence for whichever tank takes it."

"Agreed." Firo said. "Even if the off-tank took just the buster, that's still an 8k DoT before mit. That's not survivable for thirty seconds."

"Then we go back in and try the well theory?" Marissa asked.

"Unless anyone has any better ideas." Evie said.

"None here." Jazz said.

"I've got one." Nyx said, snidely. "Maybe save Safety Shift for that kindling effect next time, Evie."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"I will. But I'll punish you again if you dare imply 'healers adjust' again." Evie said.

"But that's your job." Kieran said, taking on a whiny voice. "You're supposed to adjust when the DPS takes damage!"

"I'm just doing my job and hitting the boss!" Firo said, taking up a similar voice. "I can't help it if I take an AoE while I'm doing my job."

"...Just to be clear." Evie said, "Y'all better be joking. I swear to god, I've played with DPS like that before and I wanted to kick their sorry asses into the sun. Your job is to do damage while avoiding taking damage." Evie said, her voice turning into an angry hiss at the end.

"I won't go as far as to threaten to withhold healing when you take avoidable damage, because that's just as shitty, but if you taunt us with it? You're dead to me." Evie declared.

"What she said." Ash chipped in and snickered. "For what it's worth, Safety Shift is hardly the only skill we have that can fuck with you guys. Don't make us do that."

"Mo~m!" Firo called, "Mom and Dad are threatening us again!"

"Listen here, you little shit." Ash said, getting a solid laugh out of the group.

Marissa leaned back in her chair, stretching her arms and back a bit with a sigh. "Alright!" She gasped as she sat forward again, the lovely feeling of the stretch fading. "Food buffs and everything are still up, so let's get back in there."

"One sec." Nyx said, "I need to hit the bathroom real quick."

"Oh, good idea. Me too." Firo said.

"Right then, quick five minute break instead, then." Marissa declared. "I'll go make another cup of tea, too." She said, picking up her empty mug and standing.

"What're you drinking today, Bisky?" Kieran asked. "Anything good?"

Marissa chuckled as she gathered the tea leaves and hit her electric kettle's on button. The water was still hot, so it shouldn't take long to boil. "Nettle tea, actually." She said, "I thought maybe it would bring us a bit of luck."

"Doesn't seem like it's working, sorry to say." Evan laughed.

"Hey, we've only wiped once." Jazz said. "It's not like we're doing poorly."

"True, true." Evan relented. "Let's see how long this first fight takes us."

"Raids are totally new to Mag Mell," Ash said, "We really have no barometer for their difficulty curve or anything like that, so who knows how long this will take."

"Well, we do know that other groups have at least cleared the first couple fights already." Firo said, evidently back from the bathroom already. "There were groups in Esras recruiting for fights two and three already."

"Oh, good point." Marissa said, as her kettle clicked off, the water bubbling. She poured it into her large mug, then added her tea infuser. "I wonder how many stages there are, total."

"I'm sure the data miners probably know by now." Firo said. "But I haven't looked into it."

"I haven't either." Kieran said. "Maybe I will in a day or two, but it hardly matters right now when we're on the first fight, anyway."

"Agreed."

"I'm back." Nyx said. "We all here?"

"I'm walking back to my PC now." Marissa said. "I think Firo was the only other person who got up?"

"We haven't heard from Evie."

"I'm here." She responded. "Was just stretching out a bit."

"Alright, everybody get yourselves situated and locked in. Let's beat that stupid hyena." Marissa said.

Cheers followed, as everyone got themselves ready to get back in there.

"Alright, let's get it done."

The group crossed over the blue line together, and moved as one over to the spot where they could jump off the ship later. "Stick together this time." Ash said, taking up his role as shot caller. "We'll move the middle of the deck, a little past the edge of the first set of AoEs, then back here."

"Kay."

After the Corvus captain said his lines, the AoEs started again, as expected. This time, knowing what to expect, the group went through the little opening section cleanly. This time, knowing where to go, they also [Sprinted] through the alleyway run, easily staying well ahead of the AoEs targeting them there as well.

And then they were back, standing just outside the town square where [Rruk] was presumably waiting for them to enter the area and trigger the fight.

"We ready?" Jazz asked, as the group shifted back and forth at the entrance, avoiding the continuous AoEs.

"Let's go." Evan said, and walked into the square. [Rruk's] laugh echoed around the space first, before the voice lines came again as well. Marissa took a deep breath, and got ready for the upcoming brawl.

This time, when [Rruk] leapt at the party, they were fully prepared and ready to go. The spread out into their expected spots, and Fiona picked up [Threat] immediately.

The opening section of the fight went by quickly. Everyone did their jobs admirably as things progressed through the early stages of the fight. Fiona was managing the DoT well, and this time when [Rruk] reared back in the animation to slam his staff on the ground to create the puddle of fire, everyone recognized it and moved.

This time, everyone avoided the extra [Burning] stacks from the puddle, leaving Fiona as the only person with any yet.

"Nice, keep it up." Ash said.

"No sweat." Evan said.

"Lucky you. It's really hot in here with all this fire." Firo said, and disgusted snickers echoed in the chat.

"That was bad." Kieran chuckled.

"Caoimhe, if anyone in here doesn't get to judge bad jokes, it's you." Marissa said, as the raidwide went out.

"Hey," Kieran shot back, "I'm a Dad. It's literally my jurisdiction."

Everyone snickered with held back laughter as they prepared for the coming AoE section. When [Rruk] leapt away to slam his staff into the ground for his dance near the fountain, everyone was ready.

Marissa was actively holding back her burst phase so she could pay attention to the AoE pattern. Staying alive to see more of the mechanics at this point was more important than her DPS for the moment.

Hell, they still didn't even know if there was any sort of DPS race that they needed to be worried about in this fight yet. There almost certainly was, but no one really knew.

The circular bomb-like AoEs began their pattern, and Marissa focused in on where the safe zones were, as did everyone else.

"Focus up." Ash called as everyone started moving between the safe zones. "Lines were next." He narrated as the last circular AoEs went off. As before, [Rruk] kept his dance going and the next set of AoEs started displaying; they were once again lines, thankfully.

While the circular AoEs appeared fairly random at first glance, the lines were fairly geometric, making their pattern much easier to read. And that made them much easier to deal with overall.

As soon as the fourth and final line went off, Marissa had Hibiscus drop to a knee with [Snipe] and began her burst phase. It looked like Caoimhe's burst came up at the same time, as she was also really letting the boss have it as he pulled his staff from the ground.

"Okay, tank buster is next." Ash said.

"I'm gonna take it." Jazz called.

"Okay, on your voke." Evan agreed. Two seconds later - and before the boss did the wind up for the buster - Aleister used [Dark Lash], putting himself squarely at the top of the [Threat] list. It was another few seconds after the tanks traded spots that [Rruk] wound up for the baseball swing.

Aleister put up two personal mitigations and used [Ebony Guard] to reduce the immediate damage to a pitiful 3,000, but was still hit with 20 stacks of [Burning].

"Steady. We'll keep everyone alive until the kindling attack. Then we spread out around the fountain and hope it does something." Ash called out.

The whole Clan was on top of things this time. Aleister, still holding threat, had enough mitigation skills available to stay alive through the boss's attacks in addition to the DoT, while Fiona was able to get a bit of bonus time to let cooldowns come back up.

When [Rruk] entered the stance to do the attack that gave everyone [Kindling], all of the ranged party members began to move around the fountain, spreading out to hopefully avoid any explosions.

Aleister, Fiona, Nyx, and Caoimhe tried to get as much uptime as possible, knowing that they would need to back off soon.

"Now!" Ash called, as they all ran back to spread out around the fountain as well.

"We all burn!" [Rruk] screeched as Evie and Mellody added a few group defensives to survive.

When the attack landed, as before, it didn't do so much damage outright, but everyone was [Burning] and had [Kindling].

Kieran made the executive decision to smash the fountain with an attack with only 2 seconds to spare on [Kindling].

Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief when the fountain burst with a spray of water over the immediate area. It completely cleansed the [Burning] and [Kindling] debuffs from the entire party.

"Oh thank god." Kieran sighed. "It got everyone?"

"Yup, we're in the clear." Ash said.

"I don't think this is the clear." Nyx snickered. "Dude's barely at 80%."

As if [Rruk] could hear her, the hyena screeched again in rage.