Novel Two - Excerpt One

Okay, so here's an excerpt from the novel I'm currently working on (tentatively entitled "Clans of the Highborn - Raiding Group" which I know, I know needs a lot of work). The idea here is that I'm going to take the "shared world" concept that a few other authors I know of have made use of in the past and save myself a bunch of time and effort by reusing the game I psuedo-designed for my NaNo novel as the setting for this one as well. This novel, though, concentrates more on the PvE and out-of-game side of things so it almost completely ignores everything in the first (called "Clans of the Highborn - Development Cycle" at the moment, in my head if no where else) beyond all that development work that went into creating a world for my character's to inhabit. Anyhow, the book features a group of players who have a more or less informal raiding group/clan - they quest and adventure together through the high-end stuff, basically, and then things happen to them. The following excerpt is basically the first time they all get together and go on an adventure together (To one of the later dungeons in the game known as Tornsky Mesa - place where the boundary lines between reality and unreality are said to get a little hazy.). Some of them know each other previously, some of them are meeting the others for the first time but it's the founding of their particular community. I wrote this basically to get a feeling for how the characters would interact together so I'm not sure if it's going to make it into the book or not.

B: Lise?

L: Ready.

M: Oooh, what pet is that?

L: It’s a raven.

B: Frank?

M: Where’d you get it? I could use a pet. I’d have to respec to Call of the Wild first but I’ve heard they can really help out when you tank.

F: Ready. They do a lot, Meadow. My bear’s saved many a party by sucking up the agro.

L: From the Tree Walker Crone’s quest on Eternal Isle. It only shows up once every 100 times that quest is run so it’s really rare.

M: Wow, that’s super lucky then.

H: What bonuses does it have?

F: Yeah, it’s one of the five rarest pets. Those things can go for a mint. Koala’s sell for the most, though.

L: I’m keeping this one, thanks. I just like the look of it.

F: Oh yeah, I’m just saying.

L: It gives me +1 to Int.

H: That’s not much. Owl’s are a +3 aren’t they?

F: Eldrich Owls from the Yuda, yeah.

L: Well, it also gives me a Night Vision spell that lets me see when it’s dark out. It saves me a lot on torches.

H: I guess that’s nice. Rather have the stat bonus myself.

M: You can’t even have a pet, silly!

R: So where is this place we’re headed?

B: Here, you form up group Hiro Phant.

R: Me?

F: Yeah, that’s the whole reason you’re here, dude. The Spirit Totem at the end of the path depends on the class of the party’s leader. They’re designed to mess up people of that class so the sorc’s is pure melee. Get close to you and snares you and pounds on you until your dead, basically, so it’s the easiest of the five. All we’ll have to do is keep it rooted and we can plink it to death. So we need you in the lead.

R: Gotcha. Does the order matter at all?

H: Sorcerer’s suck. This dungeon’s the only reason people ever play them.

M: You’re playing a secondary sorc!

B: Just put Awesome Heals For You at the bottom.

H: I just use Sorcerer for the mana orbing.

F: Sorcerer’s have got the best management and Monks have the most need for mana. A lot of Monkeys use sorc as their seconds.

H: Sores can get a lot of mana but they don’t have anything to use it on because all their skills are so bad.

R: Heh, yeah, I just use Adept stuff most of the time.

H: Oh? You should have said.

R: I can change if you want. Most of the time a party can use a second healer, though, right?

B: Are you heals or what?

F: Eh, for Dreamtime Path the best way to go is a single healer. There’s really not all that much damage if you can pull right. And don’t worry, I’ve got that completely covered.

M: Pull wrong and you’ll be swarmed though. We never *have* made it past the second trial.

F: What, that’s my fault?

M: No, I’m just saying that maybe some more healing isn’t such a bad idea. What else is the sorc going to do?

R: I’m speced for Defense. The big costs don’t bother me with all my mana and they don’t depend on the bonus heals to actually do things.

B: That can work.

H: Yeah, I’m built hybrid right now but if you can handle the buffing…

R: Sure, I do it all the time. It really helps out a lot more than some of the other lame stuff I can do.

F: And you’ve got plenty of mana management for it, too, that makes a lot of sense actually.

R: Thanks. Wish I could take credit for it but I just saw it on some post somewhere and thought it sounded good.

H: I’ll go for straight power healing then. Give me a few here.

M: Big green numbers make me incredibly happy.

B: Anyone else want to make any changes?

L: No, I’m good.

M: I’m set.

F: No, sir!

R: Group’s all set I’m just waiting on Heals and Justice to accept my invitations.

H: Soon as I respec, can’t do that when you’re in a group.

L: Julia must be afk again.