Another Static Group Starting - Thursdays

[Postumus]

Szavage says "I can't find the trap box. I don't have a spot item."


Grimple says "Sure you do. It's called a "Sharteel.""


Sharteel searches and finds trap box. Everyone claps.

[Fedora1]

What the intent IS

1. Fun with a static group.

2. A stress-free and relaxed gaming experience outside the PUG and zerg scene.

3. Take our time, enjoy the ride, but do not drag a quest out needlessly.

4. Enjoy xp, loot, and favor rewards - no feeling guilty if you come across a nice uber magic item. You find it, or loot it, or earn it; you can use it.


The GUIDELINES

I hesitate to make a numbered list, as that just starts down the path of "rules" (which are not bad things, but not the way I want this group to roll), so let me describe the basics in a conversational format:

This will simply be a no-AH, no vendor, "use what you find" group with no questing outside the group. No other guidelines necessary unless someone would like to suggest something very simple. Some calls would be common sense like - yes you can use vendors to buy thieves tools, ammunition, quivers, spell components. Other decisions can be made on the fly by group consensus and changed, relaxed, or otherwise modified later no big deal.

Death is dealt with the DDO way - res shrine or release and re-enter if you want. No one will be sitting in a tavern listening to the others have a good time, no one destroys your prize weapon.

Again, this would NOT be an experiment in bringing D&D to DDO. It would be very relaxed, yet more challenging (no twinking with AH, alts, and vendors) way of playing DDO with some good company. But it still IS DDO.

Please post below if interested (even if you have already sent me a PM) so we can keep a tally. Any and all classes/races are fine, as are multiclassed characters. We will play at whatever level and difficulty the group can handle, and it could vary from quest-to-quest. I envision a static group that may eventually be able to TR together.

Just wanted to re-emphasize these precepts and make some clarifications.

These guidelines are based on the honor system. I will not be policing or babysitting. If you buy something from the AH or give something to your toon from an alt or zerg some wilderness areas for rares/chests on a non-group day well I may not know but it probably means you are not a good fit for this group. Just sayin'.

If you get it from a quest, you can use it. If you get it from a daily roll or DDO event that is NOT questing, please don't use it for your character in this group with the following exceptions:

1. If you are F2P or Premium w/o a Tome of Learning you can use the XP rewards/elixirs from your free daily rolls or store bought xp elixirs.
2. You can always use guild renown elixirs.
3. You can use any items you get from things you picked up during quests (collectables, including those during special events).

Folks, also please remember NO QUESTING OUTSIDE THE GROUP. Special circumstances are allowable such as starting a new toon at L4/L7 (vet) and trying to catch up. Once you are caught up with the group please restrict your adventures to our weekly group get-togethers.

Since most of us are about L10 now, with some closing in on L11, I would like to suggest that soon we may allow iconics as a choice. Perhaps when half or more of the group hits L15. We will need to compare how the starter iconic gear compares to an average toon in our group at L15.

Finally I'd like to mention that we probably have room for another player, maybe even two. It looks like we usually end up with 8-10 players on a typical night. It would be nice to get that up to 10-12 to better fill 2 groups and raids. So if anyone reading this is interested please post or drop me a PM. We meet on Thursdays at 7PM EST although we usually don't start until 7:30PM to allow time for late comers, repairs and selling from the previous week, dividing into two groups, and deciding what quests to run.

[DrowsworD]

I suggest someone - leader - contact some of our missing members and ask if they intend to return or have they given up, have no time, etc etc...

At least then we would know if some of those are just hitting a rough spot and may be back next week.

Thornhill

Finally I'd like to mention that we probably have room for another player, maybe even two. It looks like we usually end up with 8-10 players on a typical night. It would be nice to get that up to 10-12 to better fill 2 groups and raids. So if anyone reading this is interested please post or drop me a PM. We meet on Thursdays at 7PM EST although we usually don't start until 7:30PM to allow time for late comers, repairs and selling from the previous week, dividing into two groups, and deciding what quests to run.

[Fedora1]

I suggest someone - leader - contact some of our missing members and ask if they intend to return or have they given up, have no time, etc etc...

At least then we would know if some of those are just hitting a rough spot and may be back next week.

Thornhill

I'm pretty much assuming anyone that has not logged in to their character since Christmas is not coming back. However, if I kick them from the guild before 6 months we lose renown. So anyone that would like to come back after a long break is welcome, no harm leaving them in the guild for 6 months.

Sometimes its awkward saying "Sorry but I won't be back" so no big deal (no hard feelings) for those who left without saying why. We've got a good core group of players and that's the main thing.

[Postumus]

I'm pretty much assuming anyone that has not logged in to their character since Christmas is not coming back. However, if I kick them from the guild before 6 months we lose renown. So anyone that would like to come back after a long break is welcome, no harm leaving them in the guild for 6 months.

Sometimes its awkward saying "Sorry but I won't be back" so no big deal (no hard feelings) for those who left without saying why. We've got a good core group of players and that's the main thing.

Or just leave them in since there isn't any guild decay any more. It's not like there are a ton of names on the guild list.

[Fedora1]

Questing began around 7:30PM and it was decided to run the Sorrowdusk Chain.

TRIVIA - Grimple has not missed a single Thursday night since we started this group. I nominate him for a cookie!

We divided into two teams:

Awesome Team:
Grimple
Lyrra
Szavage
Nimblethief
Thornhill

Team that got stuck with Morggan:
Abalurd
Aga
Sharteel
Charlette
Morggan

Awesome Team completed all but the last three quests, TTGSWM finished all but the last two quests.

We did a few of the rares and explorers just because.

Like most women, Lyrra took forever to get ready.
Where you at Lyrra?
I'm in Delera's Graveyard, I'll be right there.
You almost ready Lyrra?
Almost ready, just selling some stuff.
Are you close Lyrra?
I'm on my way....



Most of the quests went well. Nimble and Szavage split the rogue tasks equally. Nimble did the traps and Szavage did the locks.

Funniest part of the evening (and I heard a similar story from the other team) was the force trapped bridge at the end of the quest "The Grey Moon's Den: The Trollish Scourge".

Since it was Nimble's job to handle the traps he equipped feather fall and made the jump, evade, jump successfully across the bridge. Yay! We all cheered.
Then we heard the "clink, clink, clink" of him working on the trap control panel followed by a "bang, poof"!
"Oops, guys, I rolled a 1 and blew the trap box."
Cheers fade out, followed by silence.

Okay, no problem, we got the quest completion since Nimble made it across, so the rest of us will try so we can get the chest on the other side from the rare winter wolf we killed (Blizzard).

Lyrra jumps first "No wait, Lyrra you're the only one with raise" *ding* "dead"....
The ONE time she wasn't late....

Szavage tries next. Jump, hop, skip, YES made it all the way across! *ding* What the, how did I die six feet past the end of the bridge? My soul stone was several feet PAST the bridge. (Whining by Szavage only lasted a short while, honest).

Next is Thornhill. The nimble halfling with evasion. He'll make it no problem. Jump... What the? He MISSED the bridge!
Hits the lava, swims hopefully for a second as he says "I got fire resist, maybe..." *ding*

At some point Grimple made it over to the other side successfully. He gets another cookie.

Okay no big deal, we recall to our res locations. Everyone bound to the ship, "The Eye of Kol Korran", right?
Uhh, Lyrra was bound back in Necropolis or some other out-of-the-way location.

You almost ready Lyrra?
Almost ready, just selling some stuff.
Are you close Lyrra?
I'm on my way....

Good times!

[Postumus]

Awesome Team completed all but the last three quests, TTGSWM finished all but the last two quests.

We did a few of the rares and explorers just because.

For the record TTGSWM also completed all the explorers, half the rares, and had finished part 8 while "Awesome Team" was just starting part 7.


Our group was able to save a lot of time not having to listen to the litany of Szavage's excuses every time we encountered a trap. "Are you sure there's a trap here?" "I'm not spotting anything guys...." "I really don't have very good gear." "Anyone know where the trap box is?" and, my favorite "BOOM! er- sorry guys."


Sharteel just searched & disabled the traps like the pro she is. Well, except for part 4 when everyone got killed by the bridge trap except Morgan who calmly grabbed up the soul stones and completed the quest.


"Hey are these traps on the bridge still disabled from last time?" Agamemnax called out while running toward the bridge.


"Yep, go right ahead." Morgann replied. DING! "Uhm... I was just kidding... Sorry?"


"They always reset." Abalurd explained. "So you have to do this special jump from the top platform up here like this." DING! "Rats! Well Sharteel should be able to make since she has evasio...." DING!


"Here goes nothing." Morgann sighed before leaping over the bridge and landing on the other side safely. "OK Charlette, did you see how I did that? You need to go up... stop!" Charlette scampered half-way across the bridge and leaped up onto a pillar while the force traps blasted away around her.


"Wow I can't believe you made that!" Morgann laughed. "But you're in a pickle now. No way you make it the rest of the... WHOA!" Charlette bolted forward and stopped right in front of the three soul stones of Abalurd, Agamemnax, and Sharteel. She was only one trap away from the other side of the bridge where Morgann stood and safety.


"Great Abalurd's ghost!" Cried Abalurd's ghost. "I have never, EVER, seen anyone survive that and get where you are." Charlette picked up the soul stones while the rest of the party, both dead and alive, sat speechless in awe of Charlette's feat of dexterity.


"Better let me cast a jump on you," said Morgann. "That way you can... " DING! And so Charlette's luck came to an abrupt end as she died at Morgann's feet. "Well, at least you brought the stones to me so I didn't have to go back into the traps." Morgann laughed.


With that, Morgann gathered the soul stones up and proceeded to do the un-Szavageable: he soloed the rest of the quest for the completion.

[Fedora1]

my favorite "BOOM! er- sorry guys."

I thought your favorite was "Okay guys, all clear".
Kabloom!
*Ding*ding*ding*ding*ding*ding.

[Fedora1]

For the record TTGSWM also completed all the explorers, half the rares, and had finished part 8 while "Awesome Team" was just starting part 7.

Stop picking on Lyrra. She had to switch purses. A couple times. The first one didn't match her armor, the second one clashed with her mace.

[Postumus]

I thought your favorite was "Okay guys, all clear".
Kabloom!
*Ding*ding*ding*ding*ding*ding.

Ah yes. The Repossession quest. Good times...

[Varhann]

RL keeps getting in the way. Catch you all next week.

[Fedora1]

Well just to bring everyone up to date, both teams completed the Sorrowdusk chain and some nice (unique) end rewards were obtained. One interesting thing was that we were all around level 9-10 doing L10 quests on elite for an effective level of 12. This is with a group that does not utilize the AH or pawn brokers - we only use what we find. So compared to most L10 DDO characters we are a bit "under-geared". Also, both groups were short-manned, so props to everyone for a great job.

Following that, I think we did a qucik zerg of Archer Point Defence way over-level just to kill some time. I can't remember if we ran anything else that week or if we called it an early night.

[Fedora1]

We began the evening with 7 players, and waited until after 7:30PM hoping to get 1-2 more players in order to have more than 3-4 players per team. However, as were finally deciding to just go ahead and start with small teams we realized that Thornhill had dc'd about 15 minutes ago and had not returned. So we decided to go ahead and begin, and to split into two teams if/when he came back.

The following six players began exploring the eastern excavation of Threnal:

Sharteel
Grimple
Lyrra
Szavage
Nimblethief
Aga

We ran the first two quests (The Library of Threnal, Escort the Expedition) on elite. Our characters are now L10-11.

Following this, Charlette logged in. Before we could decide how to split into two groups, Grimple stated that he was a little under the weather and would just log off so Charlette could take his spot. Since Charlette does not own the Threnal pack, we headed back to Stormreach. Upon arrival, we were met by a troubled Stormreach guard officer, Thifspar, in the Marketplace. He desperately needed help repelling a Devil assault on one of the Stormreach Guard barracks.

Our L10-11 characters entered this quest on Hard difficulty (L12).

We did surprisingly well and successfully completed this adventure. Charlette made strategic use of her lore of Disco (Stayin' Alive, Stayin' Alive, uh uh uh uh Stayin' Aliiiiiiive), while Lyrra kept everyone topped off with health. I recall Aga had a very high kill count. Szavage kept up a constant Flame Turret while launching the occasional Lightning Motes. Everyone contributed nicely for a clean completion.

[DrowsworD]

We began the evening with 7 players, and waited until after 7:30PM hoping to get 1-2 more players in order to have more than 3-4 players per team. However, as were finally deciding to just go ahead and start with small teams we realized that Thornhill had dc'd about 15 minutes ago and had not returned. So we decided to go ahead and begin, and to split into two teams if/when he came back.

Sorry about that. My network connection had been acting up for awhile and just would not stay up. After multiple attempts I gave up.

All seems to be well now; a new router must have done the trick.

Thornhill

[Fedora1]

Sorry about that. My network connection had been acting up for awhile and just would not stay up. After multiple attempts I gave up.

All seems to be well now; a new router must have done the trick.

Thornhill

Hey no problem, those things happen. We did miss your paralyzing arrows though!

[Fedora1]

Well let's see, I will have to edit this later to make sure I get the groups correct, but wanted to take a moment to write up our latest adventure.

We had two teams - I think 4 per group?

Szavage
Aga
Nimblethief
Thornhill

Grimple
Charlette
Sharteel
Lyrra

Like I said, I'll have to double check, or maybe someone can correct/confirm for me.

So we decided we need more bank space. House K quests. VON!

Both groups ran VON1-2 on elite. Group 1 (boldly or foolishly) decided to run VON3 on elite as well, group 2 ran it on hard. However, the outcome was a twist of fate indeed!

I think group 1 had one death per quest in VON1-2, but otherwise completed them without much trouble. VON3 went very well, including the Beholder caverns and "3 Boss Fight" near the end.

It was a different story when we faced "The Inevitable" Marut!

This thing just totally overwhelmed us. It one or two-shotted anyone who grabbed his agro except the paladin, but even Aga had to pike backwards to avoid the tremendous damage this thing dealt. Between it's stunning, blinding, electric, and sonic attacks we were very hard pressed just to stay alive. Only the paladin seemed able to scratch it at all, the rest of us seemed to have no effect. Melee damage was all single digit yellow, flame turret, lightning motes, and blast rod seemed to grab its agro without hurting it, blade barrier was attempted as well. Pretty much nothing worked and all but Aga died inside. Aga continued to pike backwards in circles until we could all recall and heal up and re-enter.

Here is where it gets interesting. Group 2 had finished VON3 while we were still in progress, so we recruited Sharteel and Grimple to help us. So Aga stood toe-to-toe with the Marut until he bravely died and the room opened. We all entered and re-engaged the Marut... sort of. Grimple did not enter the room before the shield went back up. So he waited until we all died again and the Marut went back into his cave. Grimple quickly collected our stones and rez'd us at the nearby shrine. Once again we all entered and faced the big bad boss - although we had little hope of winning since we had so far failed to get it below 75% health.

We were absolutley floored by what happened next. Grimple hit it with 3 stacks of a DOT cold spell and within 30 seconds it was reduced to a puddle of water like a snow man in a green house.

Success! Grimple saves the day.

This guy is really earning his cookies.

[LordDunmore]

I will be late on 3.27. I am working until about 6pm central, home about 6:30. Go ahead and start without me if you need to.

Nimiblethief

[Fedora1]

I will be late on 3.27. I am working until about 6pm central, home about 6:30. Go ahead and start without me if you need to.

Nimiblethief

Lately we haven't been able to start before 7:30 (eastern) anyway, since we know that if we start before that with 6 people, 1-3 more will log on part way through the first quest.

We can probably run some wilderness or low level House K stuff (for bank space) and start VON4 when you arrive. Not sure if we want to start the raid tonight though, or wait until we have a couple more people flagged.

[SocratesBastardSon]

I will not be able to attend tomorrow night (4/3/14). The loss of everybody's favorite Paladin will come as a cruel blow to morale, I know. Try to carry on as best you can.

Agamemnax

[Fedora1]

I will not be able to attend tomorrow night (4/3/14). The loss of everybody's favorite Paladin will come as a cruel blow to morale, I know. Try to carry on as best you can.

Agamemnax

No worries, we will certainly miss you though.

We still need to run VON4 one of these days (nights).

Not sure what is on the agenda for tomorrow.