Clyde Baumont shook free of the clinging gel of the dive tub, shaken and reeling from the forced ejection after the steel-sheathed teeth of the Rat King ripped his guts from him, leading to a forced cooldown. Freed of the chill of the gel, Clyde sat on the bare floor with his back against the smooth, rounded wall of the dive tub, head in hand. He was so close, but then that idiot healer slipped and was taken down in a pile of smaller rat-men, the Rat King had lunged at his exposed torso, and the rent leathers had offered all the protection of paper-mache.
Dammit.
Another real-world, one-hour mandatory cooldown before respawn and another four hours wasted in-game. He’d have to get with Shawn and Sara and talk tactics for their next try at the Rat King’s den. Maybe talk about checking the boards for a more experienced Cleric or White Mage. Their current Cleric, Hugh Melville, didn’t know how to stay in formation, drew way too much aggro, and didn’t have the sense to let his party members draw it back. Should’ve rolled a rogue or warrior, that guy didn’t have it in him to hide behind anyone.
Honestly, that’d be great if they hadn’t been depending on him throwing heals and keeping up the buffs. The more he thought about it the more convinced he became they should encourage him to re-roll his character; even offer some power-leveling to get him his lost levels.
He focused on the left, bottom corner of his screen and pulled the icons for Shawn and Sara into chat with him.
“Hey, guys! That didn’t go so well. I think we need to rethink a few things about our approach,” he subvocalized - an unnecessary addition but a habit he found hard to break.
Sara was first to respond, “Yeah, this is sucking hard. What are you thinking, Clyde?”
None of them used their character’s names outside of the game. It would feel weird calling Sara, a level 12 wood elf and rogue assassin, Lyra or even worse Blood Princess. He snorted, that sounded emo and played hard into the stereotypes of nerd gamers in his small town. If anyone ever heard Sara refer to him as the Left Hand or Shaper, he’d have to leave town, preferably slipping out under cover of darkness.
“You’re gonna suggest we ditch his holiness, Shaper?” Asked Shawn, the fucker.
“Dammit, Shawn, or Clint Badass, should I start calling you by your in-game moniker? Then again, that was a different life, or game, whatever.”
“You know it’s Clint Baudass, but yeah badass works, so go for it. I think my parents’ll be fine with it. It’s not like there’s anyone else even knows I’m down here. My building’s mostly empty except for me, my folks and few others too stupid or too poor to get out.”
“Still Shawn, I’d really appreciate keeping to real names. I’m cringing just imagining the shit I’d have come for me if one of the local assholes sneaks a snoop into our chat. Even after last week’s patch I’m going to figure the encryption is still broken, or someone will break it soon. You only hear about the security failures after what? Weeks, months after our accounts are compromised?”
He paused, taking a moment to breathe and collect his thoughts.
“Sorry, man. Kinda still pissed off over wiping again.”
“I know, and it’s fine.”
“Shawn’s right, though, isn’t he? The cleric fucked up again. He’s the weak link,” Sara offered.
“Fuck yeah he’s gotta go,” Shawn was more emphatic in his agreement.
“That’s what I was thinking, guys, but…” Sara got to scanning the forum for a replacement. “I’d love to go again after the cooldown, but I could stand waiting a bit for the right fit.”
“Getting on it.”
“Thanks. Here’s the thing, though. I’d like to ask Hugh to re-roll his character. He’s not a bad guy, just a little overeager to bash heads and poke holes in rats. I think he’d make a good rogue, warrior, or berserker.”
There were a few moments of silence before Shawn said, “I can see that, I guess. We’ll have to see what he says. But what about the lost levels? He’s what, level 9? Just about to level 10 and a chance to sub-class.”
“Right, which is why I think we offer to power-level him to level 10 no matter if he sticks with us if he will re-roll. A kind of severance package to maintain goodwill. Don’t need him popping over to a PK guild and showing up on our six at the worst possible time.”
Sara rejoined the chat, saying, “Got a couple leads, and a possible candidate for you to look over. And I agree with you Clyde. As much as I wanna healer I can trust in melee I def don’t wanna make an enemy. Want me to talk to him?”
“You don’t think it’d be better coming from me?”
“Usually, yeah, you’re the party leader. But I’ve noticed him checking out my cute Elven ass in the last rat battle. I think he’ll take it better coming from me. LOL.”
She sent a blushing emoji followed by a cucumber and a sly wink which worked to lessen the heavy mood that had persisted since the total party wipe.
“Okay, okay. You’ve got me convinced, now go seduce our ass-obsessed holy man, and let me know how it goes. Oh, and have you forwarded me the candidate?” He checked his inbox and saw she had. “NM, I see it. Thanks, babe.”
She gave him a thumbs-up, and then after a moment, flipped him off with a GIF3D.
He laughed before pulling over the healer’s profile from the inbox, the player’s avatar floated up from the icon, rotating lazily before him. He stopped himself before he checked out the ass of the avatar, a smile stealing over his face. The healer was classed as a Monk, with higher strength than wisdom, a small mana pool - WTF Sara? He frowned. Sara was as competent a player as they came unless this was an attempt at humor there had to be more than he was seeing.
Honestly, he was unfamiliar with Monks. The frown morphed to focused concentration as he pored over the class’ description.
The Monk is unique amongst classes in performing as a hybrid warrior-healer class with modest but effective buffs outside of combat. With an alchemy or herbalist subclass, the Monk increases their effectiveness as a support class with added buffs and heals. Parties dependent on combat heals and buffs are better served by traditional support classes. For more forward-thinking parties, Monk is the superior choice as they are less exposed to zerging or back-stabs.
Pro-tip: if you’re finding your healer is rat chow more often than a productive support class, Monk deserves some hard consideration. (I’m looking at you, party leader!)
Sweet. He knew Sara wouldn’t let him down. The small mana pool was of less concern than it seemed at first glance. The Monk class relied more on Willpower than Wisdom, and even Strength and Constitution were more important than Intelligence. This was a strange class. He appended his approval for Sara to engage the Monk’s service on a probationary basis as soon as she had taken care of Hugh.
He shouldn’t have been so surprised. His own Rogue Duelist dual-class was shaping into the rough equivalent of a quad-class with his developing stealth, tracking, and lock-picking skills supporting both a thief build and synergizing with aspects of his Duelist class to unlock hidden potential as an assassin. He focused and brought the Duelist class description.
The Duelist class is perfect for the city dandy, youngest son of nobility, or a hothead with a few dozen scores to settle. This is a combat class specializing in piercing damage with stacked bonuses for the rapier, dagger, stiletto, or other stabby stabby weapons. With care and the right mindset, it is possible to gain bonuses to stealth and backstab with this class. Under-handed tactics such as poisoned blades and throwing knives are also encouraged with bonuses in this class.
The Duelist class plays to win and live to crow another day, honor be damned! Only fools play by the rules, and only the living live long enough to tell tales.
Honestly, why are you even looking at this class? You’re a party leader. Waht? You already chose this class? You sly dog, you. I hope your party members remember to look over their shoulders when you’re around - and especially when you’re not.
Related classes: rogue, assassin, royal guard
He chuckled, remembering when he showed Sara his new class. They’d agreed they would do things differently this time around, play a little with the lesser-used classes. Aside from the standard fighter build from his virgin campaign, he’d chosen Paladin without fail, the class just seeming to fit him better than others. Sara, of course, was your typical Elven Sorceress, engaging in the eldritch as easily as he related to the holy and divine. Shawn had nearly been the lone hold-out in the long-time group. He was the tank and loading up on Strength and Constitution with the standard Fighter class just seemed to make sense. It wasn’t until Sara had shown him an obscure class, Grey Mage, that he wavered from his standard build and finally relented and committed to choosing a new class.
Oddly, the Mage class was well-suited to tanking. The Class passives alone ensured he’d be the one to soak up the damage and gain aggro. When linked up with a party, a Grey Mage took a percentage of all damage taken by party members, a number that increased with levels. At level 11, Shawn was getting hit with 15% of party damage. As a result, the optimal build revolved around Wisdom for mana regen and Constitution for a strong damage pool. Charisma was an automatic dump stat. No one really cared, and there was always a round of ale waiting for him and his party at the end of a raid.
As a result, self-heals were of equal importance to party heals. His buffs were narrow-focused with his go-to being a buff that equally absorbed damage and healed his damage for a set amount of hit points.
Sara broke into his reverie with an alert and said, “Clyde, you still with us? I’ve got Simon waiting for a party chat invite if you would.”
He started, adjusting himself against the back of the dive tub until he was sitting upright. “Right, firing off the invite now. Thanks, Sara.”
“You know it, boss.”
He sent off a googly-eyed emoji along with the party chat invite to their healer candidate.
“Simon, it’s good to have you. That’s an interesting class choice. How’d you come by it?”
Simon joined the chat, and after a moment longer than was comfortable answered, “That’s a long story. Can I save it for later?”
“Sure, sure. That’s nothing that can’t wait. Honestly, you’d be a great fit with our tank. Shawn also took an oddball class, one that Sara uncovered. He’s a Grey Mage, and he’s our tank. LOL. That always gets some odd looks in the middle of a raid”
Another longer than comfortable silence, a beat or two too long, and Simon responded, “I can see that. But the class description is interesting. Not quite a White Mage with the constant stream of heals and blessings. No, but that passive skill is wow, yeah, that’s interesting. Insta-heals substituting for armor, the game sees it the same and he aggros as well as any tank. Nice.”
“Thanks,” Shawn quips. “I’m Shawn, btw. Nice to meetcha. We’ve been having some problems with our healer. Hope you can fill the role, Monk, and maybe we’ll finally get past the damn Rat King.”
“Hi, Shawn. Nice build. Yeah, Sara’s been telling me about your Cleric issues. Guy definitely fits a fighter role better, heck, maybe even the Monk class I’m playing.”
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Sara seems surprised by that, interjecting, “Simon! You’re right. Why didn’t I think of that? I mean, I don’t want to step on your toes, and you shouldn’t feel threatened. OMG, that would be incredible! Imagine two Monks in our party.
Guys, I’ve got to go. Everyone make nice. I’ve gotta get back to Hugh. Honestly, he’s a little butthurt over the whole thing. He gets it. But still butthurt. Be back soon.”
He laughed and replied, “Go. It’s fine. We’ll all get acquainted. You did great.”
“LOL,” said Simon. “Thanks, Sara.”
“You go, girl,” Shawn threw in, already too late as Sara was gone from the party chat.
“Don’t rly wanna get into it but Monk was kinda pushed on me by my ex. No drama. It’s all in the past. But if I wanted to deal with a reroll, I’d choose this class again no questions, except maybe I’d take the Dark Monk path. It’s interesting. There’s more of a mana requirement, less strength and warrior there. From what I understand the Dark Monk chooses an entity with a dark alignment - nothing demonic, but maybe a lesser divinity with a dark side, you know what I’m saying? They pick up some useful dark-aligned spells and skills so you almost get a mage-monk-healer thing going, though with that kinda spread they’re not especially strong in any category.”
He relaxed against the dive tub again, falling into a relaxed-focused space as he thought about the possibilities such a class represented. While two Monks might be nice, it’s almost overkill. There’s no kill like overkill, he thought, laughing inwardly. Hugh might be a nice add to the party with a class like Dark Monk. Versatility over specialization, the more he thought about it the more it made sense.
“Mierda! That’s genius, Simon. Hold on, guys, gotta get with Sara.”
He focused and alerted Sara before ripping off a message: Sara, our new Monk is recommending Hugh consider Dark Monk and I agree. Pull up the class description with me and share with Hugh.
The Dark Monk is perfect for the young Jedi considering the dark side. Choose a side, young padawan! Sith may sound like a lizard hissing his sibilants, but it’s also a great place to find your inner badass and nurture the killer in you. Ichi has nothing on the Dark Monk and you never know what that dark entity you pledge your soul to will demand to show your everlasting loyalty. Honestly, the Dark Monk is probably more of a lone wolf, but he can get along with a group so long as their goals align. Murder and loot, that’s the operating principle of the Dark Monk - kinda like a goblin, really.
TBH, the perfect Dark Monk is likely a goblin. But anyhoo, where was I? Yeah, the Dark Monk is the perfect addition to a party focused on the traditional gamer’s goals of murder and loot, so welcome the dark disciple aboard without fear of betrayal or losing your life to a well-placed dagger in the back. The Dark Monk can buff a party with the dark blessings of their dark benefactor, heal with the power of the night, and kill with the blessings of their dark overlord. What’s not to love?
Pro tip: don’t do it. Never. I mean it. The Dark Monk is bad news. You will be sorry. No warranty, guarantee of satisfaction, or any implied assurance of satisfaction. We have warned you.
Hmmph. That was hardly a confidence builder. Still, there had to be a reason Simon had recommended this class. Had he been too impulsive in recommending this class without researching it? Yes, probably. Dark side sounded so cool he’d been onboard the moment he heard the Dark in Dark Monk. Dammit. He needed to learn to think before making decisions. Still, he didn’t want to come across as indecisive to the others. Better look into the fine details of the class.
The basic Monk was more a general spiritualist without divine blessings or infernal curses and emphasizing the physical boosts of the fighter aspect of the Monk class. Then there are the Dark and Light variants of the Monk class which gain boosts from the divinity (or, gods forbid, the infernal) entity to which they are pledged. A Dark Monk pledged to a suitable dark aligned entity has boosts equivalent to those gifted by a light aligned entity. It's really not a huge difference. The main differentiator is the alignment, and therefore the interests of the concerned entity. Honestly, a player-based party is nearly always going to be more aligned to the dark, or possibly neutrally aligned - murder and loot were the credo of player characters as well as goblins. It is vastly harder to play a light aligned character.
Now that he has abandoned his light aligned Paladin character class, he is seeing less downside to having a Dark Monk in their party. It all came down to the interests of the dark entity. If Hugh went Dark Monk and chose an entity that came into conflict with their party it could be a shitshow.
A quick alert and he had Sara’s attention.
“Yeah, boss. I’m talking to Hugh. You want me to bring him into the party chat?”
“Sure,” he agreed.
“Hey, Clyde. Sorry about the wipe, man. Totally my fault. But I’m onboard this re-roll thing. Great idea, and I’m seeing the benefits of the Dark Monk class. This could be great for me going forward.”
He winced, feeling the guilt of asking another player to re-roll. “Yeah, man, about that. I’d have kicked you to the curb except I’ve respect for the way you eat up all the damage of our rat friends. Honestly, man, you’re more tank than a healer. If I didn’t think you’d be a terrific member of this party, I wouldn’t be extending this offer to you. Wait, that doesn’t sound right. What I mean is, we all value you as a team member. Ya know, you just suck as a dedicated healer, dude.”
Hugh lolled and replied, “I get you, man. And I agree. I see red every time those damn rats start nibbling on one of our team members. So, yeah, I get it. Reroll, and I’ll take Dark Monk without a qualm. Really, I’ve gotta thank you, guys. This is an amazing opportunity. I’ve never even heard of the Monk class, and this is gonna be amazing. Sara has me fully on board, and I’m stoked to power-level with you guys.
“You don’t have to worry about me going anywhere, either. I can already sense where this thing is going and you know I’m all about the loot. We’re going places with this party, boss.”
He was taken aback by his teammates’ enthusiasm. He had expected a bit of snark, even some barely masked vitriol, but what he was getting was unabashed giddiness, almost like they had given the guy an unexpected present. This worked out far better than he would have thought possible. Maybe getting wiped that last time wasn’t the worst thing. This day was like waking up to a snow day when you thought it was a school day.
“All right, then! Let’s get this shit started. Hugh, you get with Sara and reroll your character. If I’m understanding your new class right, you need to concentrate on Willpower, Strength, and Constitution…hmm, but maybe put some ability points in Wisdom, too. Your choice of dark entities will be the biggest decision you make in the game. For you and the party. If you don’t mind, get with me and Sara before you make that choice. There’s a real chance of you going Judas with the wrong choice.”
Sara came back quickly with, “Yeah, Clyde, me and Hugh have been talking that one over for a while. There are a lot of dark entities he could go with, but only a few we’ve agreed upon that’ll be good for the party.”
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your thinking about this guys. The Dark Monk class sounds so cool I almost wanna re-roll myself, but the possibility of betrayal by a party member is scary AF. The last thing any of us need is an in-combat backstab by a member of our party.”
“Right,” she replied, “and so this is the shortlist of dark and malevolent deities we’ve come up with, boss.”
He mentally flicked his way through the list of entities, brushing past those starting with A, then those with names beginning with B. He really didn’t know what he was looking for, there were just so many names with their associated block of text summarizing the nature of the entity, the nature of the compact, and the skills and, sometimes, spells gained through the bond. He stopped near the bottom of the list of dark creatures with C names.
Cton The lesser vestige of an Elder God from the time before the current epoch, before humans were pulled from the aether and given form. Cton is a dark entity of chaos and, in the time of his power, it was focused on unraveling the secrets of dark magic. Cton rarely enters a compact with a human, seeing little use in such weak creatures. Of those few chosen by Cton all but one have ascended to great heights (or depths, depending on your perspective) of dark power, and have made tremendous impacts on the world. The most recent of the chosen of Cton was the high wizard of the last Emperor of Grangath, though his name was lost to history.
You should note that while access to dark magic is a sure path to power the simple fact that the names of Cton’s chosen are unknown in our time should be enough to give anyone pause.
Abilities: Dark Sight, Minor Drain Touch, Confusion, Lower Morale, Fear, Black Blade (or Fists), Pain (gain higher levels to expand list)
Spells: Instill Bloodlust, Berserker, Mana Drain, Ignore Exhaustion, Ignore Mind Effects, Ignore Pain
The benefits seemed obvious at a glance, and without examining the skills and spells in depth. Not only were the odds terrible for a match with the dark entity, but it seemed as this might place them pretty solidly in the bad guys camp. He was not sure about Sara or Shawn, but that had never appealed to him.
Moving on, he scrolled more slowly now that he’d seen the value in a compact with a dark entity, even with the risks involved. He saw the alert from Sara in the corner of his vision immediately and ticked it to bring her message into focus.
“Have you seen this one? Nasty stuff, but something tickles the back of my mind like maybe we should give it a closer look.”
Nyarlathotep Known as the Crawling Chaos, a straight-up rip from Lovecraftian nightmare, he is, unlike many of the elder dark gods and dark entities, active and walks the land in the guise of a tall, thin, ebon-skinned and humorous man, clad in a loose-fitting robe with wooden sandals that clicker and clatter upon the ground, even upon soggy, slurping mud. He cannot be trusted as it is said he wants for the eradication of all sentient races in the land. Conversely, he honors any compact he enters into to the absolute last letter. (Really, lawyer up - to the last letter.)
Abilities: Dark Sight, Mesmerize, Speak with the Dead, Cult Following, Despair, Insanity (gain higher levels to expand list)
Spells: Beseech the Gods, Summon Nyarlathotep’s Familiar, Hallucination
“I don’t know, Sara. These dark entities are kinda, no not kinda, they are scary as fuck. That said, I’m guessing most of those skills are amazing for crowd control. Those spells, though, what’s up with Beseech the Gods?”
Sara responded, “You want safe you shoulda stayed in the kiddie pool hah. This Nyarlathotep guy is some kind of messenger for the elder, really, really scary gods. Fortunately, most of them are supposedly asleep or at least not active in the land, so he’s pretty much on his own. But this power would allow our Dark Monk to call upon the power of one of these sleeping gods once a month, in-game time. There’s not much said about what that power would be but I mean it’s gotta be pretty badass for it to be a once a month spell, right?”
He nodded to himself before replying, “You know you’re right, Sara. I worry about side effects. Like what messing with this kind of dark power might have on Hugh, let alone what the consequences might be for our group.”
Shawn must have been listening in because he messaged, “Don’t be a pussy, Clyde. I’m liking this Dark Monk more and more. You both need to check these fuckers out.”
Shub-Niggurath A perverse fertility goddess, she appears as a stomach-turning mass of tentacles, mouths dripping with slime, and - most oddly - short, goat legs. Small, twisted creatures of darkness are constantly boiling forth from her miasmic form and being subsumed moments later. She is worshipped by many non-human races, druidic cults, and cults centered on blood sacrifice.
Abilities: Dark Sight, Perverse Tongue, Unending Despair, Unending Insanity (gain higher level to expand list)
Spells: Summon Perverse Creatures, A Perverse Goddess’ Blessing, End Life, Drain Life, Terror
The fertility goddess seemed more mana-intensive with only a few abilities listed (though more could apparently be had at higher levels). The trade-off seemed to be access to more powerful spells but with the Dark Monk’s smaller mana pool, accessing the spells would come less frequently than the less powerful innate abilities.
Yog-Sothoth Yog-Sothoth is a composite being composed of thirteen orbs each with their own identity. In order, they are Gomory, Zagan, Sytry, Eligor, Durson, Vual, Scor, Algor, Sefon, Partas, Gamor, Umbra, Anaboth.
Abilities: Dark Sight, Perverse Tongue
Spells: Perfect Knowledge (once a month), Infernal Gate, Resurrection
Wow. That was it. There was nothing else. The power implied by these few short words had Clyde gobsmacked. He didn’t know how to respond. What the hell had they stumbled upon in these short moments since being forced back into the real world outside of their dive tubs? This class alone was game-changing. Their weakest player could suddenly transform into their most potent overnight. Hell, these revelations had him reconsidering his own class choice. Should he re-roll his character? What about his promises to Hugh? The more he thought about the possibilities this class offered the less he felt willing to share with the Cleric that had led to his team wiping over and over.
He PM’d Sara, “Sara, I don’t know about this. Hugh is a good guy, but he’s not part of our core group. We’d be handing him more power than the rest of us can bring combined. I don’t know if this is such a good idea anymore.”
“Pfft, Clyde. You’re getting greedy, aren’t you?”
He could hear the snickers even through the party chat. “You effin know it, babe. This. This is too big to waste on a guy we’ve only partied with for, what, the last week?”
Her pause was a little too long, but she responded with, “You’re probably right, boss man. Dammit. What do I tell Hugh? I’ve already given him the heads-up with the Dark Monk class.”
“Shit. Yeah. Fuck. Let me think.”
There was no way in hell he’d let a new party member take this class. He couldn’t stop him; not really. But Dark Monk was too much of a wild card to go to the former Cleric. The core group was solid. There was a trust there built up over time, even though none of them had ever met in real life. They knew each other, whether goofing off or reacting fast in the heat of battle and afterward when there was loot to split, the trust was there. They knew each other like siblings or lovers.
“Sara, there’s no real alternative. Tell Hugh we’re happy to have him in the party and support him in his reroll, as promised, but a solid no to the Dark Monk class. There are too many variables and too little time to process. Encourage him to go straight Monk and sweeten the deal with some tasty equips. If we have nothing in the guild vault, we’ll offer to put some coin in the mix, say, up to 10,000 gold on class appropriate gear.”
“Will do,” Sara said, “but keep in mind the repercussions if you suddenly show up as a Dark Monk. Maybe wait on that reveal, okay?”
“You’re right again, Sara.”
“Hey! Don’t I get a say in this,” Shawn interjected.
“NO!” Sara and Clyde responded at the same time.
“Fine,” Shawn harrumphed. “But don’t blame me when this shit goes pear-shaped.”