Mace disabled the trap, removing both the explosives, which he kept, and the poison vials, which he gave to Shari. All except one, which Lila requested.
“I can poison my blades,” was all she said.
Mace then removed the trap mechanism and pressure plate and stored them in his bag as well. One never knew when a trap might be handy to have. And while he had the skill to detect, arm, and disarm them, he did not have the engineering skill that would allow him to create them himself. He was limited to simple traps that anyone could make, like a hidden loop of rope with a trigger attached to a tree branch. Or a simple sapling rabbit trap.
The group continued down to the bottom. The landing faced a single doorway, which in turn opened into a long room filled with undead. There was one door at the opposite end approximately a hundred yards away and carved stone columns every ten yards or so along each side of the room near the walls. Each column sported a brazier burning with a sickly green flame.
Nearest the door were skeletal soldiers holding swords and shields, their equipment rusted but serviceable. There were a couple dozen of them standing in groups of three and four.
Skeletal Defender
Level 35
Health 9,000/9,000
About twenty feet beyond the soldiers, gathered in groups to either side were about the same number of archers. These were fresher corpses, still having some muscle and flesh attached to their bones here and there. The occasional internal organ could be seen decaying inside yellowed rib cages. As they watched, one of the archers shuffled into another and bits of flesh fell from both to splat wetly onto the floor.
Beyond the archers, there were more full-figured undead. Humanoids of several races. Some carried weapons, others with just sharp teeth and exposed bone fingers. There were at least a hundred of these zombies shuffling around in the center of the room, seemingly at random.
Beyond them were six armored undead guarding the exit. They didn’t look like zombies. Their flesh held the greyish hue of the dead, but there was no rotting or bits missing. They moved more quickly than their decaying cousins, and their weapons and armor were well maintained.
Undead Defender
Level 45
Health 13,000/13,000
Mace looked at Shari. “We didn’t talk about this. How much do you know about dungeon mechanics?”
She shrugged. “We didn’t run any dungeons. Sheila wasn’t big on fighting or killing. I mean, I’ve run a few when I was a kid…”
Mace nodded. He wasn’t going to voice his thoughts on her being a total newbie. Not if he planned to get any more snuggling in the near future. Instead, he looked to Lila.
She shook her head. “I’ve been in lots of fights with bandits and such. But this is my first dungeon.”
Brahm nodded. “I have cleared two other dungeons with my war band.”
Layne just smiled and said, “I’ve had my share of experience.” Mace made a mental note to find a diplomatic way to ask her just how old she was and how much experience she had in the world. She could be a good source of information or strategy.
Mace took a moment to outline a basic plan. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. These first soldiers were nice enough to cluster up in threes and fours and move around. So, when a group gets close to us - and far enough away from the other groups not to pull them along - we’ll pull them back here. As we finish each group, we’ll pull the next closest. Try not to get the attention of the archers until all the soldiers are dead. We don’t need to try and defend against ranged attacks while we’re fighting melee.”
With that said, he sat back and watched the skeletons for a bit. When a group of three stepped away from the others, Mace hit the nearest mob in the face with a fireball. It opened its jaws as if to scream, but no sound emerged. Instead, it raised its sword and charged. The other two were right behind it, swords waving.
Brahm stepped forward, axe at the ready. When the first skeleton was near enough, he kicked forward with his right hoof, shattering several of its ribs and knocking it back into its two companions. As all three went down in a tangle, he leapt forward and brought his axe down in a devastating two-handed overhead chop. The axe removed the head of one skeleton, severing its spine, before crashing through and shattering the ribs of another. Two more rapid axe blows finished the trio.
Shari pumped a fist into the air, hyped by the easy victory. “Yess! We rock!” she grinned at her friends.
Mace chuckled. “Easy there, killer. We’re just getting started. But yes, this looks like a good system for these first mobs.”
With that, he nodded at Brahm and tagged another group that was walking away from the others. This one had four skeletal defenders.
To keep the odds tilted in their favor, Mace called out, “Frigus!” and laid a sheet of ice between their tank and the oncoming mobs. When the bony soldiers reached the ice, they stumbled and slid, arms waving for balance.
Brahm took advantage and slammed his axe into the lead skeleton while its shield was out of position. The massive weapon connected with the monster’s hipbone and deflected to one side, shattering its spine. Its upper body fell to the floor, still gripping shield and sword, and began to drag itself forward, still in the fight. A stomp of Brahm’s hoof shattered its skull and put it down.
Mace fired fireballs into the group, the spells hitting the targeted mob and doing splash damage to the others. He cast slowly, not wanting to take the aggro from the tank. These mobs were no real challenge to the group, or even to him alone, but he wanted his people to get used to group tactics and develop a synergy when fighting together.
Layne played a tune that slowed and weakened the mobs. Shari focused on healing, though Brahm was only taking minimal damage. Lila crept behind the rearmost skeleton, then leapt up and slammed both daggers into the thing’s skull. She hung there for a moment, then with a violent twist of her hips she used her body’s momentum and a turn of her wrists to shatter the skull. When her daggers were free of the bone, she dropped back to the floor without a sound and re-entered stealth.
Mace chuckled when he saw that even Snuffles was getting into the act. The small piggy-tank dashed forward, ramming his budding tusks into the skull of a prone skeleton that had slipped on the ice. The impact only took about 2% of the mob’s health, but it was the thought that counted. A moment later, Brahm nudged the enthusiastic piggy to one side with his leg and split the skeleton’s skull with a casual swing of his axe.
The third group was pulled and put down without issue. Mace let Brahm and Lila do most of the work, and since Shari didn’t need to heal much, she cast Nature’s Wrath on each of the mobs. The DoT had increased significantly since she learned it back in the elven city. She was pushing level thirty now. They continued on for several minutes, pulling and downing groups one at a time.
When it came time to pull the last group, Shari asked if she could do it. Mace nodded, assuming that she’d cast Nature’s Wrath as she had been doing.
He turned to face the mobs, watching for the last group to separate from the archers far enough to be safely pulled. When he gave a thumbs-up, he was surprised to hear the twang of a bow string. The arrow sped past him toward the last three skeletons. It passed right through the ribs of the lead mob, ricocheting slightly off the spinal column and striking the leg of one of the archers. Instantly, a dozen archers were drawing their bows and firing at Shari as the three soldier skeletons ran in her direction.
Mace turned and shouted, “Praesidio!” casting a shield spell on Shari. The arrows bounced harmlessly off the magic protection, but Shari still ducked and cringed, eyes wide with fear. When she realized she wasn’t a pincushion, she smiled apologetically at Mace.
He turned, casting rapid-fire spells at the archers while Brahm and Lila took charge of the three soldier mobs. He saw the green glow appear on each of those as Shari contributed her Nature’s Wrath DoT per their normal procedure. Mace called out to her. “Don’t put your dot on the archers. I need aggro off
you, and you need the mana to heal. This is gonna suck for a while.”
Just as he finished saying that, he began to cast a shield in front of himself. He had taken aggro on the archers from Shari with his fireballs, but he’d waited too long. As he was about to raise his magic shield, an arrow struck him in the knee. The pain interrupted his cast for a moment, and he couldn’t resist the urge to mumble, “I used to be an adventurer like you…”
He managed to activate the Liquid Armor ability imbued in the armor that old Jervis had made for him. As he raised his hand to cast the shield spell, several arrows struck his chest and legs. None penetrated, as the armor dispersed the force in liquid ripples. Still, the impacts were unnerving.
“Praesidio!” he growled out, the pain in his knee bringing tears to his eyes. His magic shield appeared in front of him and disappeared from Shari. He’d never checked the mechanics, but it seemed he could only have one shield active at a time.
Shari snorted behind him. When he turned to look, she grinned at him and said, “I used to be an adventurer like you…”
Mace chuckled despite himself. The classic and beloved reference to an old game had survived decades beyond the death of the game of itself. He was a little surprised Shari knew it, only being a casual gamer.
He yanked the arrow from his knee and a moment later he felt a heal from Shari. He winked at her. “Thanks… huntard.”
She immediately looked apologetic again.
Another volley of arrows struck Mace’s shield and it flickered slightly. At his level, the shield might hold another two or three volleys before collapsing. He turned his focus back to the archers.
“Ventus!” he called out as he sent a blade of wind at them. It snapped the bowstrings of five of the archers and knocked about half of them down. Those with cut strings raised their bows like clubs and charged at Mace while the others recovered and began to fire at him again.
Mace cast another sheet of ice in front of his group, “Frigus!” and Brahm moved to stand behind it. The three soldier skeletons were toast, and the tank roared a challenge at the oncoming archers.
Mace left them to Brahm and Lila once again. They wouldn’t be much of a challenge without shields or real weapons.
He instead focused on the remaining seven archers, hitting them one at a time with fireballs and burning both skeleton and weapon with each hit. As soon as their bowstrings melted away, the archer would wave its bow threateningly and begin to run toward Mace.
Moving to stand next to Brahm, Mace waited as each of them came for him. He dodged clumsy swings of the bows, and kicked them backward, causing them to slide on the ice. The flailing undead archers tripped each other up and knocked each other down as they grabbed onto whatever they could reach in order to pull themselves up. When five of them had managed to get back on their feet and began to advance, he hit them with a gust of wind.
“Ventus!” This wasn’t a blade, just a push of air which caused them all to fall back down. Each of them took minor fall damage and had suffered burn damage from the fireballs, but were still at about 50% health.
Brahm laughed as he battered at the initial five archers. They had no skills in blunt weapons, staves, or using their bows as shields. His axe crushed bones and severed limbs as Lila pounced from behind and shattered a skull. In just a moment those five were down as well.
The tank and the rogue moved to focus on Mace’s seven archers. Again it wasn’t long, less than a minute before they were all permanently dead.
“Take a minute to rest and recharge before we take the other archers,” Mace said as he sat with his back to the wall. He’d used more than half his mana pool in that fight. Between the shields, ice, and fire, he’d cast more than a dozen spells in short order.
As he sat there considering how best to deal with the other dozen archers, Brahm cleared his throat. Looking uncomfortable, he quietly said, “Maybe it would be best if our healer did not shoot any more arrows at the skeletons?”
Shari blushed bright red, and Mace laughed so hard he fell on his side and had to gasp for air. Shari kicked him in the leg.
“It’s not that funny. And I’m not a huntard!”
She tried to pout, but the fact that she’d just been trolled by an NPC who totally didn’t see the humor in it was too much to resist. She broke down and giggled, then snorted, surprising herself and causing Lila to giggle too. Brahm just looked relieved that Shari hadn’t taken it badly.
After a five minute rest, they were all standing and facing the remaining skeletal archers. Mace said “We have to pull them back here. They’re too close to the zombies to fight them where they are. I don’t want to accidentally pull a hundred zombies.”
He tried his best not to glance at Shari as he said it. He really did. But he failed.
Brahm nodded thoughtfully. “Your fire spells worked well, burning the strings so that they became less effective fighters. Even when they hit me with their staves, they did little damage.”
Mace could certainly copy the previous fight. It had gone well enough. But he wanted to train his people while they were here, and he had a better idea. “Have you guys ever heard of ‘LoS’?” he asked. When they all shook their heads no, he quickly explained it to them. Shari understood it as a simple game mechanic, but he explained it as a quirk of the brainless undead.
A moment later they had their plan and were ready to go. The rest of the group stood back at the entrance door while Mace moved forward far enough to make sure the undead focused on him. He cast a single fireball at one of the archers near the center. As soon as it hit, his companions retreated down the corridor. Mace spoke the trigger. “Praesidio” and raised his shield as he backed toward the door. When he was through the door and into the shadows, he waited until the archers began to move forward to keep him in sight, then activated his stealth ability.
The clacking of bone feet on stone drew near as he pressed himself against the wall. He quickly cast his shield on Brahm, who was fifty feet or so down the corridor. The others gathered right behind the tank to take advantage of both his shield and his bulk to block arrows.
As expected, the archers charged into the corridor, pushing to reacquire their target. Brahm roared a challenge and all twelve pushed into the corridor, attempting to get a clear shot.
Mace waited until they were all past him before stepping out into the tunnel behind them. He held up his hands and called, “Infier!” setting several mobs on fire, then, “Ventus!” sending first one gust of wind and then a second to fan the flames and melt as many of the bowstrings as possible.
In this way, he disarmed all but two of the archers. Those two both fired arrows at him. One struck his abdomen and put yet another hole in his fancy kobold skin armor. The other arrow passed by harmlessly.
He rushed forward and stabbed the nearest of the two in the skull using his enchanted dagger. The weapon slid easily through the bone, but there was no reaction. The dagger didn’t speak, there was just a vague sense of disappointment. As he severed the spine of the second, he realized that animated skeletons probably didn’t have souls.
After that it was a simple melee cleanup. The weak archers tried to club with unstrung bows while Lila, Brahm and Mace stabbed, smashed, and crushed them into oblivion.
The whole fight took less than three minutes. When the last skeleton went down, Lila immediately began to loot. Because they were in a party, Mace could see what she was receiving. But he didn’t pay much attention, trusting her to show him anything of interest.
While Lila looted and Mace studied the next wave of mobs, Shari reached into her bag and pulled out something she’d learned to make in her alchemy studies. It was a healing ointment. Opening the jar, she dabbed a finger in it, then rubbed it on several small cuts and bruises on Brahm’s skin. His throat rumbled, as though he were purring with pleasure. “You like the ointment, do you?” She asked.
“I do. It soothes the skin, and smells quite nice.” Brahm affirmed.
Shar
i looked into the jar and smiled. Its name was actually ‘Healing Salve’ but she preferred to call it an ointment in tribute to her friend Sheila, who hated the word ‘ointment’. Snuffles moved close and shoved his nose into the jar to investigate. A moment later, he withdrew it and sneezed, his snout covered in the stuff. Shari said,
“I said “oint-ment, not oink-ment, you silly pig!”
She and the others laughed as the pig looked cross-eyed at his tingling and scented snout. Mion landed on his head and leaned forward, licking the ointment experimentally. Deciding that it tasted good, she helped the pig clean his snout, snapping at him once when his tongue smacked her face and nearly knocked her off balance.
With the looting done and Snuffles freshly-cleaned from the eyes forward, the group made their way back into the room. They faced the horde of zombies now, which was moving about individually rather than in clusters. But they weren’t really separated enough for the party to be sure that a pull would bring just one or two. Still, they had to try.
Mace looked at Shari. “Okay, oh shooty-shooty one, wanna try a pull?”
Shari looked nervous. “I don’t want to pull too many. What if I miss again?”
Brahm cleared his throat. “You didn’t miss before. You just hit a hollow target. These things may be rotting, but they should stop an arrow.”
The others all nodded. Layne put an arm around Shari’s shoulders in reassurance.
“You could also try healing one. Nature magic isn’t exactly holy magic, but it is more light than neutral. And these are undead. Creatures of the dark,” the bard suggested.
Shari brightened up immediately. “I can’t miss with my heals. Let’s try that first.”
She looked at the group to make sure they were prepared. Holding up a hand, she pointed at the nearest zombie and cast Life of the Forest.
Survivors Page 14
