---

Claudia watched as the skeleton got out of their bed, picked up the spears lying nearby, as they started aiming them at the party. As one who found necromancer abhorrent, one might think that as a character, Claudia was someone who would also abhor undead. But it was not so, not most undead at least. Lich, or other types of undead who came to be due to one's own volition, yes, but most of the undead who—according to the lore of Endoroth—were but lost souls who were condemned to wander after their death due to circumstances outside their control such as dark magic were victims that did not deserve scorn but pity and mercy.

Of course, said pity and mercy were best shown by killing them, so they might finally find rest.

And so, Claudia's face softened for a moment as an acknowledgement of the plight of the undead, before a more resolute expression took its place.

He then cast Spirit Guardians as an opening move, as translucent angelic spirits start to flit about around Claudia in a 15-foot radius. Those in the party would see that they received a buff to their defence, whereas the skeletons that entered its radius would start taking radiant damage.

---

It wasn't a dungeon without monsters, but still, Rathello could never get over how realistic everything looked- even the skeletons. When he first started playing, the undead looked rather off putting and frightening, but at this point, Rath was more or less used to them. He grunted in agreement as Elian called out their weaknesses, it was good to have a shotcaller like her. When he was in the thick of things, it was at times hard to pay attention to what was happening around them, so one of the mid liners were usually good to call out plays. Rath didn't exactly trust the Ranger's judgement, and Goibnu was brand new to dungeons, so Elian was the only real choice in his eyes. Rath would set the pace, Elian would make the play by play.

"Bludgeoning? That's convenient." Rath smirked as he stepped forward, the rest of the party summoning buffs and spells. Sparks crackled as he jammed his gauntleted fists together. The 'gauntlets' themselves looked more or less like leather gloves, but with metal embedded on the knuckles and fingers. He was lucky the game counted the gauntlets as a weapon and accessory rather than armor, allowing druids to make use of them.

Rath's Intimidating Presence activated, a faintly red aura spreading out around him to denote to the other players where the effective range of his aggro-drawing ability extended to. The skeletons were all close enough, and he grinned as the points of the spears turned towards him. He bounced lightly on the balls of his feet, as he felt Elian cast buffs on him, his shoulders hunching and arms raising in the stance of a boxer- perhaps a bit outlandish for the fantasy setting, but it was fun that way. The haste made him feel even lighter on his feet and the protection and heroism spells felt a bit overkill for just skeletons, but they'd last a while so they'd last at least a few fights.

"Alright, enough waiting around, let's get em." Rath called out, diving in with reckless abandon, heading straight towards the lead skeleton to deliver an electrically charged haymaker.

@AwesomeZero5 @shylarah @vietmyke @Randomguy

The shambling skeletons moved slowly towards the group. The dark knight’s undead minions attacked the skeletons while the knight was standing in front of Goibniu. “Stay behind me.” He swung his massive sword to cut a few of the skeletal monks before him. The ranger, meanwhile, was firing his bow at the surrounding skeletons. His arrows were poisonous, which would help with killing them. He used a spell to buff his attack speed, firing his arrows with ludicrous speed. The ranger was cursing why they brought such a noob along to this quest. The skeletons attacked Claudia, Rathello, and the ranger. With the ranger being stabbed in the shoulder.

"I need some healing." The ranger said while grunting in pain. Holding his wounded shoulder.

The group’s offence was doing quite well when dealing with the skeletons. Soon enough, the skeletons were correctly handled. Now, the room went back to being eerily quiet. “Good job, everyone, but let’s keep vigilant in case anything else tries to attack us.” The dark knight said while leaving the dorm with the group. The group could now look around the dorm for any secret door or return to the courtyard.

Goibniu would have to take mental note that skeletons in the game were weak to bludgeoning. Something that his main weapon couldn't provide, but his automaton could through basic bashing attacks. It was a note from Elian to pushed along in his head for later, should they be encountered again.
Hearing that the monsters reacted differently to different 'types' of physical attack would be something to peruse later. Not many games had that feature per say. Undead being weak to healing spells or 'divine' affiliated spells tended to the most common weaknesses he could imagine.

The flicker transparent addition of lights or rather figures moving through the room did give Goibniu pause. As he was, a little uncertain as to what was going on perhaps both in & out of character. As neither the player nor the character would know about all the skills or abilities involved in the world. If the translucent spirits weren't angelic, it may have been more cause for alarm.
Plus the defense buff that came along with those spirits being summoned, seemed to clue they were beneficial rather than an additional threat.
Still, a tad, unnerving in its own way.
But another layer of divine or perhaps holy magic, he'd assume.
Unless it was the Death Knight rather than Claudia who cast it. He didn't particularly get a good look, and hadn't placed the game logs up.

Hearing Rath's voice in the background, and a red glow spreading out nearby.
It felt safe to assume that Rath was using some ability of their own to do with the skeletons.
Otherwise, that red glow could be a red attack circle. Which... would've been dangerous. But it was doubtful that Goibniu could even move out of the way in time as he was lying down. Not the best position to gamble on a half-baked, not fully aware dodge.

Rath: "Alright, enough waiting around, let's get em."

"Smash 'em to bits, just don't knock yourself out from the warm up."
Goibniu would add, fully expecting that Rath would be able to take a few skeletons on their own, if not take them all down on their own.
Especially depending what skills they had particularly.Seemed like fun, if not rough encouragement at the time.

Goibniu was now protected behind his automaton, and behind the Death Knight.
On top of everything being executed swimmingly and a smaller band of enemies. He wasn't too particularly worried.

He did pretend not to hear the ranger's comment.
Annoyed as he may be, the player... nor Goibniu would be petty enough to test the modified trap on the ranger.
Though it was a funny image, it was not needed, yet anyhow.
But his Avatar would definitely have an 'angered' emote as he looked to the trap and the ranger once more.

Ranger: "I need some healing." The ranger said while grunting in pain. Holding his wounded shoulder.

Although the anger would subside at the notion of the ranger's need for healing.
Having a bit of mixed feelings on the matter. In character Goibniu would probably be mixed too, while not necessarily happy the ranger was hurt, there was a sort of smugness that the ranger get a karmic punishment in a way.
The player would be worried of whether or not the typical VR sets inflict actual significant pain as that grunt over the mike sounded real enough to him.

"Why thank you Elian, Claudia, Rath, and Sir Knight. It seems you all are performing quite splendidly in your roles, I must say I'm impressed."
Goibniu would compliment most of the group, excluding the ranger.
That would be petty and rough enough, just ever so slightly.
He hoped that fit well enough.

"I'll just be a moment behind you. Do you ever wonder why they set traps in certain places like here?"
"Or what was the cause of the... undeath? Or perhaps that the trap was the cause of the undeath but leads to whom or how it was set up."
Goibniu added. Before he would search around the beds, and shelvings for items.
His automaton would search along the walls, gently tapping along just in case.

If there was nothing to be found.
He'd probably have to turn the second trap into scrap as well, but for now it was modified to go off with a press on top of it.
Shooting backwards or rather 'southwards' with whatever harmful tool was placed in it first. Modified in the hopes of testing it against the skeletons but combat was cleared excellently. It was unlikely to go off unless someone pushed down on it, or stepped on such, even after having been warned of it.

As for items... Goibniu figured there'd be journals, perhaps more scrap.
but definitely loot on the skeleton bodies or rather what was left from them.
Broken spears might be viable for scrap metal. Still, he'd give distance for the rest of the party to search their kills first.

---

Current Effects:
HP Boost
Unk Buff from Death Knight
Haste
Protection from Evil
Spirit Guardians Defense Boost
Automaton Active: Searching Room

---

---

_{at a dungeon in Ocren}

Elian had to admire Claudia's angel theming -- or at least she would after the fight, when her attention wasn't focused on keeping everyone up. Rath got Intimidating Presence up, and the skeletons focused on him at least for the most part, allowing the other damage dealers to attack freely. Maybe a little too freely -- some of the skeletons turned away from Rathello and went after Claudia and the ranger, with the ranger getting a deep wound in his shoulder.

The ranger had barely called out that he needed healing before Elian was whirling her fans around, casting a simple healing spell on him. Goibniu was still on the floor, leaving himself completely exposed save for the protection the party provided and his automaton. She didn't comment --- the ranger already had, and that was sufficient in her mind.

Before long the skeletons were dealt with. Elian stepped further into the room, nodding at the death knight's assessment that they should stay alert. The glowing spirits provided plenty of light by which to search the room for loot and secrets.

---

As the fight ended, Claudia turned to the ranger, remarking, "I let it be earlier since we were in the middle of a fight, but I do not think your remarks regarding Goibnu was fair. We all had to start somewhere, you too were at one point, a—to borrow your vernacular—noob. It was not as if he did anything particularly egregious, rebuking him in such a manner was uncalled for."

Robert, the player, honestly did not particularly care to speak up. He did think the ranger perhaps was too harsh in calling out Goibniu, but dealing with toxic comments, were, regrettably was just how things were in online games since age immemorial. It did not make it right, but that was simply how things were. The way he saw it, if one wanted to play online game, the fact was they had to deal with some toxic comments.

Claudia, the character, however, was someone who would absolutely speak in defence of Goibnu. Not only because of her moral code but doing small noble deeds where she could, was her way of 'coping' with the fact she now had to serve an evil god.

Claudia continued, turning to Goibnu "That being said...it was true that your response was delayed. I understand you wish to study the traps and such, but a rule of thumb when exploring a dungeon was to ensure the are was secure before we start looking around. Sod do keep that in mind"

"I'll just be a moment behind you. Do you ever wonder why they set traps in certain places like here?"
"Or what was the cause of the... undeath? Or perhaps that the trap was the cause of the undeath but leads to whom or how it was set up."

A lore question, was it? Robert was well-read on the lore, though admittedly he hadn't had the chance to read up on some of the newer dungeons due to his schedule, which included this particular dungeon. But it was just as well. After all, Claudia would not know the history of this dungeon either because out-of-game knowledge did not exist in game. Still, there were a couple of inferences that she could reasonably draw.

Answering the question, he replied, "Well, I can't answer for this particular place, but from my experience in other dungeons..."

And by that, he meant by being one of those guys who read the notes/lore scraps scattered in dungeons.

"...Sometimes the traps were from before the place was taken over by undead, left behind perhaps not to keep intruders out but the undead in. More often, however, the traps were laid down by the undead. They are, after all, miserable existence whose souls wander the world restlessly due to the influence of dark magic, either from beings such as liches or simply because of the accumulated 'dark energy' that permeated a place because of great tragedies. Undead, a being ruled by grief and grudges, therefore, tended to lay down traps and such so people entering the area in search of riches would die and thus join them in their miserable state. There is also the possibility that these undead were created by higher-ranking undead, those who usually became undead voluntarily, like the aforementioned lich or other practitioner of dark magic such as necromancers. In that scenario, the traps were probably laid down to protect the creator of the undead who lies in wait deep in the sanctum of the area."

"In my experience, with keen eyes one could usually discern the story behind places such as this, and speaking of...I believe I would take this chance to look around" she finished.

Claudia then started looking around the area for loot and, as she had alluded to, scraps of lore about the dungeon that the developer usually places here and there throughout a dungeon.

---

At least for the moment, the dungeon still felt like relative child's play. Rathello saw no need to go all out on a basic encounter- especially not this early into the dungeon, and rather contented himself to just keep his Intimidating Presence up while punching the marrow out of the skeletons. Frontlining was somewhat different in ToE, at least compared to other MMOs. In most MMOs, how much damage you took was based on your stats- and to a degree this was still the case, when it came to evasion, you literally had to use your body to duck and dodge out of the way. Stats could effect how fast you moved, but if you tripped yourself up, you'd still fall, and your reaction time was still the same as it was in real life.

Bouncing on the balls of his feet, Rathello juked and jived, dodging what hits he could, while tanking which ones he couldn't or didn't feel like. Perks of having a good healer was that so long as he wasn't entirely reckless, with his natural regen stats, he'd basically stay fully topped off on health the whole fight. His fist flew like lightningbolts, literal lightning coursing through the bones of the skeletons as his gauntlets made impact. An uppercut took down one, and a flurry of jabs and crosses took out a second before the rest of the party finished wrapping up.

"Ah, over before it started." Rathello commented as they did their post fight routines. As expected, Elian worked well with him. Claudia and the death knight fit well as well. The ranger had an attitude problem, not that he was necessarily wrong, but it didn't particularly help. "Backliners," Rath was mostly addressing Goibnu the newest to dungeon raiding, but used the broader term as to not single him out, "Remember to keep moving around, even if you're not the active target. Even just a little bit keeps you from being a sitting duck. My Aggro draws most of them, but some of the guy later on can get tricky- the ones with bows or ranged weapons especially like to go for static targets.

As the others began to check out the room for loot, Rath seemed more than content to just plop himself onto the floor, letting what slight damage he still had regenerate naturally. "If anyone spots any ores, let me know! Otherwise I'm gonna rest my legs."

@AwesomeZero5 @shylarah @vietmyke @Randomguy

The dark knight was scolding the ranger, who had remarked that Goibniu was a noob. Everyone was, at one point, new to the game. He was a noob at one point, so he sympathized with Goibniu. He was taking a moment to take a break and heal himself. Chugging some healing potions and handing some to the other players if needed. “No problem. Are you okay?” He asked Goibniu while putting away his weapons. Looking quite worried about the centaur. However, he didn’t seem to show the same sympathy for the ranger. His eyes scanned the area in case any other monster wanted to try to ambush them. “I don’t know. Perhaps it was some spell to try and protect something. I guess some necromancer NPC has been placed here to protect the artifact.”

The ranger, meanwhile, was holding his shoulder. He was somewhat thankful that Elian had given him some healing. “Thanks.” Muttering while rubbing his shoulders. Glaring at Claudia on her comment. Wanting to get this quest over so he could continue questing by himself.

While looking around, Claudia found some diaries of the monks living there. The monks were living a peaceful life when a wizard of some kind came to the temple, looking for the artifact hidden inside. The wizard killed all inhabitants and used the temple as a base of operations. However, because the temple was quite old, Claudia wouldn’t be sure if the wizard was still there. Goibniu could look for more traps or anything else he wants to study. Whatever they did find, they would need to save it so they could do further exploration. Claudia had a bookshelf that had a crack behind it. With some help, they were able to push the bookshelf away. Behind the bookshelf was a door carved into the stone wall.

“This doesn’t look good.” The ranger muttered while standing behind the group.

“It looks like these stairs lead somewhere. Why don’t you take point since you're such a pro?" the knight said to the ranger with a chuckle. The ranger grumbled as the group moved down the stairs. They were now inside a large underground room. In the middle of the room was a significant altar with a state of some figure behind it. The figure was quite eldritch in appearance, looking similar to the H.P. Lovecraft creation Nyarlathotep.

Somewhere in the room, a creature was drawing nearer to the group. A shill screech soon filled the room. A rank smell was coming towards the group. The scent was similar to a rotting corpse that had been left in the sea for many years.

Claudia continued, turning to Goibnu |That being said...it was true that your response was delayed. I understand you wish to study the traps and such, but a rule of thumb when exploring a dungeon was to ensure the are was secure before we start looking around. Sod do keep that in mind".

"I will, try to heed your advice on the matter. Though, I had placed my trust in an experienced ranger to alert of hidden dangers. Prior, I would've bet my life from tales of ranger adventurers noticing unusual monsters from a mile away. But mayhaps, we all do need to start somewhere. Similar in how I trust the rest of the party in our protection, of which I am grateful for most of you on such. I will do better to keep most trust to my own wits, and away from those who are needlessly harming of others."
Goibniu would let out a disappointed sigh.
The player briefly wondered over this would be good for keeping the 'gruff' look. Although, it may add some additional skepticism of a certain class in the game. Well, of at least the class' abilities to identify dangers in the least. He questioned whether or not the previous matter from the ranger would be considered a slight but seemed early to play another negative character trait in the first dungeon.

After a few moments of whether or not anyone would take the spears of the undead. Goibniu would take, half to start with. It didn't seem anyone was particularly after them to start with. So he'd go ahead and start turning most of the spears into smelted ingots or scrap to be used for increased tinkering using his crafting skill (perhaps a bit oddly named in this case): Field Repair.

He would listen to Claudia's explanation of dark magic in grudges. While messing around with his own work in the background.
The player was at least interested in listening in. It sounded, rather straight forward on how 'stray' undead were formed and how they the acted. The matter of dark energy, could be interesting depending on what it could do, or history behind it in game. But he was somewhat betting it was the typical 'evil'/'death' energy type of vibes overall. Still it could be exciting if there was more done with it.

“No problem. Are you okay?”....
...“I don’t know. Perhaps it was some spell to try and protect something. I guess some necromancer NPC has been placed here to protect the artifact.”
The Death Knight had spoke, and briefly touched on an artifact.

"Perhaps, a wondrous artifact of magical history could be plentiful in terms of research. Or perhaps just intrigue."
Goibniu's eyes and smile would light up with a bright shiny grin.

"Remember to keep moving around, even if you're not the active target. Even just a little bit keeps you from being a sitting duck. My Aggro draws most of them, but some of the guy later on can get tricky- the ones with bows or ranged weapons especially like to go for static targets." Rathello spoke.

"Thank you for the advice Rath."
Goibniu would try to pat Rath on the shoulder. He'd give a firm nod, it seemed to fit toward the commanding type.
The advice could definitely be helpful for when Goibniu's automaton was on the offensive, when he'd be exposed.
The advice would definitely be helpful to the ranger, who was a back liner with no additional defense, and the only one who got significantly wounded from melee ranged enemies, as a back line ranged character. Jaiden the player, knew in order to do that, the ranger had to actively draw aggro away from all three of their melee fighters and fail to stay at range. There was a slight humor in that the ranger of all people was calling persons noobs despite making multiple mistakes themselves.

"I'll go ahead and assist someone, in exchange...who needs it."
Goibniu would nod although they did switch to an 'upset' emote. It would be a mixture of slight revenge and assistance.

"Ranger if you bring over your bow, I may be able to improve or give something that would help you out."
Goibniu began rifling through his pack at at animation would pull out a screwdriver and other tools. As he'd have enough scrap leftover to craft things.

"If anyone spots any ores, let me know! Otherwise I'm gonna rest my legs."

"If we find any weapons or scraps around. I could well double any spare metals that would've been found otherwise. That is, if you're not looking for ore specifically versus, metallic ingots."
Goibniu would offer. "I'd glad work on anything steel or bronze like in origin if you wish. Bound to improve it."

Goibniu would definitely be the last to enter behind the bookcase, but would want to tinker with things first.
If no one else wanted spears or any other metallic loot, he'd gladly turn them into ingot, scrap, and other components. Which could be used for crafting later and leaving him in abundance.

His Automaton would be commanded to defensive mode again. Literally watching and protecting his back.
Long before descending the stairs, and let alone being inside a room of eldtrich horror. Perhaps it was well and good that the player hadn't a full immersive VR set, because of the smell of the place.

---

Current Effects:
HP Boost
Haste
Protection from Evil
Spirit Guardians Defense Boost
Automaton Active: Defending

---

---

_{at a dungeon in Ocren}

It took a little work to get at, but the secret door behind the bookshelf was a pleasant surprise. What lay beyond it was far less pleasant. The altar looked Lovecraftian, which was unusual for the sort of place they were. The temple's imagery wasn't eldritch horror in nature, which meant this was probably added by someone later on. "Be wary," Elian cautioned. "This feels like a boss room."

Sure enough, before long a shriek echoed off the walls, and the scent of waterlogged flesh filled the air. Elian quickly recast protection from evil, and then haste. "Fuck me, but that's a foul smell!" she said. "I'm not sure what exactly we're facing, but expect something rotten." With that in mind, she cast resist disease on each member of the party, then mana regen on herself again.

Since she knew that Rath had the front of the group on lockdown, she turned to look behind the party. The last thing they wanted was to be taken by surprise from behind, though it sounded like only a single enemy was in the room.

---

While looking around, Claudia found some diaries of the monks living there. The monks were living a peaceful life when a wizard of some kind came to the temple, looking for the artifact hidden inside. The wizard killed all inhabitants and used the temple as a base of operations. However, because the temple was quite old, Claudia wouldn’t be sure if the wizard was still there.

Obviously, from the perspective of Robert, the player, the wizard would be relevant. If not in this dungeon in other dungeons or future expansions that in lore would be related to this dungeon. There is no way that the developer would just put it as part of the lore of a dungeon the player can explore if it wasn't relevant. Of course, that was knowledge Cladia would have no access to. From her perspective Endoroth is real life instead of a game designed by a developer, therefore it was perfectly reasonable that a wizard would have massacred a temple before both being forgotten to obscurity.

And so, rather than speaking out of the possibility that the boss was a caster or the wizard might came into play at some point, Claudia opted not to say anything and continued exploring the dungeon without tapping into meta-knowledge.

Eventually, the party found what appeared to be the boss' room where a being of eldritch appearance lay in wait, a rank, putrid smell emanating from it.

'Ugh...I get this is a type of flex for their virtual reality technology, but do they have to replicate such a pungent smell so meticulously?'

For a moment, the smell elicited a thought from Robert, the player, as he momentarily broke character.

He sighed.

'Wait, no. That's now what Claudia would be thinking when confronted by this thing...all right, back to character...'

"Judging from this repugnant smell, as well as the undead that roamed this place, I think it is safe to assume this creature is an undead of some kind. In that case..." Claudia said, before pointing his sword at the undead.

A pillar of light fell into the undead, marking it with divine scorn. The signature ability of the paladin class, Divine Smite, that gave additional radiant damage—typically effective against undead—from the party against the designated enemy.

---

"Actually, if you're crafting skill is good, I wouldn't mind giving you my share of the loot for a better sword." Rath remarked as Goibnu offered to work on something for him. Just as well, Rath never had the patience to figure out any of the crafting systems- having a friend like Goibnu who did have the patience to learn all of that might prove fruitful. He'd even be willing to pay for the labor, though that'd probably be a discussion for later, after they cleared the place.

Rath hadn't expected to find a secret door in a dungeon like this, but he was pleasantly surprised. As usual, he led the proverbial charge- or walk, down the stairs as they entered what seemed to be a sort of boss room. A secret boss perhaps? Rath hadn't encountered this monster before, but with the party they had assembled, Rath didn't feel particularly worried. The scent was certainly off putting, but Rath was quick to open up his menu and disable the smell feature from ToE, a small text appearing at the bottom corner of his vision to inform him of the smell of the room instead of physically having to deal with it himself.

"Guess I oughta take this one a bit more seriously, huh?" Rath chuckled as he strode to the front of the group, a red aura expanding from him as he once again activated his Intimidating Presence. "Claudia! Elian's watching our backs, so you call the shots for this fight- keep an eye on things and call things out if we need to change focus."

There was a crackle and boom as a bolt of lightning fell from the ceiling and crashed onto Rath. A faint flash of light followed and as the dust cleared out, Rath's humanoid shape was replaced by that of a massive bear. Lightning crackled across claws the size of daggers and a rolling thundercloud rumbled around his neck. As the column of light collided with the undead boss, the bear charged forward, electrified paws rearing back as he lunged at the creature to rip and tear it apart.

@AwesomeZero5 @shylarah @vietmyke

The dark knight whispered back, looking over at the ranger before looking at Goibniu. “Well, I’m glad you're still up and about. You did pretty well fighting those skeletons. We’d be good at distracting the enemy while you set up your traps. It could prove useful.” He said while recovering from the fight. “The artifact, whatever it is, could be useful for something.” The dark knight shrugged, hoping that perhaps selling it would be profitable for all the trouble.

The ranger, meanwhile, was licking his wounds and cursing the others because he assumed they were laughing at him for his mistakes. Glaring over at Goibniu while holding his bow, he said, “Mmm, I guess you could help me.” He said with some reluctance. Watching him work on the bow, annoyed that Goibniu must’ve thought his bow was crap. He had gotten the bow off of a high-level quest. The dark knight looked amused, seeing the ranger being humbled by Goibniu. The ranger was given back the bow and was staring at it. Filled with both contempt and amazement. “Thanks.” The ranger put away his bow, not wanting to have further conversation with the centaur.

“I got a similar feeling; let me summon up some more minions. " the death knight said to Elian before summoning more of his undead companions. He thanked Elian for the poison resistance and mana regen. Pulling out his sword and getting ready for the ensuing fight. “Whatever it is, it’s not gonna be very pleasant.” He added, wishing he couldn’t smell whatever was coming towards them.

The creature's shadow could be seen against the wall of the room. As the creature moved closer, it made a wet squishing sound. The group could see long tentacles gripping the room's floor and walls as it came around the corner. The creature made another loud screech as it fully came into view. The beast was huge, and its head seemed to touch the ceiling. It was coming towards them, baring its many open mouths at the players. Flinging some lumps of flesh that landed on the floor, spawning little copies of the monster. Coming closer while trying to crush them with its tentacles.

Goibniu would nod and grin slightly back at the Dark Knight's response. Perhaps if he studied and worked on traps in the future it could be useful. Traps did typically did fall under the tinkering craft skill tree, which he already had perks under of course. If he could figure out how to piece them together well enough, and place them properly....

"Actually, if you're crafting skill is good, I wouldn't mind giving you my share of the loot for a better sword."

"I fair well when it comes to metals, through Bronze & Steel are my specialty. A sword, now that is definitely something I could work with or put together. Any particular style of sword? Given your gloves I assumed you'd take up more of a boxing role truthfully. Spiked gauntlets and such."
Goibniu would stroke under their chin, taking time to think over Rath's sword. future sword.
Aiming to visualize it in his head.

"A claymore or a zweihander from what I've seen would suit your size. But, perhaps a saber or broadsword since I'd presume you'd want to be closer to the thick of battle with others, rather than maneuvering alone."
He'd speculate aloud.

Goibniu would take Ranger's the bow, in truth he was inspecting its stats. Whether or not he could make something better or something long ranger. However, the ranger did seem to expect a bit more. So Goibniu would get to work with the extra wood and string he had. Materials that were a bit overabudant since he didn't work with them frequently. Especially since he hadn't gone down the skill tree for making bows. Now that didn't mean he couldn't attempt improving the bow. Just that he had a low chance of suceeding, an even lower chance given that he hadn't the field repair perk for it.

He got lucky this time. Adding a small crit bonus after dumping a good amount of wood from failed attempts . It was good that others outside of the crafting display, couldn't quite fully see how much was used or the full process.

He instead, had a much, easier time forging a musket right after! Although it would nearly empty out his wood supplies for the day. Thank goodness spears had a bit of those.
Gear Head & Ballistic Craftsman 2 made it much easier.

The new rifle would have about double the effective range of the bow, lower-fire rate, A somewhat higher DPS range. However, would come with a good perk that was enhanced.

• Additional (25%~) Moderate Ranged Weak Spot Damage

Whenever that Rifle hit a weak spot on an enemy. It'd do a good bit more damage to them.
Typically Rangers and Rogues, could find those. Especially against favored enemies.

"The bow seems pretty good and all. But you should try this, might help ya get with the times. Can always switch between the two, though should keep you further away from the spears."

Goibniu tossed the rifle over toward the ranger.
Along with fair amount of 'standard' ammo. Roughly fifty or so shots, standard bullets were easy to come buy and buy in batches. Could even scrounge cities and find a good amount of them if you knew where to look!

Once caught up Goibniu would focus on quietly strafing toward the back of the group as things were heating up. The large monster was approaching and there was little else to tinker with. He'd have a hand on his magic focus, the 'dial' to prepare his attack spell. Which would automatically pause every time he moved, so that was somewhat annoying. But he wouldn't cast it, until the tanks engaged first!

"A monstrosity of corpses I can only imagine, or some demon far worse."
Goibniu would speak out as most seemed assaulted by the smell down in this room.
As the beast showed itself Jaiden (the player) was rather impressed with design of it. It definitely matched a horrifying monstrosity to a T and flinging minions added to the design, and perhaps an interesting animation for bringing the monsters into the scene.

Goibniu, on the other hand would have a rather 'disgusted' emote as his lips and nose shriveled back from the unpleasant seen.

He would end up holding his action, to Stunning Shock: one of the minions if it got too close to Elian, the healer. Stunning shock at least had a small chance to paralyze a target. Meanwhile his Automaton would stay in front of him to counter-attack any minions that'd aim to hit him first.

---

Current Effects:
HP Boost
Automaton Active: Defending
Resist Disease

---

---

_{at a dungeon in Ocren}

Elian was intrigued by the rifle -- some people liked using them in the game, and some preferred bows. She personally didn't care what did the damage as long as damage was dealt. However now was not the time for tinkering. "Eyes up, Goibniu! We got something coming." As the tentacled mass approached, it flung gobbets of itself that grew into smaller copies of the beast.

Elian held her fans in a defensive stance. She could do some damage on her own, but better to leave the work to the tank and DPSes. She noted Goibniu taking up an offensive stance to protect her, which was sweet but probably unnecessary, but didn't discourage him from doing so. It was good for him to get used to working in a party dynamic, and protecting the healer was one of the cardinal rules of MMOs.

With a crackle and boom of lightning, Rathello changed forms. Elian glanced over her shoulder, and was surprised to see him in the form of a massive bear. That was a new shape! "Sometimes you're damn near unbearable, Rath," she teased, a laugh in her tone. "C'mon, fuck that monster up!"

---

The creature's shadow could be seen against the wall of the room. As the creature moved closer, it made a wet squishing sound. The group could see long tentacles gripping the room's floor and walls as it came around the corner. The creature made another loud screech as it fully came into view. The beast was huge, and its head seemed to touch the ceiling. It was coming towards them, baring its many open mouths at the players. Flinging some lumps of flesh that landed on the floor, spawning little copies of the monster. Coming closer while trying to crush them with its tentacles.

Summoning minions was a common enough mechanic in a boss fight, enough that Robert felt it would not be a 'meta-knowledge' for Claudia to have enough experience in order to surmise that the minions of the bosses usually shared a similar 'theme', meaning most likely they were also undead, especially since they spawned from the creature's lumps of flesh. Also, there were times that killing the minions haphazardly resulted in the boss gaining buffs, meaning, rather than an AoE to kill all of them, activating all the buffs on the boss, crowd control was the optimal choice.

Besides, casting an AoE nuke before the tanks draw the aggro was looking for trouble. So instead of activating the Flame Strike spell, he cast Spirit Guardians once more, as the same angelic spirits manifested around Claudia in a 15-foot radius, bestowing the same defensive buffs to the party as before while dealing radiant damage to the enemies as well as slowing their speed.

Claudia then shouted, "Let us focus our attack on one of the monsters that spawned from the creature, so we may test whether we can kill them safely without benefitting our quarry!"

@AwesomeZero5 @shylarah @vietmyke @Randomguy

The dark knight was commanding his undead companions to help with the little clones of the boss monster. The knight assisted the team by attacking the little minions, focusing on protecting Goibniu. The ranger used his new musket and fired at the little creatures approaching them. Being somewhat impressed by the Goibniu’s craftsmanship. However, he was more focused on the ugly monster coming after them. A few of the boss’ minions were coming closer to Goibniu. A few were dispatched, thanks to the dark knight cutting them down. The little creatures try to jump onto them to try and bite them.

The giant disgusting monster was coming closer to them. Shooting some quill toward whoever was closest to it. Most of them seemed to be going after Goibniu as if they knew he was underdeveloped and would be an easy target. Most of the copies were being torn apart by Rath’s bear form. The death knight was quite impressed by this transformation. “You get 'em, Rath.” He cheered on while trying to defend Goibniu. The ranger kept firing his gun, trying to thin out the clones of the boss monster. “Howitzer, I want you to protect Goibniu.” The death knight addressed the ranger. A few of the spawns were starting to surround Rath and Cauldia. A few are trying to pile onto them for a quick bite.

Howitzer, the ranger, was now standing beside Goibniu. Shooting down whatever was coming towards them. “I got 'em, Uriel.” The ranger said, revealing the name of the Death Knight. He hoped he would have gotten a machine gun to help deal with the crowd. Uriel nodded, thinking that Claudia had the right idea. Focusing on the little creatures that the boss monster was spewing out. The boss was burping and making quite disgusting-sounding noises. Giving it spawns more buffs to protect them from the group. The disgusting creature was starting to move closer towards them. Trying once again to try and crush them. Moving the large tentacle to try and kill Elian. Someone meanwhile was watching them enjoying the little show the group was giving.

"Eyes up, Goibniu! We got something coming."

"Thanks! Got it."
Goibniu replied back after he long finished up the weaponry. He had been working on things while having approached this monstrous room. It didn't take him long for the rifle, versus the bow. He hoped the perk would, help deal with the Boss that was coming.. or exploit it a little.

He was less worried once Rath's intimidating presence had drawn in the area. It would at least, cause some less troubles. At least the red aura would attract a majority of these creatures. A field to keep an eye on among other things. Having seen it work prior, and trusting the transformed Rath to deal with most of the monsters he was fairly confident of the skill's draw range and effect thus far.
It should keep the big bad boss' attention, in addition to their large damage output.

Spirit Guardian's boon was kicked in once again by Cladia making dealing with the creatures a bit easier. At least, should be easier to avoid. He, certainly hoped anyways. On top of his own, other defenses.

""Goodness there's a lot of these things. I'm hitting any of 'em that look close enough to touch. Feel free to duck behind Auto, here between takin' a shot. Just don't let 'em get too overwhelmed if you could!"
Goibniu had been fairly protected from multiple sides by the death knight, the ranger, and his automaton for a time. The small minion monsters that would come for him, would be blocked off by the automaton's body and receive a reactive smack toward them with a sounding CLANG should its strikes connect.
The aumaton's strikes would deal a light amount of damage, but it worked more as mobile cover for the moment. It wouldn't last forever, especially if priority switched to the mechanical pet itself.

Boss: Trying once again to try and crush them. Moving the large tentacle to try and kill Elian.

When the massive boss swung toward Elian a crackle of electricity would fly from Goibniu. The dial on his side illuminating with a flashing spark, to shot up the sphynx's side, and launched from his hand toward the tentacle with a CLICK
Stunning Shock, it inflicts a low amount of damage, but had a chance to paralyze a target. Still low, but it was something! Especially if the tentacles were coded as a separate 'creature or stat', there was a chance for the stun to transfer and get re-calculated for the main body separately, depending on the object class structure.
At least the boss wasn't buffing itself.

Claudia then shouted, "Let us focus our attack on one of the monsters that spawned from the creature, so we may test whether we can kill them safely without benefiting our quarry!"

"Focusing fire on... whatever spawn letter this is! Any chance you could get a good look at this thing and figure out, where the big damage organs are uh.. Howitzer was it? Kiting some a bit closer Claudia. Maybe just out of or near Rath's pull."
Goibniu would switch over to firing from the hip from his Terezol pistol. Stunning Shock's cooldown wasn't long, but it was faster to switch to firing a weapon instead. He'd fire at whatever minion is closest to him. Yet again, his damage output was relatively low, but there was small boost to landing a critical hit on the thing.

"Either way, this is starting to feel pretty exciting!"
A bit more of Jaiden popped out rather than the character he was playing.
The sphynx start maneuvering his way around, trying to circle toward Claudia clockwise (left hand side), and possibly behind Rath.
If he could get those minions to follow closer toward Rath's AOE pulling aura (Intimidating Presence), it would make his life easier. It also ran the gamble of him getting hurt otherwise too, but... at least it'd be easier for Claudia to focus fire with him & Howitzer. Spirit Guardians should help keep the minions at a distance, with cover fire.

The quills weren't a worry before, since Goibniu was no where near the monster's focus toward closer target. The quills did occasionally move toward him him, but his distance kept him safe enough. Now things were going to get riskier and a little more fun.
Minion attacks probably could be absorbed by the handful with the automaton, but a quill- that was likely a far larger chunk. But it was that, or worry about being overwhelmed by numbers alone.

---

Current Effects:
HP Boost
Automaton Active: Defending (Taking light damage)
Resist Disease
Spirit Guardians: Defense Boost to party, along with radiant damage & slowing effects on nearby enemies

---

Now that Spirit Guardian was active, slowing the enemies speed, Claudia could afford to cast another buff on herself. Ideally, a buff should be cast before the fight, but this was not the type of buff that could be cast for long term, as the duration was pretty short. Technically, Robert could have cast the buff back when they were entering the room, since from a meta-design perspective, it looked like a boss room or at least a special room where the developers would put strong enemies, but that was metagaming, a knowledge Claudia wouldn't have, so Robert refrained.

Activating Tendrils of Protection, black shadowy tendrils sprouted from his avatar, giving a buff to defences. The evil aesthetic-coded tentacles create a stark contrast with Claudia's angelic wings and noble visage.

Robert then cast the spell eldritch blast. Four dark beams, crackling with otherworldly energy left Claudia's hand, each aimed at the summoned enemies Goibnu was shooting at.

---

---

_{at a dungeon in Ocren}

Claudia summoned angelic spirits again, buffing the party and debuffing their enemies. The mini mobs were everywhere, but the dark knight's undead minions did a lot to keep them away from Elian and Goibniu. The large boss had started shooting quills as well, and Elian had her hands full healing party members when they got shot or bit.

A large tentacle came Elian's way, but Goibniu pointed at it and shocked the thing, which was enough to stun it momentarily. "Thanks, Goibniu," she called, moving quickly out of the way of the tentacle's path.

Quite suddenly shadowy tendrils sprouted, apparently coming from Claudia. Their appearance was at odds with the angel aesthetic she'd had thus far, and surprised Elian. She had to double-check that it was a buff and not some sort of curse, but once that was confirmed she was grateful for them. Given what little she'd learned about Claudia thus far -- a role-player sort of character -- Elian was sure there must be some sort of story there, but she had no idea what it was.