@AwesomeZero5 @shylarah @vietmyke @Randomguy

The disgusting creature moved closer to the group, now a few feet away. Its gaze looked over towards Uriel and Claudia. Screeching loudly whenever the players killed her spawn, it shot what looked like purple spit toward the two. Its spawn, when killed, would spurt blood all over Claudia and Uriel. It was good that they didn’t need to change clothes if they got dirty. The laundry bill would be costly. The crowd of its spawns were thinning out thanks to the Spirit Guardian. The boss monster turns its focus on the guardian. Flicking its tentacles, trying to kill it. The boss creature released another horrid screech, slightly buffing its spawn. This buff would make them stronger and more durable. They were now attacking with more ferocity than before.

Howitzer was firing at the ugly spawns, hoping their numbers would decrease. “Son of a b****, why don’t you b****** die already.” Staring at Goibniu, who was speaking to him, before finally nodding. Moving a little closer toward Rath while still firing his rifle. The disgusting spawn seemed to follow Goibniu, unknowingly running into Rath’s AOE attack. The boss seemed to back away as Claudia cast her spells. It let out another ear-piercing screech, sounding like it was in pain. Counterattacking by shooting more of its pointed quills towards Claudia.

Uriel’s skeletal minions were breaking through, and the boss was birthing spawns. Giving the others enough room to jump in close to start beating up the boss. This brief moment of vulnerability is used by Howitzer, who shoots a few shots at the boss’ eye. Making it reel back and flailing its tentacles around. Knocking down parts of the ceiling and the wall, causing bits of rock to fall around the players. The boss seemed quite scared of the group as it was now backing away from them.

---

This boss was proving to be a bit hardier than Rath had expected out of a C level dungeon. Engaging enough of a fight that the game was still fun, though not so tough that he was struggling to keep his life. Honestly, between his own regeneration and Elian's healing, Rath probably still had more hit points than several of their squishier members combined- even as he soaked up damage as it came through. He was glad to have other members of the party calling things out as they saw, it was hard for him to communicate in wildshape, so having the others on top of things was nice. Even Goibnu, who was rather underleveled for this dungeon was performing admirably despite his lesser focus on combat compared to others of their group.

Electrified claws tore at spawn as they came close, rending through them as Rath continued pushing their advantage, following the boss as it backed away from them. The Death Knight's minions were finally breaking through the lines of spawn, presenting the party with an opening. Surging forward, Bear-Rath charged and leapt at the boss, hoping to use his weight and claws to pin the boss down in place, setting it up for more damage from the rest of the party.

Getting in its face, Rath let out a thunderous roar, aiming the shock wave to hit both the boss and the newest batch of enemy spawn.

---

The tentacles that had sprouted from Claudia did their job as a defensive measure, batting the spiky quills shot at her away.

Judging from how the boss did not seem to receive any buff or perform special attacks after the minions died, it seemed that it would be safe to kill the minions. Rather, judging by how it buffed the minions instead, this boss might be more of a summoner type. Therefore, AoE would actually be preferable.

"Clear out, I'm casting an area spell," Claudia said, warning the party.

As soon as the party cleared out, a pillar of flame engulfed the creature and its minions. Flame Strike was a popular spell for Divine Spellcaster. With a 10-foot radius and height of 40 feet, not only was it a reliable AoE, hitting even fliers, but since half the damage was fire and the other half radiant, it required the target to have high resistance in both elements to truly nullify the damage.

In this case, since the enemies were most likely undead, it was probably even more effective, given radiant and fire elements were common vulnerabilities of the undead. Furthermore, the fire damage having been boosted by Claudia's Ring of the Inferno Pact, at the very least this attack should determine whether the enemies were vulnerable to fire or not based on the damage they took. And just in case they were, Claudia cast the spell using Metamagic: Quickened, reducing the spell's cooldown so she could use it again in rapid succession.

"Well that certainly is unsuaul to be in a paladin's divine skill tree. Unless it was oath breaker-"
Jaiden looked at Claudia's tendril's of protection stated more than his character Goibniu, but his mike hadn't been muted. Either way, both would be a little bit surprised by both the spell itself and its appearence. Especially when combined with the eldtrich blast that the Claudia had launched out a breath later.
It made Jaiden all the more curious as to what set up or skill path Claudia had been using, or perhaps if there was a separate multi-class system he had overlooked. He had gone into the game, semi-blind to keep certain things an interesting surprise here or there.

"YEP!"
Goibniu had call back toward Elian's thanks.
He had to rush his focus back to, well, avoiding the previous mass of enemies that were up and about. Even though, thankfully most of them were being picked up off by the rest of the crew that were along with him or had been warned of his approach with the door minions to be certain.

Goibniu would let out a disgruntled groan of slight disgust at the purple pile that was spat toward Claudia & Uriel. Not to mention the blood-burst that followed from the spawn being defeated after being touched by the 'buff' of sorts. Maybe it was also a bit at Howitzer's fiery language.
Out of Character, it seemed pretty awesome to watch and another fun design element to the game. He would keep that part too himself for now. He wasn't entirely sure what the blood, bile and so-on did in its entirery but it definitely added some nice flavor to the whole situation around them.

"YESSSSSSSSSSSHIIIIIIIIIIIT! AND BACK I GO!"
Jaiden would transition from the excitement of Howitzer hitting the boss' eye during the frey. It seemed rather effective, but also caused parts of the ceiling to start tumbling down. Which would lead to even more, evasive movements from Goibiniu the character. Being as he was, designed to be a slower character, and the fact that he was one of the larger characters in term of the square amount of space he took up. He couldn't really afford to slow down, as much. Even then he was getting scratched here and there by debris!
He'd start to retreat back toward Elian's direction, just to keep himself from drawing anymore unwanted attention, or... quickly dropping in health.

At least, he was able to be clear of the minions.. or most of them!
As he lead them right toward Rath's AOE pull , and thus away from himself.
Double timing as Claudia mentioned to be casting an area wide spell! Which, he didn't really have the time to decipher exactly how large that was to begin with.
Instead he began charging his Stunning Shock: once more, in case he had to help fend off anymore aggravated tentacles. It didn't normally take so long to cast, but since he was constantly moving, the 'up-time' on the spell got disrupted and thus slowed.

The massive pillar of fire did grant the room a wondrous lighting effect. Especially when the fire blast was far behind Goibniu now. As he focused on, retreating and keep himself from being as marred.

He wasn't quite sure, but the player Jaiden felt off in a way. Something, felt... off. Perhaps it was the lack of a third person view and multiple characters or multi-boxing to control that he had done years ago. But it felt like, he may be missing something. He typically could see the battlefield situation fairly well in third person at least. But the feeling was similar to that of when and unknown debuff symbol had appeared on a character's bar, and it hadn't noticed immediately.
It may have simply because his back was briefly turned to the blazing Inferno & Storm of attacks that was Claudia & Rath.

But, Jaiden was a bit on guard.
He would start, looking around with increased observation.
Maybe he missed a minion around here or something, but, he felt he was missing something and it needed to 'click'.
Either way, he should well be in range of Elian to not die , so it wasn't as an imminent of a danger.
Maybe the burst of fire would produce enough light to notice something, he hadn't before.

---

Current Effects:
HP Boost
Automaton Active: Defending (Taking light damage)
Goibniu: Lightly Damaged (70% HP ish~?)
Resist Disease
Spirit Guardians: Defense Boost to party, along with radiant damage & slowing effects on nearby enemies

---

---

_{at a dungeon in Ocren}

Howitzer, the ranger, scored a hit on the boss's eye. Elian cheered when he hit, even as she dodged chunks of the ceiling that the boss knocked loose. Rathello followed up with a mighty roar, doing damage to both the boss and its minions. Then Claudia called out that she was casting an area spell and they should move out of the way. Once everyone was clear, she called down a massive pillar of flame on the boss and its spawn. Elian cheered again.

"Keep it up, everyone -- it looks like we've got the upper hand! Elian pulled out and chugged a mana potion, since she'd been casting so many spells. Her health was still close to full, so that wasn't a concern. The boss was disgusting, spewing purple fluids as an attack, and the minions burst like popped water balloons. Uriel, Claudia, and Rathello were taking the worst of that. Fortunately the blood and spit didn't seem to carry any status effect. They were just gross.

@AwesomeZero5 @shylarah @vietmyke @Randomguy

Rath’s attack knocked the boss backwards. It’s huge body slamming into the wall behind it. Violently moving its tentacles, trying to push Rath away from it. Black splotchy blood spurted all over the floor, with some of it landing on Rath’s body. Spawning more of its minions to try and protect itself. Its spawn is coming out, trying to attack Rath to defend its mother. Trying to climb on top of Rath. Its small teeth are trying to rip into Rath’s flesh. Its blood kept spurting out, and now the boss was screeching in pain and terror. It’s arms flailing around, trying to push Rath and Uriel’s minions away.

Its health slowly dwindled; it fought angrily, shooting more quills at anyone nearby. Uriel and Howizer moved out of the way of Claudia’s attack. Her spell wiped out most of the spawnlings, turning them into ash. Most were instantly killed when they spawned because Caludia repeatedly used this AOE spell. Howitzer kept firing his flintlock at the ugly spawns, enjoying the feeling of firing and reloading the ancient rifle. Although he did wish he had an AK47 or a rocket launcher to help with the big crowd. Moving out of the way of the falling ceiling.

The ceiling walls were coming apart, letting light into the room and brightening it up a little. Big chunks of the ceiling fell around the players, with one of them almost crushing Jaiden. Luckily, he was quick enough to escape the enormous stone. “Keep going, guys. This thing is almost dead.” Uriel screamed while still attacking the monster’s weak points. The boss was soon defeated, its body turning ash and its spawns disappearing. Uriel and Howitzer were chugging health potions to recover from the battle. Soon enough, Howitzer was looking for any loot the boss might have dropped. Whatever extra loot they found on the boss would be mostly weapons and clothing specific to their class and/or race. Most of them are levelling up. Especially Goibniu who got a big boost in level.

The figure in the shadows jumped down from where they were hiding. Making his appearance known to the players. “Well, that was the show; I gotta give flowers to Goibniu for keeping up with you guys even though you're under-levelled.” He clapped his hands, applauding the centaur. “Although I was hoping you would be more of a team player. Tsk tsk tsk.” He said, pointing towards Howitzer.

“Uriel, Elian, and Claudia did an excellent job keeping everyone alive. I gotta give you guys prompts for surviving such a difficult boss. But you guys ain’t getting that artifact. Sorry, but my boss needs it.” He said the players would notice that this player wore a jester outfit.

Uriel and Howitzer were readying their weapons when they noticed what the player was wearing. "This is the player killer, the f****** jester everyone is talking about. You ain't getting the artifact. It's ours." Howitzer yelled with a scold.

Jaiden was probably just as relieved as his character had been when the ceiling would stop falling apart. It was especially a relief as he was just barely controlling to keep his sphynx out of the way of it all. It was difficult to avoid on his current virtual reality hardware, which was a generation or two older. It did make it a bit harder to move around whilst also looking at awkward angles like directly above. Zooming out to third person, wasn't currently allowed due to settings.

Jaiden did however notice an odd silohutte in the shadows as light continued to flood the room. He could vaguely make it out to be humanoid which was, odd. But hardly had the time to piece things together before the jester would end up revealing himself in the light and introducing themselves.

He'd flick a tab here Goibniu to drink one of the starter playing potions to give him a bit of time. It would give light healing to Goibniu and give him an excuse to mess with something else.
Given a couple of hot keyed buttons on his hand controllers, Jaiden would turn on video recording. Along with opening an in depth logger for the game. It'd be a pain to decipher later, but it should help track things.
Maybe he could do more, but that would be risky and perhaps disrupting for a multitude of reasons.
It would take a minute or two, leaving Goibniu fairly silent to respond until well after Howitzer yelled out.
Goibniu would have probably finished the potion by then.
The few he had.


Goibniu the character, would stare at the jester and drink down a potion. Before standing there in silence for a few moments. Perhaps alluding to being deep in thought, or something else. Either way the Jester would get an cold blank stare for a couple minutes or two.
He would have heard about the Jester one way or another by now.
Actually seeing them show up, especially on their first dungeon crawl with a rather scrapped together and random party seemed a highly unlikely situation.

Neither the character nor the player would trust this figure. Although both would have similar thoughts of surviving a bout with them, minimal chance. Even less after a boss giving the team organization skills and structure weren't honed or likely strong enough yet. Given how the rogue had managed to slaughter through a guild search party or two prior. Fighting immediately seemed a bit fruitless without the preparation, and there was a bit more to know, to find out. What Goibiniu wanted may-

"I do have to admit, I don't quite appreciate criticism of one of my fellow members from a rogue who'd rather hide away than contribute. Especially one who's not in this party themselves."
Goinbiu huffed.

"But, while I can't speak for the party I do have a suggestion to make up for your insult. How about you join us and then head onward with us so that we'll retrieve the artifact. I'll even hand the item over myself if that's agreeable among everyone here. Otherwise,... why even show yourself to persons who don't have the artifact for your boss? It would benefit all of us to at least observe the thing, and your boss might be happier to hear about... some willing to assist if he can expand his purpose."
Goibniu would bargain.
Not wanting to witness a total loss. His arm vaguely outstretched as if to block Howitzer from approaching.
Although his automaton would be shield defensively in front of him either way from its automated command.

While Goibniu would wait for a response back.
A message would pop up in team chat:


This attempt would work in multiple ways. If the bargain did work, then Goibniu would still get a chance to hold and see the artifact for himself and thus in character research it to a lesser degree , whilst keeping him alive. It could open opportunity to find out more about the jester, and incidentally perhaps some other assassins in Goibniu's background. Although that backstory was made for roleplaying purposes rather than 100% accurate to the game, it was something to consider.

Secondly, if Goibniu received the item, put in inventory to trade over to the Jester. Jaiden might be able to find a bit more information.

Thirdly, if Jester reacted to the team chat, it would just verify that it was 100% in fact an active hacker instead of some other unusual happenstance. Sometimes games had weird promotions, or underlying issues that weren't fixed, or over-layered in beta.

Fourthly, and perhaps most importantly. It should give his team mates a minute or a few seconds to recharge their cool down skills.
If they were going to die anyways, may as well try and last as long as you could and get some info out of it.

---

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

---

Claudia frowned as it looked like it would turn into PvP. Using the terminology of Robert, the player, this jester person might have an advantage over them, as they had already seen them fight and gathered information about their builds. Thus, they might already adjusted their equipment slots to equip the appropriate items to give them the maximum advantage. On the other hand, they were alone so their party could just gank this guy and hopefully be done with.

Thinking in Claudia's headspace...it would still line up. Perhaps not that specific terminologies, but she would understand that they had a chance to observe her group's fighting style and thus had an advantage, but was still outnumbered.

Now then, what to do...?

The player in him just wanted to PK this PK-er and have it be done with. Surely they can't solo their entire party alone. Claudia, however, was of the opinion that she would want to give the man a chance to back down. After all, when not doing the bidding of the evil god she contracted, Claudia was a kind-hearted noblewoman.

Claudia then spoke, "We vanquished that abomination. By right of conquest, the spoils of the battle are ours. You have no right to demand them. Surely you realize you are terribly outnumbered? Leave and you need not perish here."

---

The death of the boss came soon enough, Rath noticing a level up ping on his notification window as he shifted back to his humanoid form. A mild surprise to be sure, but not an unwelcome one. He must've been closer to a level up than he'd expected. Reaching down into the boss' corpse, Rath fished out a chunk of loot and held it over his head with a broad grin as he returned to the party.

"Not a bad fight huh? I think-"

Whatever good vibes that were to be had quickly disappated as they were interrupted by the talk of the town- the PK jester himself. He wanted the artifact, and unsurprisingly the party wasn't quite willing to acquiese- and Rath was no exception to the matter. He strode to the front of the party, putting himself inbetween them and the Jester.

"Doesn't the patronizing shtick get tiring?" Rath scoffed. "It's a game- and the boss isn't even that hard. What? You and your boss can't handle baby's first dungeon run by yourselves? Quit the clown act and buy the artifact off the free market like a normal person. It'll end up there after we're done with it anyway."

Rath's shoulders rolled, his eyes never leaving the jester- obviously ready for a fight. He never particularly took well to these sorts of players- insufferable assholes the lot of them. Best part about TOE was the feeling of being able to physically fight them instead of typing out vitriol over a keyboard.

---

---

_{at a dungeon in Ocren}

Working together, the party took the boss down. Elian cheered when it fell, especially since she heard a musical flourish and her HUD displayed an alert saying she'd levelled. A lot of the ceiling had fallen, letting light into the room, and illuminating their surroundings. After a quick heal to top everyone's HP off, it was time for looting.

Unfortunately, the little group wasn't alone. A player in a jester's outfit came forward, complimenting and criticizing their performance by turns. Elian was quick to recognize him as the infamous player killer that people were talking about as of late, and when she did, her elation at their boss kill turned to disgust. "Oh hell no. You think you can watch the fight, make a few snide remarks, and then waltz off with our trophy? Go jump in a lake, you fucking bully, and wear concrete shoes while you're at it. Christ on a cracker, hasn't your boss ever heard of playing the fucking game? And you -- I've heard of you. You're a no-good bully who thinks he's all that because he can make players cry. I got news for you, you belligerent twatwaffle. If your real life is so sad and pathetic that you get off on hurting others, you really are the fucking scum of the earth."

@AwesomeZero5 @Randomguy @vietmyke @shylarah


Uriel and Howitzer stared at the jester. Howitzer, in particular, took a fighting stance. He thought they would need to fight this guy to get the artifact. Uriel looked at Goinbiu, feeling he wouldn’t want to let the jester take the artifact. He wasn’t going to give up the artifact without a fight. He had seen Goinbiu’s message. He could try to grab the artifact, but there was a chance the jester would retaliate. Sending a private message to the group responding to Goinbiu’s message. “I can try, but I need you guys to back me up. I don’t know his level, so I'm unsure how easy it’d be to try and grab the artifact. Perhaps someone can distract him while I try to nab the artifact.” Meanwhile, Howitzer aimed his rifle at the jester.

The jester smiled and wagged his finger at the group. He felt angered by their insults but hid it with a cheerful smile. “Well, if the others don’t mind giving me the artifact, then we wouldn’t have a problem. However, joining your dysfunctional team would be out of the question. But thank you for the offer.” He looked at the others, who looked over at Goibniu.

Howitzer typed in the group chat, saying, “I’m with Uriel. Let's fight him; we beat him. There are six of us and one of him." He kept his eye on the jester while keeping his rifle ready. “Look, pal, we got here first and beat the boss, so we’ll leave with the artifact.”

His eyes peered towards Claudia, Elian and Rath, and he smiled strangely. “That is true, but I have much more experience in the game than all of you put together. Again, I wouldn’t mind being given the artifact, and perhaps I’d let you all leave. However, if you are stubborn like Robert, Emma, and Riley, then we will have a big problem. That artifact is more important than you think.” They would notice the dagger that was in his hand. The jester waved it back and forth, making the dim light shine off the blade. Jumping down from their hiding spot and standing a few feet away. "I'm going to give you a few minutes, and when your time is up, then I'll decide for you." Laughing softly while standing between them and the artifact.

Jaiden was a little worried that the party had been leaning toward the direct fighting option. While, if it was a matter of a fair fight the numbers and levels would seem in the group's favor. However, it seemed that this jester resembled that of the rumored one and had similar mannerisms. He had heard plenty of rumor over at the smith's den for various crafters that had to reforge equipment for high end adventurer's and guild members that had lost their equipment. On top of that, hearing a few player reports to the GM's and adminstration about the jester here or there from Global Chat.
He was somewhat wondering if the other party members recognized the figure, or at least the player character. As many jumped to the immediate aggression and insults. Not that they were unwarranted, but immediate death on his first adventure, seemed like a souring experience he wanted to avoid.
Then Uriel's message came through team chat. He certainly didn't mean, the artifact but just a piece of the loot from the boss in general. However, he wouldn't tell Uriel not too. It could very much work.


There would be a bit of a pause as The Jester would seem to say some of the player's actual names versus their character names. Which unless they had a friend in common with the Jester, and said their names online frequently. It felt pretty... confirming. Jaiden had safeguards in place against his information getting leaked, thank goodness. Otherwise he may need to write a report, and likely uninstall the game all together for work related reasons.


Once it seemed clear that the jester was likely a hacker.
Jaiden would slowly reach to open a few, programs himself. It would take a few minutes for them to load, but depending how long things were drawn out, maybe he could do more than just read in depth chat logs and recording.



Goibniu would set the automaton to a 'follow' mode. Directed to follow Uriel. It would be of little used should they be fighting a high level player, or, in this case a hacker. As it would've likely been one-shot either way. So it's use in defense would be rather ineffective.

At least everyone should have their cool-downs removed at this point. Given a few extra minutes to chat should recover most MP.

Goibniu would do his best to memorize the knife that the jester was using. The way it was styled, along with what metal it would likely be. In truth, this was just a vague background roleplay aspect that.... wouldn't likely carry as well over into game mechanics.

"While it seems like most of you are ready to fight. I just want to ask, are you willing to lose everything we've gathered and learned here? There's more of us true, but should this be the jester of tale our current caliber is far outclassed. While I obtaining the key treasure would be wondrous, even... seeing it to form a diagram around or knowledge on it is a treasure. The science behind it and decoding it is far more precious than the object itself alone."
Goibniu would state.