Exodus: Guns And Gore 3 Careful Planning

*Authors Note*

The foreword and Character Glossary has been moved to the Supplementary Section. The Clocktower was moved to chapter one and the new chapter two was released yesterday.

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QJ decided to head to the Ravenwood home, less chance of falling asleep when reading. He grabbed a virtual c.o.ke out of the fridge and sat at the kitchen island. "Leah you home?"

"No one here QJ... at least no one who can help you." The Spider Queen lowered herself upside-down from the ceiling. Angel stared at him, her warm green eyes smiling. The lower half of her body was an arachnid, her legs were covered with soft brown fur.

QJ hid his smile, "you going to eat me, Angel?"

Angel nodded, her light brown hair was tied into a single braid. Without warning, she changed into her Ba'Avriel form and landed nimbly on her feet. "Doubler Canyon?" Her face was lit with interest, she was already playing GnG.

LAI's (Low Artificial Intelligence) could enter directly into any Exodus game as long as they were Exodus compliant. They entered as NPCs, so they were stuck with whatever abilities they originally possessed.

QJ laid down the handout Miss Chi had given him and started reading it. It was mostly old news, but in the interest of being thorough, he read it anyway. Angel threw an arm around his shoulders and leaned against him.

Guns and Gore

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Guns and Gore is a grouping/raid based game where players unite under a single banner to defeat bosses and do quests. Raid numbers are specific to the raid, the smallest raid in GnG is ten, while the largest is sixty. Double Canyon is a mid-level raid that requires 30 players at level thirty. There are two factions you can play, Western and Aborigine. The difference between the two are mostly cosmetic. The two factions can play together. There are a total of twelve cla.s.ses in five categories, six from each faction.

DPS: Western-Range Rider & Gunfighter.

Range Riders (Rider): Specialize in long range damage, they have several enhanced movement skills designed to create distance between themselves and their target.

Gunslingers (Slinger): Specialize in up close damage with one or two pistols. They are capable hand-to-hand fighters and posses a low-level snare to slow down targets.

DPS: Aborigine-Brave & Tracker.

Brave: Mid-range burst damage dealer, they have several AE options (Area Effect), and can burn down their target very quickly.

Tracker: Up close and personal damage, this cla.s.s dual wields hatchets or knives. They also can equip shotguns and explosive devices.

Heals: Western-Field Medic.

Field Medic (Medic): Best heals in the game, although they lack the buffing/debuffing of their counterpart.

Heals: Aborigine

Shaman (Shammy): At high levels, their slows and haste can make the difference in the game. They have several tricks they can use to keep their team healed.

Pulls/Stealth: Western

Wrangler: The Wrangler has a single point pull ability that can pull a mob out of a crowd without causing aggro. This ability makes them a mainstay in high-end groups.

Pulls/Stealth: Aborigine

Scout: The scout has a complete stealth ability that enables it to operate deep into the aggro zone, they have a three-second Crowd Control (CC) ability called flutter that helps them when things get hot.

Tank: Western

Heavy Cavalry (Cav): Can wear heavy armor and equip any close range gun or melee weapon. Their AE taunt, Battle Cry, is the best in the game.

Tank: Aborigine

Comanchero (Chero): Melee tank can only equip medium armor, but their high agility rating gives them the highest defense in the game. Their single point taunt cannot be resisted.

All-Purpose: Western

Gambler: Gamblers are the jack-of-all-trades. They can fill in for any cla.s.s including heals.

All-Purpose: Aborigine

Raider: Raiders are also jack-of-all-trades. Unlike their counterpart, they have buffs instead of heals. Their coveted Raider's Way is an attack buff that stacks with everything.

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QJ smiled at the head on his shoulder, she was snoring softly. Gently he woke her up. "How did the takeover go?"

Angel yawned sleepily, "epic fail, the Ant Queen was too strong."

"You are playing on the Legend Server right?" Legend was the original GnG server, the players and monsters there were very strong.

Angel nodded, "not my best idea, which is why I'm heading to the new server. I'll challenge her before she's had the chance to grow."

QJ shook his head, she was literally moving in on the Ant Queen. "Good luck!"

Angel gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, "yep, cya!"

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QJ finished reading just as Ren & Robin walked in through the front door. Robin couldn't keep the smile off her face when she saw Ren's little brother. She followed Ren into the kitchen.

"Hey, guys!" QJ sat the paper down and took a sip of his c.o.ke, Robin sat on one side of him while his sister sat on the other.

"Heya Squirt." Ren grinned at him as she helped herself to a drink of his beverage. "What you doing?" Her slim avatar was the same one she used since she started playing, she was still actively playing TAP and was one of the few rogues over one hundred.

"Working on the Doubler Canyon Raid." QJ gritted his teeth, trying to keep a straight face as he felt Robin's foot caress the inside of his leg.

Robin's light orange hair was tied up in a bun. Her dark eyes were full of mischief. "Sounds complicated hun."

Robin had started paying extra attention to QJ after his eighteenth birthday. Mostly it was harmless flirting, but she wasn't above stealing a kiss if she felt like it.

QJ s.h.i.+fted slightly in his chair, "Might have bitten off more than I can chew..."

"Back early QJ?"

All three of them turned to see Tal walk in through the back door. She had a fis.h.i.+ng pole in one hand and a bucket in the other. Her pretty blue eyes glanced at them, "seems like a party."

Robin immediately dropped her foot, she wouldn't dare mess around when Tal was home. "Hi Tal," Robin folded her hands in front of her and smiled at the blonde engineer as she walked into the kitchen.

Ren stood up and gave her mom a kiss. "QJ is getting ready for Doubler Canyon!"

"Doubler Canyon?" Tal glanced at her son, she couldn't look at him without smiling. She opened up her hud and an instant later Quinn's face popped up, he had a fis.h.i.+ng pole slung over one shoulder. "Come on home Little Q, your son needs some help."

He was already walking home, he had been fis.h.i.+ng with Tal, but had fallen asleep in the warm Ravenwood sun. When he woke she was gone. "Yep, be there in a bit Tal."

Ren shook her head at Quinn's image, he totally looked like he just woke up, "catch any big ones?"

Quinn frowned, "fis.h.i.+ng is about enjoying yourself, not about catching the biggest fish."

Ren laughed, her pretty face lighting up. "That's very enlightened."

Quinn disappeared from the hud and a moment later they heard movement from the back door. He scooped up Tal as soon as he came into the kitchen, kissing her soundly before putting her down.

"That's how a man is supposed to greet his wife!" Ren grinned at him, although separated by five years, he had been her best friend since the day she had met him.

Quinn grabbed a beer from the fridge and took the chair next to Robin, he leaned over and peered at the sheet. "This an a.s.signment?"

QJ shook his head and then explained the events of the day.

Quinn leaned back in his chair staring at his son, "Oh G.o.d... you let a school teacher beat you in a quickdraw contest? So embarra.s.sing..."

QJ felt his face heating up, "I won the second time!"

Quinn jumped when he felt a pinch at his side, Tal was frowning at him. He winked at her and stopped his teasing. "Let me see your raid sheet."

QJ handed it to him, his dad had done the raid nearly a hundred times. He figured out things that stumped really smart people.

Quinn stared at the sheets for a few minutes. "A group of noobs with this layout? It's wipe city QJ, at least with the conventional tactic."

QJ studied the map closely, it was a canyon in the shape of a four leaf clover. Bosses and sub-bosses sp.a.w.ned in the center, while adds sp.a.w.ned at the edges and then ran toward the middle. Typically you'd have eight range dps, two at the base of each leaf to stop their progress. "We don't have enough range dps, we've four really good shooters including myself."

Quinn nodded, "yep. So what's the fix?"

"We'll have to make do with four." QJ rotated the map and zoomed out, "wait... what if we put two shooters here and two more here? Each shooter could take a lane."

Quinn smiled at his son, he was getting close. "Instead of putting them at the base and facing backward, you'll put them higher up and have them shoot across the middle to the far two lanes. What's the problem with that?"

QJ pursed his lips while he continued to study the map. "Range... The carbines we'll be equipped with are accurate to three hundred meters, we'll need closer to five hundred."

Quinn watched his son, "Let's come back to that if you solve that issue, what does it buy you?"

QJ looked up, "usually there are four secondary healers keeping the eight range dps guys alive. So we should gain four healers and four mid-range dps."

Quinn nodded, "which completely changes things. What's the biggest problem facing noobs in a raid?"

The younger Quinn sighed, his dad would keep asking questions until QJ figured it out. "Positioning maybe?"

"Yep...if you free up eight people, they won't have to rotate." Quinn felt Tal elbow him in the side, "freeing up those eight people makes this raid doable."

QJ eyes lit up, "Springfields! If we can upgrade to Springfield rifles, that will bring our range to five hundred meters."

Quinn rolled his eyes at the younger Quinn. "Took you way too long to figure that out."

QJ grinned at his dad and accessed the quartermaster weapon loadout. "Upgrading to Springfields will cost me two hundred and fifty points each."

Quinn laughed at the look on his son's face, "so four Springfield rifles will cost you all the points you won."

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Nearly six hours later QJ was enjoying a relaxing swim in the Raven River. He had sent all of his cla.s.s detailed plans regarding their individual a.s.signments. Then he had spent four more hours answering their questions via his hud. Without the constant s.h.i.+fting, it was a straight-forward raid. As long as the four range dps could cover the lanes, the main body should be able to take down the bosses. There were a total of six sub-bosses that sp.a.w.ned one after another, in the end, the last two main bosses sp.a.w.ned at the same time.

"We probably won't make it." QJ laid back in the water, floating peacefully while the sun started to set.

"Won't make what bro?" Sara splashed into the water, her white swimsuit clas.h.i.+ng with her dark elf skin as she dived under the water. She swam up to QJ, giving him a quick kiss before splas.h.i.+ng him.

"Oi brat!!" QJ chased her in the water, splas.h.i.+ng her while she retreated, suddenly QJ felt a pair of arms on his shoulders pus.h.i.+ng him down. He surfaced to find Sasha had joined them, where one was, the other was sure to follow. He grabbed his leg grimacing, "that really hurt Sash."

The pretty redhead blushed as she rushed toward him, "I'm sorry QJ, I was playing!" Too late she realized her mistake as QJ grabbed her and dunked her upside down in the water.

She surfaced quickly, coughing and sputtering, "you sneak!" She chased him downstream, laughing and cursing while she threatened him repeatedly.

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The three siblings lay on the dock a while later, laughing and resting as they chatted.

"How was your first day?" Sara hand an arm looped through his, her white hair was pulled back in a ponytail.

"Great! I'm loving it, my homeroom teacher is awesome and I made some friends." QJ spent the next half an hour telling them the details.

Sasha was leaning over her sister, huddling for warmth as the night air began to cool. "Your homeroom teacher sounds pretty nice."

QJ accessed his inventory and gave them each a fluffy towel. "You should take towels with you!"

Sara nodded, "that's what our moms keep saying. We keep forgetting."

Sasha dried her wet hair while looking at her brother, she had been upset when he stopped going to the Fora Academy. "Have you heard the latest?"

Sara's eyes widened as she put a hand over her sister's mouth. "Hey... we aren't even supposed to know!"

QJ leaned forward, a well-known fact, Sasha couldn't keep a secret. "Spill it Sash."

Sasha pushed her sister's hand away and leaned forward. "Seems all of our moms got together and decided that Dad has kept Lara Sy waiting long enough."

QJ blinked in surprise, "wait, he's finally going to? I'm not sure Dad feels that way about her."

Sasha shrugged, "she can't move on."

Sara nodded in agreement, "her heart won't allow it."

QJ stood up and stretched, "come on, I'll walk you back."

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