Amazing permadeath recovery in Xorian Cipher

[parvo]

Xorian's been done in permadeath. I was with the first group to complete it. But how many times with characters of appropriate level, in open PD and zero purchased gear? Well, we tried and came darn close. Mind you, these are not players who have run Xorian a hundered times. I've been in the place about a handful in three years. The rest of the group about the same. It alsmost always ends with a character death or more...

I share this with you because it was an adventure that makes one of my five all-time amazing lists. I do so in no-spoilers fashion because that's how we share our heroic exploits amongst ourselves.

Xorian Cipher hard:

Gwydster 8/1 Rogue/Fighter
Treina 7 Sorcerer
Marlosh 8 Favored Soul
Pkard 7/2 Paladin/Monk
Niabara 6 Fighter
Kepto 8/1 Cleric/Ranger

A group of us couldn't come up with a good excuse not to do Xorian Cipher, so we went for it. In what I think is the most stressful part of any quest I've done, we had all the buffs we could muster and went about our way. I forgot one important buff so moved into a safer area to put it on. I was in the clear and I got myself and I think either Gwydster or Niabara. Right when it looked like we were going to survive and regroup, Niabara and Gwydster started taking enough damage for me (Kepto) to notice and run through a portal to heal. Bam! Frozen stiff in a manner that is most unsettling. With zero chance for getting out of it, all I could do was watch in horror as I was run over multiple times. Then Gwydster died and all I could do was watch. Niabara collected Gwydster's stone and was inches away from a safe spot before being immobilized in a lesser way, yet still dangerous. Niabara took a little more damage then broke and moved to safety. I'm still immobilized. There was no indication as to whether the immobility would ever break. No timer on the icon. Treina, Marlosh and Pkard were in their own hell. At one point Treina's red bar was to a sliver. Pkard made it very clear, given what they were facing, they could not help. They had their hands full. Finally, with some great healing and fighting they finished off what they were facing and I asked if there was any way they could get to me to help. While they frantically tried, things went from bad to worse for Kepto. Two enemies who had previously been attacking Niabara and Gwydster decided my immobile form was a better target. There was nothing I could do but watch red numbers keep popping up over my head and wonder when I would be run over again. It was excruciating. Not only was I going to lose Kepto, but Kepto had one Raise dead scroll (precious because it was looted from a chest, we don't buy them) and his death meant losing Gwydster too. Tic. Tic. Tic. red number after red number and helpless to do anything. Then Bing! Incap. Incap and -8. "Well, that's it", I thought, "I'll get attacked or bleed out." Amazingly, I made my first stabilization roll. Also amazingly, going incap apparently eliminates the type of magic immobilization I was under. Of course, all by myself, incap at -8, and with enemies and things rolling over me, my chances were still ridiculously slim. Yet, I slowly ticked back up. All the while the remaining party was still frantically trying to get to me. In one of my top five party recoveries ever, despite being run over multiple times, I slowly made it back up to one hit point. I ran out of the room, threw some quick heals and buffs and ran to an area where I could regroup with the rest of the party. I used the Raise Dead scroll (95% chance) to bring Gwydster back to life and we recalled. An amazing and heroic adventure. The pain of being immobilized for so long in that area was downright excruciating. The joy of living to tell the tale, priceless. Even though we didn't complete, we gained enough optional XP for me (Kepto) and Niabara to both level. Kepto now has nine hard fought levels of cleric to go with that one early level of Ranger. Cheers to the amazing and brave group that takes on challenges like this! A new top five recovery has made my list. Thank you for making a gamers dream so incredible!

[Gum]

Congratz

[Forbbidenone]

Nice, entertained me even with the wall-o-text. Sometimes its not if you finish its if ya get out alive to tell the tale.

Not that I play perm, I'm to clumsy and slow reacting.

[Fenrisulven6]

Nice. Much more exciting than the usual run. I would have had white knuckles on the keyboard, helplessly waiting to be run over and over again by the you-know-whats.

[parvo]

Nice. Much more exciting than the usual run. I would have had white knuckles on the keyboard, helplessly waiting to be run over and over again by the you-know-whats.

In three years of PD play, this was my most excruciating moment. Because our rule set is restrictive and we only do level-appropriate content, a character that is blue-lining ten is special. We have only a couple of characters in the guild with Raise Dead and Kepto was blue-lining that ability. A loss like that brings everyone down for a while. Furthermore, because my incap character had one precious (looted) raise scroll, we were on the precipice of losing one of our top rogues. The way we play, rogues are the most important class. Losing one (Gwyd was also blueling ten), would have been a heart breaker.

We recently had a wipe in Faithful Departed. We lost four level nines and one level eight. We're still talking about that one. When leveling is very tough, a loss at those levels leaves the whole group demoralized. When we survive on like Xorian here, it has the opposite effect. It was amazing gaming.

[AMDarkwolf]

wow sounds like your 'gaming style' is 99% stress, headaches, worries, and 1% happiness when u fail(horribly) yet survive.

My heart goes out to you, really doesn't sound like fun at all to me, more alot of hair pulling and keyboard bashing once u die, esp with the work u put in to each char as it levels(and the slower speed they level also)

[Twerpp]

I think those soundburst stuns (is that what you meant by immobilized?) have incredible dc's. Or maybe I jus had horrible rolls but my level 11 wf FvS fully buffed and high con got stunned a lot by them.
Those orbs... Xorian is a hell of a quest to take on PD.

[toughguyjoe]

Stay Tuned for Valhalla Permadeath Guilds upcoming Xorian Cipher run!

I'm getting a group together soon, Mark, My, Words.

[parvo]

wow sounds like your 'gaming style' is 99% stress, headaches, worries, and 1% happiness when u fail(horribly) yet survive.

My heart goes out to you, really doesn't sound like fun at all to me, more alot of hair pulling and keyboard bashing once u die, esp with the work u put in to each char as it levels(and the slower speed they level also)

...esp with the work u put in to each char...

Work? That's the difference right there. I like my characters but none of them go to work. They go to adventure. That's permadeath.

[parvo]

I think those soundburst stuns (is that what you meant by immobilized?) have incredible dc's. Or maybe I jus had horrible rolls but my level 11 wf FvS fully buffed and high con got stunned a lot by them.
Those orbs... Xorian is a hell of a quest to take on PD.

I think they are not soundburst stuns.

[RigorAdar]

The skeleton archers use sonic stunning arrows in the prequest and quest.

[parvo]

The skeleton archers use sonic stunning arrows in the prequest and quest.

Anyone who goes in there without immunity, and pays attention, will probably realize this. I posted this thread in a no-spoilers fashion because that's how we play. We could talk freely about every encounter comming in every quest, but that makes playing the game rather pointless. Dungeons and Dragons can stimulate problem solving thought, and DDO, from what I've seen as an MMO, has the unique capability of doing the same. It's a shame DDO doesn't have more random elements to challenge those who rely on memory and spoiling.