Openings

by Thomas Davidsmeier

  Chris flipped his war hammer around so that the hook side was on the leading edge. Leaning forward a little, he swept it across a wide, looping forehand. He easily caught the skeleton’s ankle and yanked.

  You TRIPPED Strong Skeleton for 6 (3+6-3) damage. It resists 4 damage by the spell Dark Embrace.

  For a moment, the log and skeletons held up under the sudden addition of dead weight to the front end. But, something seemed to suddenly change after a moment full of flailing boney arms and claws catching at the air.

  Almost exactly as Chris had expected, the log and skeletons came tumbling down the bank. They came to a crunching halt on the pebbly edge of the river. One skeleton was trapped under the log and three were jumbled on top of it.

  Chris looked at the top of the embankment in disappointment. The Skeleton Warrior was still there. His tether was neatly severed by his bone sword just a fraction of a second before the others had lost their balance. If Chris had time to think about it, he would have realized that the sudden loss of resistance had been the last straw for the teetering log crew.

  His was in for more disappointment as he got a slew of updates in his vision.

  Strong Skeleton has suffered 4 damage from a fall. It resists 4 damage by the spell Dark Embrace.

  Strong Skeleton has suffered 5 damage from a fall. It resists 4 damage by the spell Dark Embrace.

  Strong Skeleton has suffered 2 damage from a fall. It resists 4 damage by the spell Dark Embrace.

  Strong Skeleton has suffered 5 damage from a fall. It resists 4 damage by the spell Dark Embrace.

  Strong Skeleton is hit by log for 3 damage. It resists 3 damage by the spell Dark Embrace.

  Chris growled over his shoulder to Nathaniel, “Whatever Dark Embrace is, it just wiped out a huge part of the upside of my plan.”

  The squire answered, “It’s a Witch buff spell. Resists Light, then physical, then magic as it levels. When do I start shooting?”

  Chris answered curtly, “Only if I’m in trouble.”

  That was how the first combat interval ended. Chris wished he knew what the Warrior was going to do on the next round and what other tricks it might have. The Paladin could flip on his Healing Light aura for the damage it would do to the undead, but it would only hit them for one point a round after the Dark Embrace spell. If he had been just one level higher, he would have bumped up his Soldiers of the Light aura. That would have been a buzzsaw any undead he caught in range. Too bad...

  You have not selected an action for the next combat interval. You are ALERT AND ABLE for this combat interval.

  “What? How? Is that even...” Chris watched as a full interval passed with him standing in place, seemingly just waiting and watching. No matter how hard he tried to will himself to close with the heap of skeletons and the log, he just did not do it. That was a long five seconds.

  Skeleton Warrior casts Bone Warrior’s Tools.

  Strong Skeleton is no longer PRONE.

  Strong Skeleton is no longer PRONE.

  Strong Skeleton is no longer PRONE.

  TRAPPED Strong Skeleton attempts to ESCAPE. Success! Strong Skeleton is no longer TRAPPED. Strong Skeleton is PRONE.

  The three skeletons that had landed on top the log easily stood up without Chris harassing them. The fourth managed to wriggle out from under the end of the log. It was still on the ground though.

  Atop the embankment, a swirling, purple mist had surrounded the Skeleton Warrior as it cast a second time. The mist had coalesced into a strange looking shield and armor, all made from various bones.

  Chris had to admit that the skull in the center of the shield and breastplate made for a pretty cool looking ensemble. It helped that the wearer was looking down at Chris from about five feet higher up the embankment.

  Not wanting to miss his action again, Chris decided clearly to turn on his Soldiers of the Light aura and back up a step. Once he got hurt badly enough, he would switch to his Healing Light aura. He dedicated his block to the Skeleton Warrior’s attack. Something about the bone blade was worrisome to Chris.

  The three upright skeletons charged at Chris three abreast. One of them had to splash through the water and ended up a step late to the party. It was probably why Chris was not flanked right away.

  Strong Skeleton attacks you. It hits you for 5 damage. Your armor absorbs 2 damage.

  Strong Skeleton attacks you. It misses!

  Strong Skeleton attacks you. It hits you for 6 damage. Your armor absorbs 2 damage.

  You have 17/24 Health.

  “Two hits? What are their attacks?” Chris was flummoxed. He could not tell if they had just gotten lucky or if he needed to be worried.

  “Should I start shooting?” called Nathaniel from ten paces behind Chris.

  Chris shook his head, “No, I’m just...”

  A sudden cascade of dirt and pebbles interrupted the paladin. The Skeleton Warrior had deftly slid down the bank and split Chris and Nathaniel.

  Chris finished his statement, “...flanked.”

  You are FLANKED by Skeleton Warrior!

  Skeleton Warrior attacks you. It hits for 8 damage. Your armor absorbs 2 damage.

  You have 11/24 Health.

  Chris spat out, “Fat lot of good blocking did!”

  Nathaniel whistled a strong, shrill signal. Scout stopped barking at the struggling skeletons in the river and came charging down the strand.

  The skeleton that had been stuck under the log pulled itself up just in time to have Scout bowl it over. The hound pinned the enemy and began snapping at any bones he could reach.

  Scout TRIPPED and PINNED Strong Skeleton for 12 damage. It resists 4 damage by the spell Dark Embrace.

  Chris cast his aura and was down to six mana. Everyone had a bonus to attack and damage now, but he was still down to just 11 Health. Chris decided to use a healing potion during the upcoming interval. He could keep the attack and damage bonus up that way, and he would still get an attack. Switching auras to heal would have meant no attack since he would have to cast. Casting counted as an attack, but drinking a potion did not. He was not sure this was the right choice, but he only had the weird between round time to think it through. He shouted to Nathaniel, “Open fire, but stay back from them!”

  The next combat interval opened with Nathaniel following orders. Meanwhile, Chris put his war hammer in his shield hand, got his potion out, and drank it before the skeletons could attack.

  Nathaniel attacks FLANKED Skeleton Warrior. He hits it for 9 damage. Its Bone Armor absorbs 9 damage.

  You drink a Strong Healing Potion and heal 12 Health.

  You have 23/24 Health.

  Chris wished he had more of those. That was his only one from his spawn point. Missed attack or no, he would have to switch auras next time.

  Nathaniel did not like the look the Skeleton Warrior was giving him. He backed up ten more paces, and then saw a gully that looked climbable. Nathaniel could not decide if he wanted the warrior to follow him and relieve Chris, or if he just wanted to get away from the monster. The squire darted up the gully.

  You are no longer FLANKED.

  Chris was relieved by that news until he realized it was because the Skeleton Warrior was headed out after Nathaniel. The way the bone armor clacked and clattered, it seemed the skeleton was pretty encumbered by it. Chris desperately wished he knew how fast it could move compared to Nathaniel. “Run in a circle, Nathaniel! Bring it back here!”

  Strong Skeleton attacks you. It misses!

  Strong Skeleton attacks you. You block the attack.

  Strong Skeleton attacks you. It hits you for 2 damage. Your armor absorbs 2 damage.

  You have 23/24 Health.

  Chris held his own against an onslaught of slashing claws. He countered on the easiest to hit of the Strong Skeletons, the one on the right end of the line.

  You attack the Strong Skeleton with TRIP. Chance to succeed 65% [(7-4) x 5% + 50%]

  You TRIPPED Strong Skeleton for 10 (6+7-3) damage. It
resists 4 damage by the spell Dark Embrace.

  That would be one less attack to have to deal with the next time. Hopefully, he could he could get rid of these skeletons quickly and save Nathaniel from that Skeleton Warrior.

  PINNED Strong Skeleton attempts to ESCAPE. Failure! Strong Skeleton is still PINNED.

  Scout attacks PINNED Strong Skeleton. He hits for 14 damage. It resists 4 damage by the spell Dark Embrace. It dies... again.

  Just like that, with the Scout’s grappling enemy eliminated, the war hound became a threat behind the other Strong Skeletons.

  Strong Skeleton is FLANKED.

  Strong Skeleton is FLANKED.

  PRONE Strong Skeleton is FLANKED.

  The bonuses on the down skeleton were too much. Chris attacked the PRONE enemy. Dark Embrace was no where near enough to save the undead from a brutal overhand hammer strike. Pulverized against the pebbly shore of the river, the skeleton’s skull turned to power along with most of the rest of its bones.

  One of the two remaining skeletons turned on Scout. The other uselessly scratched at the metal of Chris’s shield.

  The war hound took the attack as an invitation to play. He darted in under a swiping claw and latched onto the skeleton’s leg just below the knee. Shaking like he was drying off after a bath, Scout sent the undead clattering to the ground, another victim of TRIP.

  Chris took a minor scratch of 3 Health in the course of finishing off his strong skeleton. Scout had another flawless victory. Chris was beginning to wonder if dogs were skeletons’ natural enemies or something.

  “I’m back!”

  Nathaniel almost flew down the bank, his feet skimming the ground. He went careening over the narrow shore and out into the shallows, arms pinwheeling, legs kicking up waves, trying to desperately to stop.

  A shieldless Skeleton Warrior slid down the bank just it had earlier when it had slipped behind Chris.

  Chris smiled, feeling much more confident after finishing off the skeletons with Scout’s help. “Oh, you again. Let’s see if you’re any easier without your buddies.”

  The Skeleton Warrior’s skull face remained expressionless, but it raised it’s bone blade up and mist swirled around it.

  Skeleton Warrior casts Bone Warrior’s Tools.

  The same shield formed on its arm, and its armor looked new instead of worn.

  Nathaniel called from the shallows, “I was hoping he couldn’t do that. His shield took like twelve damage to dispel or whatever you’d call it.”

  “I’m putting on the Healing Light then, and we’ll just whale on each other for a little while.” Chris flipped his auras for his action. Scout moved up river a little, and so Chris slid down river along the shore. They put the Skeleton Warrior in the middle of them, and were rewarded with the notification they wanted.

  Skeleton Warrior is FLANKED.

  It turned toward Chris and moved in to attack. Chris tried to get his shield up, but the undead feinted and the paladin ended up out of position.

  Skeleton Warrior attacks you. It hits you for 6 damage. Your armor absorbs 2 damage.

  You have 17/24 Health.

  Skeleton Warrior takes 5 damage from your aura of Healing Light. Its Bone Shield absorbs 5 damage.

  Scout heals 4 damage.

  Scout has 18/18 Health

  You heal 5 damage.

  You have 22/24 Health.

  Chris did not remember Scout getting hurt in the combat, but he could have missed the notification. He was Nathaniel’s dog and not his. Either way, the warm flash of healing light from his aura was more than welcome. The fact that the Dark Embrace did not protect the Skeleton Warrior’s ‘Tools’ was also welcome.

  The undead came at Chris again. This time, the paladin did not bite on the fake. He let his shield float free and snapped it in place once the monster committed to an attack.

  Skeleton Warrior attacks you. You block the attack!

  Chris and Scout both hit at almost the same moment. Scout got the back of the warrior’s leg and 6 damage went toward the Bone Armor. Chris smashed his hammer down on the skull in the middle of the shield. Satisfyingly, the shield cracked and dissolved in powder. Disappointingly, none of the 12 damage made it through to hurt the warrior itself.

  The flash of Chris’s aura sliced another 5 damage off the armor. It was looking pretty ragged now. Chris decided to wait for Scout to eliminate it, and then he would try to hit the warrior directly. He wished he had some sort of power up. That was his Soldiers aura he guessed. As soon as he could, that skill needed to get bumped up.

  Chris held his attack at the ready. Scout hit again, and the armor was gone. As Chris was pulling back, the Skeleton Warrior started to raise its blade again. The swirling mist began to form. Chris swung as hard as he could.

  You attack Skeleton Warrior. Chance to hit 65% [(6-3) x 5% + 50%]

  You hit it for 12 damage (7+5). It resists 4 damage by the spell Dark Embrace.

  Exasperation got the better of Chris. “How long can that spell last?”

  Dishearteningly, Nathaniel answered, “Its duration is measured in minutes. Combat intervals are only 5 seconds!”

  Chris and Scout bashed on the warrior and it recast its Bone Tools for what seemed like an interminable number of intervals. But each time they wiped out the Tools, they got a shot or two in directly on the warrior’s health. Chris wondered if he would have been tired without the Healing Light aura replenishing his Stamina stat every round. Maybe he could experiment later.

  Finally on a round where both Scout and Chris got a shot in on a Tool-less warrior, the undead monster crumpled to the ground in a heap of bones and dust. Just as Chris was about to say congratulations to the group, Nathaniel rained on his parade.

  “Where are the other skeletons? The ones on the other log...”

  Chris looked up river where they had been. No skeletons. No log. He twisted around and looked the other direction. “There they are! About fifty yards down river toward the village.”

  Laughing with relief, Chris watched as the skeletons and log bobbed in the river, drifting down stream. “That is awesome. I hope Jeremy is wasting lots of time and resources on these attacks!”

  Not laughing, Nathaniel started off jogging along the edge of the river. “It’s not that awesome. The river get’s shallow enough to ford just south of the village. That skeleton crew out there will be able to come up out of the water and attack anybody that’s around. There will probably be at least a few Fenton farmers there, and I doubt they’ll be very good at defending themselves.”

  The paladin started running to catch up with his squire.

  Chris slowed to a jog as he caught up. “I bet their Dark Embrace has worn off, or it will soon. I could catch some of them in a Healing Light aura from the bank. It has a fifteen foot radius at Apprentice level.”

  In full strategist mode, Nathaniel asked, “How much mana do you have, and how fast do you get it back? We’ll probably be at the ford in less than twenty minutes.”

  Puffing along and sweating in his armor, Chris tried to remember. “Ugh, I’ve only got two right now. I think I get back four mana every ten minutes maybe. I didn’t pay any attention to it after the fight with the wolf. I was... distracted.” Chris mentally kicked himself for getting upset earlier. Then, he noticed his Stamina stat. It had appeared in the corner of his vision and was sitting at 23/24. The remainder of his seventy seconds of Healing Light had quickly run out after the end of the battle with the warrior.

  It was Nathaniel’s turn to laugh. “Once you get the mana back, their spell will have worn off for sure.”

  Chris’s Stamina fell again. It was at 22/24. “Uh, Nathaniel, how much Stamina do you have left?”

  “Eight out of eight. Why?”

  “Mine’s evaporating pretty quick. My aura isn't topping it off anymore. I’m all the way down to twenty out of... nineteen out of twenty-four.”

  They were catching up to the log, but it was still about a dozen yards ahead.


  “Fine. I’ll lug your armor. You and Scout can run ahead and cut them off at the pass like the cowboy movies always said.”

  Wriggling and shirking, Chris peeled his armor off like a crab molting. He dashed off to catch up to the skeletons before his last gauntlet had hit the ground.

  Nathaniel sighed as he watched his dog and his sweaty knight head off toward another showdown with undead. He called out to their backs, “Have fun storming the castle!”

  To himself he whispered, “Glad that wasn’t an OOC warning or anything. Maybe movie references are OK.” Piling the armor together in a heap, the dutiful squire set off at a much slower pace.

  Farther along the river bank, Chris finally got the message he was waiting for.

  You have 7/10 Mana

  “Ooo! I got five back, not four!”

  Scout glanced back over his furry shoulder, confused by the words.

  You have invoked an Apprentice Healing Light Aura. Your party will regenerate 5 Health every 5 seconds for 70 seconds.

  The warm red light began to pulse out from from Sir Christopher the Paladin. It was hard to follow across the water, but it looked like he was close enough to get two of the skeletons. Chris kept his eyes forward and tried to keep pace as best he could.

  Strong Skeleton takes 5 damage from your aura of Healing Light.

  Strong Skeleton takes 5 damage from your aura of Healing Light.

  Frustrated, Chris jogged carefully over a couple of washouts along the bank of the river. "Wish one of those was the warrior."

  As much as Scout had liked the battle earlier, he was really enjoying this game by the river. It involved many of his favorite things: running, water, and bones. Unfortunately, that got him so excited that he started to dart in and out around Chris’s legs.

  "LOOK OUT!" Chris stumbled and fell as he tried to avoid the hound.

  The paladin fell down and fell behind the floating log and its skeleton passengers. He saw the brighter pulse of his aura uselessly ripple out. It stopped well short of the undead armada. He wanted to chastise the dog, but what good could that possibly do?

  Getting his feet under himself, Chris noticed his Stamina was being recharged by his again aura again. Determined, Chris pulled himself all the way up to his feet. He took off as fast as he could to catch up.