[SP-F3] Search for the Hoya - Quest - COMPLETE!!

[Mack 0]

Mack stood in the center of Delilah Village considering a message board to which people had tacked various bits of information and desires. Really, the board wasn't much more than a useless jumble of competing information. But, for the players that were willing to spend a little time standing in the bright sunshine of the third floor to sort through the confusing and disorganized jumble, there were bits of information that could prove useful. Including a little blurb of information concerning the treasure at the center of the forest of the wavering mists. Two minotaurs, a unique amulet, and whatever other loot could be gathered while trekking around an enchanted forest that randomly screamed. No doubt plenty of players avoided the area like the plague, but at his level Mack was unconcerned. Shouldering Guillotine, the blonde warrior headed off for the flowery trestle gate of Delilah Village.

Edited September 1, 2015 by Mack

[Mack 0]

Traipsing out of Delilah Village, Mack turned in the direction of the Forest of Wavering Mists and began to walk. Really, there was nothing else for it. He had yet to see anyone else in the game riding a horse and Chewie, the grizzly bear, was still just a cub and completely unsuitable for riding. For the better part of the day, Mack walked in the direction of the forest, working to avoid engaging any of the computer generated beasts in any kind of battles. Fighting the bison, while useful for harvesting crafting materials, would only serve to slow the blonde warrior down and, therefore, slow his completion of the quest for the Hoya amulet, though why Mack was after an amulet with no special powers or abilities and which was something more suitable as a gift for the lady paramour he didn't have was quite beyond his ability to comprehend.

[Mack 0]

ID: 29000
BD: 10 (9+1)
MD: 5
Mack: 51/51
Minotaur: 17/26 (-9 Dam.)

As he entered the Forest of Wavering Mist the sounds of distantly echoed screams and wails reached the ears of the burly warrior. Wholly unperturbed by the spooky nature of the forest, especially given that he was a level nineteen player running around in a level three forest for the sheer purpose of tackling a low level quest to get the Skill Point reward, Mack merely activated the face mask that was part of his snowy white armor and pulled the hooded cowl up over his blonde head before plunging into the forest.

Sensing that they were outclassed by the warrior in their midst, the mobs wisely kept their distance and Mack was allowed to reach the Tomb of King Minos, his goal, uncontested. The tomb itself had clearly seen better and nicer days. The stonework was crumbling and in a bad state of disrepair, overgrown with a sickly looking blackish hanging moss. On each side it was flanked by a Minotaur Warrior that was slightly bigger than Mack himself was and which was wielding a two-handed axe like the blonde warrior's own Guillotine. 

Unslinging his bearded axe from its place on his back, Mack marched forward for the entrance to the tomb. Just before he could pass between the bullish sentinels, they crossed the blades of their weapons to block his path. In a single fluid motion, Mack exploded forward with Guillotine, driving the weapon's butt cap into the solar plexus of the guard on the right before shifting his grip so that his right hand would be protected by the bearded head of the weapon before he delivered a powerful right cross to the side of the minotaur's head that snapped the creature's head to one side as it dislodged several teeth.

"You will not deny me entry," the axe-man snarled in a low gutteral tone.

[Mack 0]

ID: 29001
BD: 8 (7+1)
MD: 9
Mack: 48/51 (-3 Dam., Mit. 2)
Minotaur: 6/26 (-7 Dam., -2 Bleed, -2 Thorns)

As it turned out, Minotaurs weren't all that fond of being drilled in the face with the blade of a bearded axe. The bullish beast hauled its own axe back over its head and brought it slamming down towards Mack. The blonde man managed to get the haft of Guillotine around to block the blow, but only just barely. The sheer force of the attack drove the burly warrior to a knee. Then the minotaur followed through on its attack by driving its right knee squarely into Mack's face. The face mask that was part of Angelic Sheath did a reasonable job of protecting against some of the damage, but the hulking axe-man was still knocked flat on his back.

As he began the process of getting back to his feet, Mack swung Guillotine around in a wide sweeping movement over his body. The blade of the axe head bit deep into the Minotuar, which was still suffering from the bleed damage that had been inflicted on it by Mack's opening strike with the bearded axe when he'd tried to gain entry to the Tomb of Minos. As he got back to his feet, Mack released his grip on the axe with his left hand and made a come and get it gesture towards the bull-man with his hand. One more solid attack would finish off the beast, as Mack had already driven it down into the red.

[Mack 0]

ID: 29004, 29005
BD: 11 (10+1)
MD: 4, 6
Mack: 46/51 (-2 Dam, 2 mit.)
Minotaur: 2/26 (-2 Bleed, -2 Thorns)
Minotaur: 17/26 (-9 Dam.)

This quest was too easy. Where was the challenge? Where was the difficulty? Sure, the two skill points were worth it, but the item would be much less worth it. As the Minotaur Mack had attacked stood there bleeding from its mouth wound, Mack charged the second of the beasts and slammed the bladed head of Guillotine into the side of its head with a full force horizontal swing. The force of the impact snapped the second guardian's head around and actually put out one of the beast's eyes, the socket of which began to bleed freely. Meanwhile, the first Minotaur delivered a punch to the back of the blonde warrior's head, knocking him to the side and out of the path of the second minotaur's axe, then bellowed in rage when it was stung by thorns from the Angelic Sheath. Readying Guillotine, Mack growled his own challenge at the two beasts and waited for them to make the next move.

[Mack 0]

ID: 29009, 29010
BD: 7 (6+1)
MD: 5, 6
Mack: 44/51 (-2 Dam., 2 Mit.)
Minotaur: 0/26 (-2 Thorns)
Minotaur: 8/26 (-7 Dam, -2 Bleed)

The minotaur that Mack had initially attacked saw its opening and it seized it. The beast charged forward and swung its battleaxe. Mack swung the haft of Guillotine into line to block the attack, but since he had no ranks in Parry he took the full force of the attack and he was forced back several feet as the minotaur flinched from the thorns damage and shattered in a shower of pixels. "One down, one to go," he growled, turning his focus on the second minotaur as it swung its axe. As the bull man's attack came in Mack leaned neatly back out of the way and the blade sailed well wide of its target. Charging in behind the beast's backswing, Mack blasted the minotaur with Guillotine for a second time, driving the wedge shaped head of the weapon home into the creature's ribs.

[Mack 0]

ID: 29016
BD: 7 (6+1)
MD: 4
Mack: 44/51
Minotaur: -1/26 (-7 Dam., -2 Bleed)

As he ripped the blade of Guillotine free from the minotaur's ribs Mack stepped forward into the beast and slammed his shoulder forcefully into it, rocking even the massive bull man back on its heels. That tiny opening was all Mack needed. The blade of Guillotine whirled in the hands to the blonde warrior, twisting through a lethal arc that ended with the blade of the weapon embedded in the skull of the minotaur. The creature twitched, a thin trickle of blood still creeping from its mouth, then it exploded in a shower of pixels around Mack, freeing the axe head of Guillotine. "Guardians? More like pansies," the blacksmith grumbled, shouldering the axe and heading down into the tomb.

[Mack 0]

ID: 29070
LD: 8

Descending into the tomb proper, Mack stood silently just inside the subterranean doorway giving his storm grey eyes a moment to adjust to the lower light settings of the tomb itself. On the whole, Minos' tomb was still a fairly impressive final resting place. Eight stone columns made of granite, slightly cracked, supported the weight of the tomb's roof while Minos' coffin was on a raised plinth in the middle of the room, a plinth that looked like it was made of solid gold. Pretty, but completely impractical for weapons. Gold was far too soft a metal to be truly useful in combat outside of ornamentation. Descending down the dozen or so stairs into the tomb proper Mack began to look for items to look while his health bar slowly built back up to full.

[Mack 0]

ID: 29272
LD: 5

As his health bar continued to slowly build itself back up to full, Mack continued to wander around the tomb of King Minos. As he moved slowly and warily through the tomb, ready for a trap to spring at any moment, the blonde warrior kept Guillotine at the ready and slowly inspected the stonework of the tomb. Surely, in a place like this, there had to be some kind of hidden or secret room from which additional loot could be gathered. Unfortunately, as he circled the tomb it became increasingly clear that there were no hidden rooms, passages, or any additional loot. He was up on the fourth floor, who designed a dungeon up here for low level players that didn't have additional loot?

[Mack 0]

ID: 29383
BD: 11 (10+1)
MD: 5
Mack: 53/53
Minos: 41/50 (-9 Dam.) - (Minos Base Dam. = 6)

Deciding that upsetting the actual tomb of Minos was, most probably, the only way to find the amulet that he was seeking, Mack proceeded cautiously to the heavy stone slab that covered the plinth that housed the coffin of the legendary king of mythology. Placing both of his large hands on the stone slab, Mack grunted and shoved the slab off of the plinth. The ornate and heavily carved slab slid free of the tomb, when Mack put his back into it, and it fell to the ground with a mighty crash, shattering into pieces before disappearing in a shower of pixels. 

Peering over the lip of the plinth, Mack's storm grey eyes were greeted by the cold malevolent ruby-eyed stare of Minos. Mack had known the minotaurs had been far too easy to dispatch to be the only bosses in the tomb. As Minos sat up in his stone tomb, Mack took a small step back and brought Guillotine up over his head. Just as Minos' gold crowned head was appearing over the lip of the stone plinth, Mack swung the bearded axe in a powerful overhanded chop. The carbon steel blade of the weapon bit deep into the top of Minos' skull, dislodging a tarnished silver crown from his head.

As he emerged fully into the light, Mack could say that it wasn't truly Minos that he faced. The waxy, sallow, yellowed skin of the monster's face made it clear that Minos was some kind of zombie or mummy or draugr, or something similarly undead. Regardless, Mack would kill it. Growling, he ripped the blade of the axe free from Minos' skull as the man continued to extricate himself from his tomb.

[Mack 0]

ID: 29400
MD: 10
BD: 6 (5+1)
Mack: 47/53 (-6 Dam., 2 Mit.)
Minos: 30/50 (-7 Dam., -2 Bleed, -2 Thorns)

As the undead version of King Minos was slowly extricating itself from its tomb, Mack took the opportunity to strike at the creature for a second time as he was still climbing out of the tomb. Growling, he swung Guillotine horizontally across his body in a standard slashing attack as some kind of dark colored ichor oozed from the wound in Minos' head. The hardened steel head of the weapon scythed through the air and slammed hard into Minos' chest, burying itself deep into whatever it was that passed for flesh on the creature. As Mack was starting to rip the blade of the axe free from the king, Minos wrapped both hands around the haft of the bearded axe. There was a sharp electric jolt and what sounded like an explosion and Mack, still convulsively clutching Guillotine, was hurled backwards across the stone interior of the tomb to slam into one of the tomb's support pillars. As he looked up, shaking his head to clear the cobwebs, he saw a small purple window flashing that said "Immortal Object". 

"No kidding," the blonde warrior said, getting back to his feet to face off with Minos again.

[Mack 0]

ID: 29413
BD; 7 (6+1)
MD: 9
Mack: 43/53 (-5 Dam., 2 Mit.)
Minos: 19/50 (-7 Dam., -2 Bleed, -2 Thorns)

As he picked himself up off of the ancient cracked stone floor of Minos' tomb, Mack shook his head a few times to clear it and then locked his storm grey eyes on Minos' form. As he settled on his target, the soldier's eyes narrowed dangerously and his lip curled. So, the programmers had thought to place a boss at the end of the quest that was an actual challenge, at least there would be some experience points to be gained from the quest now. So much the better. Regarding his enemy for a moment, Mack rolled his head around on his neck with an audible pop and then he spat on the ground inside the tomb. Swinging Guillotine easily in his hands, the hulking blonde man charged across the distance separating himself and Minos as the king finally completed his work to remove himself from his tomb. With a savage growl, Mack swung his bearded axe in an overhanded chop and buried the blade deep in the Minos creature's shoulder. Once again, the King had only to reach up and wrap its fingers around the haft of Mack's weapon. The blonde warrior was again launched backwards, following a discharge of electricity, like a rag doll to slam against the exact same pillar in the tomb once again.

[Mack 0]

ID: 29425
BD: 11 (10+1)
MD: 4
Mack: 43/53 
Minos: 10/50 (-9 Dam.)

Picking himself up off of the ground again, Mack shook his head once again to clear the cobwebs before swinging Guillotine into position to attack Minos once again. He growled from somewhere low in his throat. He'd had just about enough of being hurled through the air by Minos' lightning attack. It was time to get more creative in his attacks and not to give the ancient king a chance to get his hands on Mack's weapon to blast him with that stupid attack. Mack wasn't sure if it was a standard attack that the boss had, or simply thorns jacked up to ridiculous proportions.

With a bellowed cry of rage, the blonde axe-man charged across the distance that separated him from the King. Putting everything behind the blow, Mack swung Guillotine across his body and slammed it into the side of King Minos' head with enough force that the head was knocked completely from the zombie creature's shoulders. The King's now headless body went stumbling after the limb and, upon retrieving it, the beast promptly rammed it back onto its shoulders. The only difference was that the head was now facing backwards compared to the rest of the body.

[Mack 0]

ID: 29704
BD: 3 (2+1)
MD: 3
Mack: 43/53 
Minos: 8/50 (-2 Bleed)

Seeing that the head of Minos was facing away from him, given that the zombie creature had replaced it upon its shoulders backwards, Mack charged in with Guillotine raised, prepared to deliver the final strike that would take the boss' health meter from being in the red, where it currently was, to being completely gone. Drawing the blade back as he charged in again, Mack swung it in a wide horizontal arc at the same time as Minos lunged forward to try and punch him. The blonde axe man managed to twist to one side out of the way of the strike, but that also caused Mack to miss with his own swing which sailed well wide of the intended target.

[Mack 0]

ID: 29714
BD: 7 (6+1)
MD: 5
LD: 19
Mack: 43/53 
Minos: -2/50 (-8 Dam., -2 Bleed)

Righting himself after having dodged Minos' most recent attack, Mack tightened his grip around the leather wrapped mahogany haft of Guillotine, spinning to face his enemy once more. Minos' zombie also turned to face Mack at the same time or, at least, the zombie's body turned to face him since its head was still rammed on backwards. Stepping forward, the blonde warrior drew back the bladed head of Guillotine and sent the axe twirling around in a lethal arc to slam into the creature's neck for a second time. There was another geyser of ichor and, this time, the zombie form of Minos collapsed to the ground completely and twitched though, interestingly, it did not immediately dissolve into pixels. Mack toed the body with one of his white booted feet and a health potion dislodged itself and rolled free which he scooped up and added to his inventory.

REWARDS:

+3 Mats (2 Spent)
+1 Basic Healing Potion

[Mack 0]

ID: 29727, 29738-40
LD: 20, 7, 3, 7

When he had finished toeing and prodding at the remains of Minos' zombie body with the butt cap of Guillotine, Mack made his way cautiously over to what had, until recently, been the mythological king's sacred tomb. Reaching the lip of the stone plinth Mack cautiously peered over the side, his stone grey eyes sweeping the sarcophagus to see what else might be inside. To his surprise, and general pleasure, there was a giant lump of metal ore sitting in one of the corners of the coffin. Tapping it with a finger, Mack was pleased to see that it was labeled as a crafting material. Outstanding, a bit more loot for him to take and make his own. Grabbing the item, he added it to his inventory.

REWARDS:

+4 Mats (2 Spent)
+1 5 pt Healing Potion

[Mack 0]

ID: 29746
LD: 7

"Where's the damned amulet," Mack muttered to himself, searching all over Minos' sarcophagus for the thing. It had to be there somewhere, it simply had to be. When he couldn't find it in the coffin itself, the burly blonde man resumed his search of the mausoleum proper. The quest item had to be around here somewhere, he was just rooting around for the second time in the corner of the stone encased room that was farthest from the still undissolved remains of Minos when a low, chilling howl swept through the room and the remains began to stir once more. Turning and squinting in that direction, Mack's eyes widened slightly as he saw the spectral form of the ancient king rising above the corpse and slowly becoming semi-corporeal. Around its neck dangled the amulet that was the object of the quest.

"Son of a..." Quickly activating his inventory, Mack found the health potion he had received from Minos' zombie corpse and materialized it in his hands before quaffing it in one long pull before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Back for round two, I see..."

Edited September 1, 2015 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 29791
MD: 9
BD: 2
Mack: 45/53 (-5 Dam.)
Ghost: 50/50

As the spectral form of Minos solidified Mack dove headfirst into the sarcophagus that had, formerly, been occupied by Minos. As he landed in the coffin the smell of ozone filled the blonde warrior's nostrils. Suddenly, there was a crack like a cannon going of and the coffin was blasted into pieces around Mack from some kind of lightning bolt attack that had been launched by the spirit. Hopefully, that attack would have a little bit of a cooldown on it before it could be used again. Still, the sheer force of the impact propelled the axe man backwards on his back, skidding for several feet on the mausoleum for several feet before he came to a stop.

[Mack 0]

ID: 29795
BD: 11 (10+1)
MD: 4
Mack: 45/53
Ghost: 38/50 (-10 Dam., -2 Thorns) - Forgot the Thorns last turn, Ghost has Base Dam. 6

"So, that's the way it's gonna be," the blonde axe man growled, picking himself up off of the ground while using Guillotine as a sort of modified crutch to help him get back to his feet as he shook his head a few times to regain his bearings. Snarling like an angry, and larger, version of his familiar Chewie, Mack stromed across the distance separating him from the semi-corporeal Ghost of King Minos. As he charged across the intervening distance between himself and his enemy he readied Guillotine for a strike and when he reached striking distance on his foe he tomahawked the bladed head of the weapon over his head and brought it slamming down into the left shoulder of the creature, tearing it free and leaving a spectral silver trail of blood in its wake.

[Mack 0]

ID: 29798
BD: 8 (7+1)
MD: 9
Mack: 40/53 (-5 Dam.)
Ghost: 26/50 (-8 Dam., -2 Thorns, -2 Bleed)

As Mack ripped the blade of Guillotine free from the spectral shade's shoulder the blonde warrior drew the weapon back again before quickly swinging it laterally across his chest to slam it into the rib cage of the creature. Had it been something real, living, and alive there would have been the sharp crack of breaking bones. As it was, there was only a rather disgusting sounding wet squelch as Mack went to continue pulling the blade of the weapon all the way through the spectral beast. Just as the weapon was about to complete its journey through the chest cavity the ghost's hands wrapped around the haft of the weapon and there was a sharp discharge of electricity before the warrior was sent rocketing across the room again to slam into the immortal object that was ons of the support pillars.