Jaiden long figured that the group was going to report the Jester to the GM's. Just going along with it while opening up another tab in the background. He may need to anonymously e-mail some data logs later on in the day to the Admin's or Devs, but for now he'd hold off going too far down the rabbit hole.
The game was for fun, not work. At least not yet.

[table]

Claudia: Social Media? Why? I do have one, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable sharing. No offense, I just like to keep IRL and Endoroth separate.

Elian: Yeah, I have ChaosX. I'm Elian over there too. Why?

[row][cell]

Goibniu_The_Waylander: No offense taken. Essentially was going to have a group chat of sorts to help recover any items or equipment that may have been lost in the encounter. As for the Jester, yeah he's been going around and apparently attacking raid parties. Soon as he was spotted, was afraid the writing was on the wall except to save what could be done. From a couple forum posts GM's are pretty much after any lead on him. Although the situations being so brazen & blatant makes me wonder how they're messing with the Player ID, to not be banned or flagged.

Goibniu_The_Waylander: As for running the dungeon again, maybe? We didn't check out the courtyard much, or what was beyond the other door or so. Although, have to assign some skill points and all that before we go. So wouldn't hurt to stop by the quest hall, maybe get some more details or spread more eyes on the guy, and perhaps see what story arc or lore the quest is specific too? It seemed kind of weird that a person that's more often seen around large group or whale players would go to a mid-range dungeon. So figure the item is part of some... set or something for their employer, or guild head

[/quote]

Goibniu_The_Waylander: Don't think it's a good idea to head after the guy again though. Probably more trouble and trolling than it's worth, since don't know what we could really do if we did encounter them unprepared.

[/cell][/row]
[/table]

A friend request would be sent to Elian in the background on ChaosX. It was by someone named Aerial-TYM-3.
Jaiden was also running things and verifying a couple of files in the background. Although, such might not be needed given their upcoming encounter with the Admins.
He wasn't particularly as interested to chase the Jester character down at the moment though.



Goibniu had been set to auto-follow Elian the whole time. Since the player had been switching between a couple other things in the background. It didn't slow down his typing much at all though. But it may be a bit obvious, that Goibniu wasn't moving normally, just following along. Not quite unlike his own Automaton would unless given different commands. Jaiden was searching through data packets in the background.

He wouldn't speak with his mike as the admins appeared though. Instead opting to type again.


Goibniu would give the rest of the group a chance to add any other details, and perhaps the quest name.
Having an Admin provide over another artifact would work well enough for him. Although it may be entertaining to do another dungeon run, not particularly for the items but simply for the game play.

---

"Running the dungeon again? Hmm...I suppose if all of you wish to. Though to be honest, I've felt like the experience has been rather soured. But I will tag along if you all wish to.

Robert would honestly just want to rage quit, screw doing the whole dungeon again. He'd vent his frustration by going to a low-level area and just farm some trash mobs by completely annihilating them for the catharsis. Claudia, however...she would probably be frustrated and would just want to go back to her home for the day, but will agree to join the party out of a sense of duty if they wish to run the dungeon again. Thus, whenever Robert and Claudia come into conflict in Endoroth, as always, Robert acquiesces and do what Claudia would do

Soon enough, two Admins appeared in front of the group. The first admin approached them, with the second following behind him. “Hello, I got your message, and I wanted to talk to you about this hacker. So you had seen him in a temple in Ocren? And he had stolen a quest item after killing your whole party? We had heard from other players their ID name was corrupted and could not be tracked. However, we do have one lead. The jester has been spotted in a forest in Skov. Walking around with a boy who doesn’t resemble any NPC in the game. We will be going there to see if we can find the player.” The second nodded before speaking.

“We can give you the lost quest item if you tell us what the quest was. Or if you like I or the other admin can escort you if the jester returns.” The second admin was looking over at the group, specifically looking over at Claudia.

As the admin came, Robert inwardly frowned at the fact that they didn't address what was probably the biggest issue with the hacker.

Through Claudia, he then replied, "I appreciate the swift response, but the most important thing here is how this hacker doxxed our IRL identity. Did they not do that with previous victims, if I may ask? Oh, and for your question, it was a quest we received in Shehar Guild Hall to track an artefact in the temple of Ochren," then, noticing the second admin looking at her, Claudia turned to the admin and added, "Yes? Can I help you?"

---

"What a fucking asshole." Rath grumbled aloud as the party reconvened in a safer area. The others were sending messages out to moderators, so Rathello let them do that as he headed inside an inn to access his personal stash. Grabbing a few extra potions he headed back out to reconvene with the others, next run would just be a power run to make up for lost time. Goibnu and Elian started sharing their social media, though Claudia seemed reluctant to. Rath merely shrugged.

"I prefer in-game chatter but I suppose ChaosX makes things more convenient, mine is 'Reverett', I think my requests are public- I should probably change that."

Rathello frowned as the Uriel shared what the others had mentioned about this so called 'jester', something about a child being seen with him. Most of the NPCs in ToE were adults, and what children NPCs there were were typically in safe areas- so certain players wouldn't try to hurt them. That more or less meant the only 'child' that could be following the Jester was probably a player. Rath didn't even know they had child models for players- he didn't remember what the rating for ToE was, but he doubted it was particularly a suitable game for children.

"This whole Jester business goes a bit over our heads I think- I mean, even if we could kill him, its not like that does anything to him, and he still knows our personal info to boot. How's he running circles around the mods like this? Can't they just check which players were in the dungeon during that last instance and ban whoever isn't us?"

---

---

_{Ocren's capital city}

Elian shook her head at the idea of going after the jester. As much as she wanted to make the guy pay, their little group just didn't have the ability to do so. And if even the admins were having trouble dealing with him...well, what could six players do?

She accepted Goibniu's friend request on ChaosX, and sent Rathello one of her own. She switched focus back to Endoroth as the admins appeared. They had questions, and together the group answered them. "I agree with Claudia -- I honestly think the doxxing is more serious than the griefing."

When Rath mentioned the jester business being over their heads, Elian nodded with a sigh. "Don't let one rotten player spoil the game for you, Claudia. There was a bunch more to explore in that dungeon than we got to see, and I saw you checking out the books. There's bound to be more interesting lore tidbits in there. But...if you really want to split, I won't stop you."

@AwesomeZero5 @Randomguy @vietmyke @shylarah


The admins soon left after they finished asking the group some questions. They were not any closer to catching the hacker. The group's questions are not being answered. And this would only cause more players to leave the game. Uriel was still preoccupied with contacting other players about the jester. Howitzer, meanwhile, was looking spaced out. His mind was primarily concerned if his account was hacked. Uriel finished messaging the players before turning to talk to the group. Sending them a request on ChaosX. After doing this, he looked through his stash for good potions.

“I agree with Claudia. Don’t let some asshole ruin your fun playing the game. I’d be good to do another run at that temple in Ocren. Or we can do another quest if you want; I’m easy.” He looked over at Howitzer, who seemed quite tired and very annoyed. “I’d be good for another quest; perhaps we can get something good from a C or B quest. And it was a lot of fun raiding with you guys if that means anything.” Adding with a shrug.

“You guys can do that. I might just get it for the night.” The ranger sounded quite dejected from what had just happened. “I’m just gonna log out for tonight; it was nice questing with ya. I added ya guys on ChaosX.” As he finished, he logged out, and his character disappeared.

The admins meanwhile, were continuing their search for the jester. Snooping around the temple, looking for any clues. One of them noticed something on the ground. Picking it up, he saw it was a teddy bear. It was a junk item, which was odd since someone wouldn’t regularly drop junk items. Most people would just sell it for a bit of gold or to make something out of it. This admin turned the bear around and saw something written on the back. “Bring the artifact back to Richmark Cave in Cloep Frya when you get it.” The admin turned towards the other admin, who walked towards him. “Look at this, I think this the jester is gonna head to the cave. Don’t know how fast he got there, but we should go over and check it out.” The other admin nodded as the two of them started to head towards the cave.

Once it became clear that the other players' avatar data wasn't compromised in the downloaded files, he would keep focus on the game. Of course, adding those who wanted to a small group on ChaosX simply titled 'Dungeon Go-ers'. The title of the group was set to be adjustable by whomever was in the group itself. No kick, ban, or similar privileges were given out though. Didn't want anyone else accidentally causing a ruckus outside of things yet.

"As for killing the jester, we'd ourselves would either need moderation powers to get around their cheating. Or we'd need to hunt down an exploit to particularly deal with it, depending on the nature of how his cheats work. A terrain exploit often destroys a set percentage of max health could work if he's set his health absurdly high or regen absurdly high. Another manner would be a cut scene or event that requires de-spawning or an instant kill of sorts."
Goibniu shrugged his shoulders, more of his player rather the the character slipping out.

"With his Name ID being corrupted versus false flagging multiple other accounts. They're probably already someone involved or near the company itself, since most security would ping within an hour of an unverified ID....or something worse. It may be easier to try and backtrack their IP from when they're in a closed setting. Either that or... heavily monitor when he's spawned into an area instance with limited people, to see where the Name ID packet is spawned in from but that's pretty similar."

"Ye guys may, want to make new e-mail addresses with nothing connected to 'em and then request those be used for the game account with tech support. But...mmmm-"

"-Mmm, still seems we're all pretty down to game. Just we need a new dungeon or quest line to dive into. Whichever works for me. Pretty fun either way!"
Goibniu would practically cheer out. Gesturing a swing of his left arm in the excitement. Before letting out a sigh as Howitzer left.

"Alright, C quest it is. Perhaps something soldier themed? Or mines with old secrets? Definitely should be able to find a lot of those. There's also probably dime a dozen ancient knight fort overtaken by monster's or brigands."
"Ooo, a colony town struggling against pirates would definitely fit the setting to visit."

---

The experience with the Jester did sour Robert's mood a bit, but then again, it wasn't often that he got a good break nowadays. So it would be a shame if he did not make the most of it doing something he enjoyed. Once he got his next job lined up, he was going to be busy enough that he wouldn't be able to play as often.

He took a deep breath, clearing his mind and once more immersed himself in the role of Claudia.

A moment later, Claudia nodded, giving an apologetic smile, "Yes. I suppose all of you are right. It would be a shame for me to allow the action of one unscrupulous individual to sour the whole experience. Shall we take up a different quest? There was an interesting quest for an ice castle I saw earlier when we were checking the board."

@AwesomeZero5 @Randomguy @vietmyke @shylarah @swordandpens

Uriel thought the ice castle quest could be fun. It reminded him of an old game he used to play, which had an ice level. Thinking about it brought back some bad memories, but he would agree if the others wanted to do that quest. “Well, I’d be down for something like that; it could be good after what just happened.” Uriel looked at the others as they soon agreed to go on another quest.

They went to the adventurer’s guild deep in the capital's downtown area. The group arrived at the job board. Uriel was looking it over, trying to find the ice castle job. He made a loud noise to alert the others that he found it. “Right here, it looks like it is in Slatter near the border of Lumi. It looks like we gotta escort this NPC to the castle. It looks like he wants something inside of the castle.”

Another player looking at the job board looked over at the group. “Hi, are you guys thinking about going to the ice castle, do ya need another player? I’ve wanted to go there but heard it was pretty tough.” The player’s gear hinted that this player was a bard.

---

Putting it all behind them for now seemed to be the best move, one that Rathello was more than happy to do for the moment. This whole hacker Jester thing went well over his head, and it wasn't exactly as though they had a way to deal with him anyway- after all, what were they going to do, fight him? He'd just cheat his way to victory. The much better move would be to put it all behind them and get back to questing.

The others, sans the ranger, seemed to mostly be in the same boat, which worked out, it was nice to play in a group from time to time, even if some were newer to the game. The party had seemingly settled on a quest to the ice castle. Rathello didn't remember if he'd ever paid that dungeon any serious amount of attention, so it'd be a fun learning experience once again.

"I'm down for it if you guys are." he nodded, refilling his consumables from his guild storage chest. "Escort missions in this game aren't as bad as missions from other games-at least the NPCs in ToE have logic and respond to vocal commands, usually anyway."

Rathello glanced over as a newcomer approached them, a bard by the looks of it asking to join them. Rathello didn't exactly mind- bards were handy as a support, and would definitely take some of the pressure off of Elian and Goibnu, but they already had the two to support. Plus, with their ranger gone, the party was a bit short of DPS. Rathello could scrap with the best of them, but he was more designed to sustain damage for the party, and while Uriel and Claudia provided solid damage, a bard was a far cry from a ranger when it came to replacing their damage output.

"I think we'll need more DPS first, a monk or a fighter might fit the bill." Rathello spoke, glancing at the others in the party, expressing his opinions without necessarily putting a definitive 'no' out into the air. "No offense," Rath apologized to the bard anyway. "The Ice castle is tough for a reason. The monsters there are tough and have a lot of health."

---

Murphwintos wasn’t the biggest fan of deserts; the lack of life tended to make him sad. But being able to feel the desert so realistically in a game was something that was hard to get used to, and excited him despite his preferences. Having just spawned in, he had talked to someone (maybe an NPC, but Murphwintos wasn’t sure) who told him to head over to the Adventurers’ Guild.
Walking in, he found it bustling with people of all types of backgrounds. The pure variety of them was a bit hard to take in, but seeing them all plan and talk amongst themselves lit a fire under his butt to jump right in. Scanning the room, he saw a billboard with papers attached to it that most of the people seemed to be at. He quickly headed over and decided to look through.
Murphwintos noticed that the jobs all had ratings on them, seemingly using the grading scale that schools did in the U.S. If it followed the same progression, he imagined he wouldn’t be able to handle the A’s or B’s right now; maybe he could join a group and win with numbers.
“...like it is in Slatter near the border of Lumi. It looks like we gotta escort this NPC to the castle. It looks like he wants something inside of the castle,” a portion of a conversation floated over to his ears, and he looked over. The speaker seemed to be some type of knight, clad in dark armor. Around him were two women and two men, all seeming to consider the knight’s proposal. After that, a bard headed over to the group and asked to join. One of the men, a blonde-haired fighter, turned him down.

“I think we'll need more DPS first, a monk or a fighter might fit the bill. No offense. The Ice castle is tough for a reason. The monsters there are tough and have a lot of health,”

Murphwintos heard them speaking about a monk, and he headed over, seeing his chance.
"Hey, if you guys are looking for a monk, I'm good to fill that spot!" Murphwintos cut in, feeling kind of bad for the bard and apologizing to him.

---

---

_{Ocren's capital city}

"An ice castle, hm? I like that one -- puzzle dungeons are always fun. And even the escort business isn't nearly as bad as it could be," Elian said with a grin. She looked over the two prospective team members with a critical eye. The monk seemed to be fairly new to the game -- he was still wearing beginner's gear, but she figured between Claudia, Rathello, Uriel and herself they could probably handle another newbie. The bard seemed to have more experience.

I think we can take them both along. A bard would help me keep everyone healed -- especially with another lower-level player in the mix. Monk fellow looks pretty new. His outfit and weapons are basic stuff. Elian sent the message via text in the party chat.

Goibniu was down for practically any dungeon at this point. He rather complete one and take whatever rewards could be found. At least gather items for completion, or materials at the least. It may be worth it to simply get a surplus of let over metals or the ilk that would be lying around. If it would only be used to increase his crafting skills.
An escort quest, didn't feel as favorable, but given the growing party size it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

"I'm good to fill with any quest or dungeon. Just hoping to gather items from it. Depending on what the item the patron is searching for within the castle, may give a moment of pause to inspect it myself. Along with any interesting contraptions along the way..."
He huffed. "Might be able to... recreate a few things later on depending on how much material or scrap we gather."

He wouldn't particularly disagree with the desire for DPS given the group was down a ranger. Although, he was bothered by another matter.

"Just checking from everyone here, does anyone have focus on distance based attacks? Feels like most of the playstyles here would be to be in or near physical attack range. Probably need to be extra careful.."
He'd double check. But given the Barbarian, Death Knight, Paladin, and soon a Monk added to the team. It seemed like a high majority of direct physical engaging, which seemed worrying in a place with ice physics or possible ice hazards such as a frozen icicle following down. It seemed that most had an AOE skill centered from them, but if an enemy had a similar ability could be an issue...
The Death Knight did have their skeleton minions, but those may be more fodder in nature.
Goibniu himself was not built for sustained long range with the exception of his automaton, a tool more for defense and crowd control. But it did levitate, so it should be fine-.

"Welcome on board! Probably should purchase coats before we head out..."
He would wave toward the Bard, & the new monk joining them.
Although, he would look over them curiously for a moment or two.



But, he couldn't speak much on equipment.
Since he had the least in terms of it at the moment, particular armor until he could sort through and equip it.