Of Ancient History and Party Balance

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’The last Daily Quest, huh?’

Gaia: Yes. That was always going to be an intro week thing. Now that you’ve been kicked out of your gamer coombrain stupor, Quests are up to you setting or discovering goals for yourself that are worthy of reward.

’Coombrain, says the goddess that just floated rewards that incentivize sleeping around. Not to mention the Quest to impregnate half of Springfield.’

Gaia: Half of Springfield? Ha, I’ll show you half of Springfield!

Gaia: Except that’s technically only a quarter of Springfield, since it’s just half the women in Springfield, rounded up.

’Touche, touche, sorry.’ John couldn’t help but chuckle as he pictured an anime girl going all puffy cheeked with indignation. He denied the second Quest and took a moment to actually consider the first one beyond the revelation in the comment.

Finding out more about the Rotmaw Tribe was something he wanted to do anyway, since it might help with Qhila’s pair bonding predicament. The optional objectives provided a few interesting insights on their own. That the Rotmaw Tribe had been made by a High Dragon was unsurprising but it was still nice to have confirmation that one was involved. Especially since dragons likely had lifespans that were either indefinite or counted in millennia, so something that happened 20 000 years before some other historical event might not be quite as lost to time as it would if cavemen were the only people around to preserve the information.

That the tribe had been ended by a single individual was new information and potentially concerning. On the other hand, if 3% of kobolds alive today descended from them it couldn’t have been that terrible. If he were to hazard a guess, what happened was probably that the High Dragon ruling the tribe got beaten badly by something or someone of similar strength, maybe another High Dragon, and the tribe got dispersed or disbanded as a result.

On the reward side, 1-3 Levels for himself, Qhila, and June, were already great. Especially the June part since he couldn’t well drag her along to grind EXP. The Skill Level was nice but not outstanding. The essence was probably pretty good. He didn’t know what to do with those yet. Observe listed the giant rat one he had as a crafting material, but he had no recipes that called for one. Well, except for bottled were-creature mutagen if an essence was a valid biosample, but that still didn’t apply to True Dragon essence. But he was willing to bet that it could be used to make some pretty nice gear, and even if it couldn’t, it would probably fetch a fantastic price on the Abyss Auction.

The real winner here, however, was the legendary item. The Alchemfist and the Sexual Connector had already shown that just epic rarity items could be severely awesome. Whatever was on offer here was practically guaranteed to be even better in some way or another. As a Quest that only expanded on things he already wanted to do, and with rewards like this on offer, he would have to be an idiot to deny it.

That done, he set about getting out of bed, but was soon alerted to a light on his phone indicating an unread message.

[Qhila]: You need to come over ASAP.

Well that sounded worrying, but before he broke into a half-dressed sprint, he checked the follow up that had been received 2 minutes later.

[Qhila]: Not tunnel fire ASAP. Just as soon as you have time.

“Tunnel fire” would have seemed a peculiar, if easily understandable, choice of metaphor if his absorbed Low Draconic knowledge didn’t tell him that it was basically the kobold equivalent to “shit hit the fan”.

Chuckling, he continued with getting dressed and went for breakfast. Along the way, he noticed that June’s faded out Observe sheet was still hanging around, reminding him that he had been intending to check for tooltips on the stats and stars in the evening. It had slipped his mind in the end, but with Qhila apparently anxious to see him, he decided that it wasn’t urgent enough that he couldn’t check it out with the kobold instead. Except with another sheet than June’s, probably.

John entered Qhila’s nest with a spring in his step. Along the way he had come to the conclusion that her wanting to see him quickly, but not so quickly he should skip breakfast, probably meant that she was excited to show or tell him something. Maybe she had found a solution to a human disguise that was more viable for use than expected? In any case, he was also just looking forward to spending time with her.

That assumption was swiftly challenged by her decidedly annoyed tone and expression. “You left a lot of scent everywhere on Friday! And because of that, yesterday ended up a complete write-off. You need to either help me thoroughly clean everything or you need to come over in the morning and help take the edge off the heat symptoms before I can get anything useful done.”

As she spoke, John noticed that something about the scowl she met him with and the way she had her arms crossed seemed like she was trying just a bit too hard to look annoyed. Not quite like there was no annoyance, but more like she was overemphasizing it. That in combination with the reddish hint of flush to her cheeks, the slight swaying of her hips even as she stood still, and John’s nose catching a hint of the same scent that greeted him Friday afternoon, albeit much weaker, spoke volumes. ’Guess I was right about her being excited, just wrong about the kind of excitement.’

He couldn’t help but chuckle as he reached for his belt. “For that, I’ll gladly take time out of any morning.”

She didn’t quite turn towards her bean bag bed fast enough to prevent him from seeing how she broke into a fang-revealing smile.

Once again, John luxuriated in the heavenly feeling that was post-coital cuddles. Qhila lay naked on his chest, her face buried in the crook of his neck. He had one arm around her, and his other hand on her butt. She had been either satisfied enough, happy enough to cuddle, or both, that she didn’t even pretend to complain when he put it there.

After a while of cozy silence, Qhila said something that was too muffled for John to understand. He told her as much and, after adjusting her position a bit, she tried again, “I can’t make humanis elixir. I spent what little concentration I could muster yesterday looking up the formula, and it costs 200 grand on the Auction. That’s about the same as a trinket that can do a similar transformation to the wearer, and significantly more than I can afford…”

“Sheesh, yeah, that’s steep. Is that a normal price for alchemy formulae?”

“Somewhat. Relatively common formulae are usually sold in collections rather than individually, which can run from a few thousand to half a million depending on what’s in it. Without accounting for rare first editions or enchantments on the tome.

“Humanis is sold individually though, because it was only reverse engineered fairly recently. Previously, it was only sold by a coven of witches to help fund the Walpurgis Academy where they invented it. Formulae sold like that range from tens of thousands and upwards. I think the record was a lifespan extending concoction formula that went for thirty-something trillion.”

“30 trillion? Dollars?” He felt, rather than saw, Qhila nod in confirmation. “Holy shit.”

She nodded again. “Lifespan extending stuff is expensive, if you can’t make your own.”

John mulled over that for a bit, before venturing a different approach. “We may have another way to get it… Not the lifespan stuff, but humanis elixir or something similar.”

“Oh?”

“I got another Quest this morning, and the Developer said it was the last daily Quest and because of that it was supposed to ‘last a while’. Which implies that past ones, like the one we’re trying to figure out now, are possible to advance a lot quicker. Which suggests either we know someone who can provide a recipe much cheaper, or my system provides either a way to get the recipe or a way to get the money a lot faster than saving it up from Arena runs.

“I think my system is the answer. We haven’t touched Instant Dungeons yet, and in games that both have a game mode similar to Arena barriers and has something that can be described as a dungeon, it’s fairly frequent that you use the Arena to grind EXP, cash and low rarity crafting materials. Meanwhile, the dungeons are the place to go for powerful gear and rare crafting materials that you only need a small number of for the most powerful projects. Stuff that also, usually, fetches immense sums on the game’s auction house, if it has one. Dungeons would also be the place to go for Quest Items if they aren’t somewhere in the overworld.

“So in short, I think there’ll be some Instant Dungeon setting or other where we can get the formula as a loot drop, and failing that, selling stuff from dungeons on the Abyss Auction is probably the fastest way to make the money to buy it.”

“Sounds like we know what we need to do then!” Despite the go-getter tone she said it in, Qhila made no motion to actually get up and end the cuddling.

“Well, sort of. Usually, in games that have dungeon-y stuff, but doesn’t have it as the only game mode, and a party system, it is strongly advisable to go into dungeons with a party that is at least balanced, and ideally also full. We’re neither, so I’d like to go in as well prepared as possible, to be on the safe side.”

“What is a balanced party anyway? I’m guessing a full one is however many your Ability allows…”

“Yeah, I don’t know how many that is either. Typical numbers range from 3 to 6 for single player games with a party system, while multiplayer ones might go as big as 30 players, and if each one can bring more than one character, that can sometimes balloon into triple digits. But the tooltip does say that difficulty is scaled to party size, so I think the important one is a balanced party.

“As for what, exactly, that is, it kinda varies from game to game. But there is a basic, recurring pattern about the combat roles tank, DPS and support. You need to have enough of each or things are going to be tough. What exactly ‘enough’ is varies, but it’s usually at least 1, and sometimes there are other, typically more specialized, roles involved too.”

“Hmm.” Qhila’s thoughtful hum led him to pause the explanation. “I never paid much attention to the warriors’ training, except for what little I needed to know to make salves and trap payloads for them, but I think they had some sort of combat role thing going as well. Something about claws and wings and stuff.”

“Well, if actual Abyssal fighting forces do that too, then all the more reason to take it seriously. I don’t really know what a claw or wing role is, and guessing probably isn’t useful. I know the game roles though.

“Tanks engage enemies head on or at close range, aiming to keep the enemy pinned down and focused on them. They’re usually focused on defensive measures and damage mitigation to survive that attention, while possessing other tools or abilities that make them difficult or costly to ignore. It’s more or less what I’ve been doing against the first giant rat, as well as the boar, but I don’t really have the Skills or armor to do it as my main thing, even if Gamer’s Body is pretty great for it.”

“Me neither,” Qhila freely acknowledged. “It’s not really something kobolds do in general.”

“That tracks.” John nodded. “With what you’ve shown me and kobold fiction stereotypes alike. Anyway. DPS is the offense role. It’s short for Damage Per Second, which kinda says it all. They put on a lot of hurt, but often at the cost of being fragile and instead relying on a mix of the other roles’ efforts and either range, timing or carefully chosen angles of approach to survive. I can’t really comment on how well you can take a hit-”

“Not very.”

“Right. Anyway, when we can kite a foe into your traps, you put out plenty of hurt to match the DPS role. Without them your damage output is a bit on the underwhelming side, but so is mine. At least from what I’ve seen in action so far.”

She nodded. “Makes sense. Traps are a big part of how kobolds fight in general, and while I have some admixtures that are more in the fast injuries department, it’s not really something I can throw out at a sustainable rate. The acid darts that I can use liberally cause more pain than actual injury.”

“Makes sense. And that kinda, sorta brings up our last role: supports. Supports function as **** multipliers, increasing the effectiveness of the other two roles in some way or other. The most typical way in video games are healers, keeping the tanks healthy for longer and buying more time for the DPS to kill the enemy. That… doesn’t seem viable for the Abyss, based on what you told me about healing magic, but buffs, effects that protect allies and ways to hamper the enemies’ effectiveness are all on the table as well. Messing with the terrain to their side’s advantage too.”

John paused for a moment before continuing, “With traps out, you pretty much do a support’s job as well, as far as I can tell. A lot of your traps have hampering effects, and if the poison suite you prepared for the giant rat had been fully effective, that would’ve covered that base as well. And it sounds like acid darts are another debilitation approach.”

“Makes sense.” She nodded thoughtfully, nuzzling into his shoulder in the process. “The kobold alchemical arsenal is mostly designed to make attacking a warren or nest deeply unpleasant and keeping enemies off balance so they’re more likely to blunder into traps or leave themselves open to volleys or warbeasts.”

“That’s in line with most fiction depictions.” John nodded. “But in summary, you basically pull double duty as both support and DPS when you have time to set up traps, and do kind of half of each when you don’t. Meanwhile, I’m currently a weird jack-of-all-trades build and I’m likely ending up somewhere in either DPS, support or a mix, like you. I am our best tank at the moment, but that’s not saying much.”

“So you want us to recruit someone to tank?” She sounded dubious about that approach.

“While that would probably be ideal, there are a lot of other concerns involved in the guild question at the moment. So I’m thinking we do the next best thing and go in prepared to mitigate and avoid damage as much as possible. Take the kite and traps approach, but go in loaded for the proverbial bear. Also, I want to improve our strength as much as we reasonably can without Leveling Up a lot, because I.D. difficulty is scaled to Level but not gear or Skills. I’m not sure doing much about gear is in the cards, given our current finances and Abyss Auction prices, but I did get a bunch of crafting recipes that I’m a few Skill Levels away from being able to make. And I’m a few Abyssal beasts away from maxing out Observe which may come in handy too.”

“So the plan is to poke our heads into a few Arena barriers until you find enough beasts, then hit the lab?” This time, she accompanied the plan summary with shifting in the **** beginnings of getting up.

“Well, yes, but I did want to discuss two other things too…”

That made her reverse course immediately, snuggling into him instead. He allowed himself to enjoy that feeling for a moment before moving on with practical matters. “The first one is the other Quest I got. It’s to find out more about an old kobold tribe called the Rotmaws.” He opened the window and read it aloud to her, then continued, “The only thing I really have other than the Quest itself is a book about, uh, various demihumans that said they were around roughly 20 000 years before the Fall of Atlantis.”

“That is a long time ago…”

“Yeah, 20 000 years before something kinda made that clear, even though I don’t know when Atlantis fell…”

Qhila spent a moment thinking before responding. “I think it’s around 15 000 BC. Which makes the Rotmaws 37 000 years old. That’s a lot, even for dragons. High Dragons, which have indefinite lifespans, notwithstanding, True Dragons can live around 5000 active years, though they can spread this out by hibernating.”

“Damn, and here I thought human civilization was like 12 000 years old, give or take a few centuries.”

“Why would- ah, right, the older stuff probably all got left on the Abyss side during the Fall.”

“I’m not sure I follow.” John raised a brow that she couldn’t see, but the curiosity in his tone was likely unmistakable.

“Uh, basically, Atlantis fell because Bahamut split the world in mundane and Abyss and created the Veil. Supposedly, he did that specifically because of how awful the Atlanteans were, but I’m not sure that holds much water given how much nasty shit people get away with unsmote today.”

Gaia: They really were exceptionally vile. Think worse than the average [Dark Eldar], but without even the flimsy attempt at an excuse that is getting their souls consumed if they stop. I most certainly am not drinking anything that’s been in the same room as old Atlantean souls.

“... Yeah, that’s nasty. Though I find it somewhat notable that the only part of the Slaanesh comparison that you object to is drinking Dark Eldar souls,” he remarked with a smirk.

Gaia: I just didn’t want to get too deep in 40k comparisons, or I’d have to note your similarities to a [Greasy Squig].

While John chuckled at that, Qhila felt the need to weigh in. “Returning the conversation to something that is both useful and makes actual sense, I don’t know how we would even begin to look into a kobold tribe that old. It’s not like they show up in history books much… But based on their name, they were probably made by a High Dragon aligned with ****, or maybe both **** and Life.”

John raised a brow at that. It sounded like both juicy and potentially important lore. “I think you’re going to have to elaborate.”

“True Dragons are fundamentally elemental creatures. Not quite as completely as actual elementals, but all True Dragons are nonetheless aligned with one or two elements, out of the Draconic Classification of Elements. There’s an Atlantean system and a Chinese one as well, but I don’t really know how they work. In the Draconic Elements, there are 8: Life, ****, Light, Darkness, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. A True Dragon possesses innate elementalism with their elemental alignment, famously including a powerful breath.

“Whether they name their tribe themselves or leave that to the kobolds in their thrall, kobold tribes tend to be named in a way that hints at their overlord’s elemental affinities either directly or by symbol.”

“The Skytails are pointing at Air then?”

A movement of the tip of Qhila’s tail told John that she was frowning, by way of an association he didn’t know he had picked up on. “No. Orronth the contemptible lecher instead named the tribe after a particular bodily posture.”

John tried very hard, and almost succeeded, at not laughing at that declaration. Instead, what came out was a sort of amused snort that he quickly steered away from by summarizing, “So, if we end up having the chance to look at historical records and stuff, paying attention to **** Dragons may give us a hint towards the Rotmaw Tribe?”

“More or less. I know it’s not much to go on, but it’s all I have.” She sounded apologetic about it, so he gave her butt a comforting squeeze, prompting her to poke him in the ribs and call him a dummy.

After a bit of chuckling at that, he returned to seriousness. “The second is that I’m looking into home security for my mom and my grandparents. I know basically fuck all about Abyssal home security, but looking on the web it seemed like the usual way was to get a commercial system of some kind and then maybe tinker with that a bit. So I went looking for commercial ones that were mundane friendly, and found that a local vendor called Karason Arms & Security has a big discount on a system this week that I was going to get if they passed your smell test, so to speak.”

“No guarantee I’ll know the technical details, depending on the type of system, but if you pull up the specs, I can take a look.” While speaking, she rolled off his chest to instead lie on her side with her head on the shoulder of the arm that was wrapped around her. That removed her butt from his hand, regrettably, but he did understand the practical necessity of the change.

While he called his phone from his inventory and opened the relevant bookmark, she continued, “As for Karason, he’s trustworthy enough to do business with.