New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

As the fireball travelled upward, Violette rapidly encased the party in a dome of ice, using the stone walls as pillars. She could hear the harpoons tinking against the surface, before a shockwave shook them.

The ice dome started glowing red for a few seconds, even melting a bit, as the heat around them rose rapidly. Then everything went back to normal.

What told them their plan had worked were the many notifications of killing the monsters that rang in their ears.

Violette melted the ice dome, and what greeted them was not a sight for the fainthearted. Lifeless frogmen, floating about the place, dimly lit by Silent's still ongoing light spell.

The sight was troubling to most of the party, so they started moving forward again, leaving this graveyard behind. Astaroth was thinking of how the scene looked like the interior of sunken submarines in movies.

They gathered the loot as they went, which was quite limited, since these were just guards. There were monster cores, and a few soul cores, but nothing worth much.

After swimming forward for about ten more minutes, they found a stairway. Much like the one they had arrived from, this one rose toward the surface.

A circle of light could be seen at the end of the staircase, announcing the exit to the weary party. Travelling through water was quite tiring, and everyone was excited to return to dry land.

Once they reached the top of the stairway, they emerged into another part of the jungle, this one much more damp. The surroundings looked like a marchland, more than a jungle.

But from the enemies they had been fighting for a while, they could have guessed this part would come. And so they managed to retain some morale.

The group kept trudging forward, keeping in mind that they were no longer alone in this dungeon, and so they had to keep moving. After dragging along in the marsh for another twenty minutes, with little to fight, they arrived at their intended destination.

Before them was an open quagmire, with a closed-off surrounding, and a massive wall at the back. There was no boss in sight yet, but they knew better than to assume it was an empty room.

They slowly pushed forward, keeping their eyes peeled and their ears perked, until the opening they came from abruptly closed off. A thick fog enveloped the sides of the room, seemingly detaching this place from reality.

From the thick energy the casters in the party could feel from the fog, they knew it was far from a natural fog. Entering it to leave the boss room was most likely suicide.

And yet, there was still no sign of the boss itself. Astaroth kept scanning the room, trying to find even a clue as to what they were going to fight. But he couldn't fight anything yet.

Violette was the first one to notice something. She heard a drop of water hitting a pond, and the echoes from it reverberated in her mana sense.

She closed her eyes, trying to pinpoint where it came from, before she heard a second one. This one came from closer to them.

She snapped her head in its direction, just in time to notice something creeping toward them from under the quagmire. The soft ground was rippling around a vine that was slowly reaching for Gulnur's feet.

It made no sound as it moved, a silent killer in the marsh, slowly slithering to the dwarf's foot.

"Gulnur! Watch out!" Violette shouted, pushing the water away from the group with her magic.

As she did, she revealed something way worse. All around them, hidden in the shallow water, were vines creeping toward them from every direction.

Once the vines were revealed to them, they sped up, trying to accomplish their task. The group rapidly destroyed the creeping plants, saving themselves from being trapped.

But more and more vines appeared, dashing at them from every direction, forming a constant barrage of attacks. This put the party in a tough spot, as they were outnumbered.

"There has to be a caster nearby!" I'die shouted, knowing this was most likely a druid's spell.

But try as they may, they failed to locate the enemy druid. This continued on for a few minutes, unabated, as the party was already getting mentally tired.

I'die used his new staff's ability, summoning a small swarm of creatures, choosing to go for piranhas. He sent them into the surrounding water in a last-ditch effort to find the caster somewhere in the water.

Surprisingly enough, it took only a few quick seconds for the piranhas to latch onto something. It became clear where their enemy was, as the piranhas were biting at something invisible at the edge of the boss room.

After taking some damage, the boss' invisibility dropped, and it revealed him to the players. Standing a short two feet tall, and wearing some robes made of snakeskin, was a small frogman, with a wooden staff in hand.

His skin was a sickly green, with spots of yellow. The frogman was looking at I'die with rage.

"How dare you! Why are you fighting alongside a human and a dwarf?! They are destroyers of nature!" The frogman druid croaked as he stared at I'die.

I'die didn't waste his time answering as he cast binding vines of his own, trying to capture the boss. But he grossly underestimated the enemy's power, and the frogman druid took control of his spell.

Astaroth immediately melded with Luna before firing a myriad of spells at the druid. He was aiming to break the boss' concentration, so they could start fighting him.

They couldn't just keep fighting off vines, after all, or they would never clear this dungeon, and would eventually start making mistakes and die. The frogman druid was good, and didn't lose concentration easily.

But as soon as he did, all hell broke loose on him.

Phoenix started bombarding him with fire spells; I'die blocked his paths of retreat as best he could; Athena fired arrows in rapid succession; and Gulnur dashed forward, locking himself in the boss' face.

Now that the enemy couldn't kite them anymore, it was time to slaughter him. Even though this was a boss monster, he stayed a caster.

And everyone knew casters weren't famous for their toughness. It took less than five minutes to kill it once they kept him from casting spells.

*You have killed a Grippli Court Mage (Elite Zone Boss) Lvl 50. 16'667 Exp awarded.*