Page 27 of Looking for Group

“Lauriel, the elf who’s worth it, will stand around crying.

She and Cressida will both put stacking debuffs on the tank, so the tanks have to swap before they hit ten stacks.

Lauriel’s debuff is called Burden of Tears, which increases the damage you take.

If it gets too high, she’ll do Shattered Heart, which will almost certainly one-shot you, unless you’re the best-geared tank on the server.

She’s also got Lamentation, which means she’ll stop and cry really loudly for a bit, which will send waves of emo through the room, and you have to line of sight them behind the statues.

That just leaves Cressida, who’s a dirty, dirty ho.

Her debuff is”—Morag sighed again—“Faithless Touch. This will reduce your threat generation by up to fifty percent and when it reaches maximum, she casts Seduction, which mind controls you for the rest of the fight. She also does Harlot’s Strike, which is a high physical damage cleave so DPS stay away from her tits and close to her arse. ”

A readycheck popped up on Drew’s screen.

“Oh wait. Let’s not forget, if they get too close together, they get a buff called Sisterhood, which heals them.

And if all three of them get within ten feet of each other, they cast Betrayer’s Cry, which does massive raid-wide damage, so don’t let that happen.

Drew, do you want the crying elf or the slutty human? ”

Drew was silent a moment. He had no idea how to answer that without it sounding really, really bad. “I’ll go with Lauriel.”

The readycheck came back and Drew confirmed he was, yet again, ready. He, Morag, and Ialdir jogged between the statues into the centre of the room, which triggered the arrival of the Council of Tears.

[Hecuba] says: We are the betrayers

[Lauriel] says: And the betrayed

[Cressida] says: And you will know our suffering.

As Morag charged at Cressida, her shield glowing with righteous golden light, Ella ran up to Lauriel and whacked her in the face with the Inexorable Axe.

As Drew began drawing her back behind the statue of her evil husband, so her AoE wouldn’t hit too much of the raid, he saw Ialdir somersaulting away from Hecuba, peppering her with arrows.

This was Drew’s least favourite fight in the instance.

It had a lot of fiddly little things to keep track of, and it was really easy for one mistake to kick the raid into a death spiral, but it was actually pretty dull to tank.

He just had to make sure he wasn’t letting his debuff stack too high and to stay alert for the switch.

Basically, he felt there wasn’t a lot he could do to help the fight go smoothly, but if he lost concentration, he’d screw it up abominably.

They wiped three times in quite small, annoying ways, once because Cressida went down too quickly and the other two Hysteria-ed out and killed everyone, once because of a really badly timed Lamentation, and once because they let the bosses get too close on a switch, nuking the raid.

And then they wiped again because Bjorn over-aggro-ed Hecuba, got himself stone-gazed, and everyone was too busy laughing and taking screenies to pay attention so everything fell apart.

“Okay.” Morag sounded a bit more cheerful. “We’re losing focus here. Let’s take five.”

Bjorn was uncharacteristically silent.

Guild Message of the day is now: Do not ask Bjorn about Council of Tears.

[Raid][Solace]: I know we all hate this fight, but I really like this part of the maze.

Drew mouse-looked round, being careful not to accidentally trigger the fight. It was a bit like the high elf areas, except it was crumbled and corrupted, with the occasional bloody rose forcing its way through the cracks.

[Raid][Orcarella]: your just really into wrecked shit

[Raid][Solace]: Hehe

[Raid][Solace]: I guess I am

[Raid][Dave]: emoooooooooooo

[Raid][Solace]: I’m not being emo. Ruins are not just about loss, they’re about time

[Raid][Solace]: You’ve got things that used to be something

[Raid][Solace]: And now they’re something else

[Raid][Solace]: I find it kind of hopeful

[Raid][Dave]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xilOgjeEwPg 4

[Raid][Orcarella]: It’s not emo to like stuff.

[Raid][Dave]: lol

[Raid][Ialdir]: I totally get it, Kit.

[Raid][Ialdir]: You get a real sense of history

[Raid][Mordant]: made up history

[Raid][Ialdir]: In some ways, that’s even cooler.

[Raid][Morag]: Yeah, man, anything can be real history.

[Raid][Ialdir]: And it’s not just about the lore. I’ve been playing these games for nearly twenty years so it’s kind of my history too.

[Raid][Jargogle]: Some of us actually have history, children.

[Raid][Ialdir]: It was right after Desert Storm and I was stuck in this crappy army base in the middle of nowhere, and all I had was a battered old IBM, and a copy of Legends I, Pirates Gold, and fucking Myst.

[Raid][Ialdir]: So basically it was the most miserable time I’ve had in my entire life

[Raid][Dave]: soz man

[Raid][Solace]: *hugs*

[Raid][Ialdir]: Anthariel was one of the major quest givers in L1 and she used to hang out in this rose garden with her own theme tune.

[Raid][Ialdir]: I hadn’t seen roses in a year

[Raid][Ialdir]: And Raziel’s sort of falling in love with her

[Raid][Ialdir]: I’d never seen something like that in a game before

[Raid][Ialdir]: And it reminded me that there was more to life than being shot at in a desert.

[Raid][Ialdir]: This garden we’re in now is that garden.

[Raid][Ialdir]: So that’s important to me. 5

“That’s a lovely story, Jacob,” said Bjorn. “But perhaps we can do the fight now.”

[Raid][Jargogle]: I am Bjorn’s complete lack of sensitivity.

[Raid][Ialdir]: I’m good, let’s raid.

Things finally came together and the Council of Tears went down.

“Okay”—Bjorn crackled over Mumble—“and first up is the Bewailing Breeches.”

[Raid][Heurodis]: [Bewailing Breeches]

Drew let the looting go on around him. He manoeuvred Ella to go stand next to Solace. Their shoulder pads clipped through each other, which was probably the closest you could get to holding hands in an MMO. Solace bounced up and down on the spot. That made Drew smile.

[Solace] whispers: Hey you

To [Solace]: hey you back

[Solace] whispers: ?

To [Solace]:

Next up was Lady Bloodrose. She was a pretty familiar sight to Drew these days—one of Tempest’s many not-quite-naked-enough-to-get-the-game-an-R-rating women, wrapped in a few strategically placed climbing roses as she hovered over a dark pit in the middle of the final chamber.

High Theurgist Venric had somehow managed to get ahead of them and was standing there, waiting politely for the party to give him permission to have an angsty conversation with his ex-girlfriend.

Heurodis sprinted over and got him started while the rest of the party renewed their buffs and sat down to eat their fish.

[Raid][Heurodis]: starting HTV off now because this speech is really fricking long

[Raid][Morag]: Do you want to do the tacs for this one, Bjorn?

[Raid][Heurodis]: a rare display of intelligence undoubtedly fleeting 6

[Raid][Ialdir]: you know Dave wasn’t born when that game came out

[Raid][Jargogle]: Stop giving Bjorn responsibility. It goes to his head.

[High Theurgist Venric] says: Anthariel! It is not too late. I have forgiven you for your betrayal, as I have forgiven Raziel for his. Turn back to the Light, and you yet may be redeemed.

[Raid][Morag]: Oh man, High Theurgist Venric got friend-zoned.

[Lady Bloodrose] says: I have been lost in the dark so long. Come, my love, that I may look upon your face again.

[Raid][Mordant]: ITS A TRAP!!!

[Raid][Dave]: wait what game

“Anyway,” interrupted Bjorn, “while High Theurgist Venric, who presumably holds a position of authority in Whitepeak, walks slowly to his doom like a total noob-basket, we should run down the tacs for this fight.”

[High Theurgist Venric] says: Anthariel…

[Raid][Dave]: hey what game

“So like all good boss fights, Lady Bloodrose is in three phases. In the first phase, she will hover over the pit and send her briars to tear the raid to pieces. The briars come in four kinds, Thorned, Barbed, Entrancing, and Entangling. Thorned Briars are large and hit heavily in melee, so they need to be tanked or killed by ranged. Barbed are smaller and faster, but stack Heartsblood on you. Various things in this fight will hit you with Heartsblood, and if it reaches a hundred stacks, you become some kind of mindless zombie thing under the control of Lady Bloodrose. If you let this happen, you are a noob and a scrub, and you will need to feel very bad about yourself.”

Bjorn sounded like he was really enjoying himself. He reminded Drew a lot of Anni in some ways, but in other ways he really, really didn’t. It was like he used all the same words, but they didn’t mean the same things.

“The Barbed Briars should be prio-ed by ranged, always. Entrancing Briars will have little white flowers on them, and they will randomly mind control people. You will stay MCed until the briar is killed. Melee can attack Entrancing Briars safely. Please do so. Finally, Entangling Briars will wander around and grab people. When somebody gets grabbed, DPS them out of it. Also spawning in phase one are the Veiled Attendants. These are the spooky cultist people who come out of the doors in the northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest of the chamber. They will make a beeline for the nearest pillar, where they will activate its special power.”

[Raid][Jargogle]: Tell us about the special powers, Uncle Bjorn

[Raid][Dave]: seriously what game came out before I was born