Guardian Skeleton, Level 4 Guardian Skeleton, Level 4 Guardian Skeleton, Level 4 Guardian Skeleton, Level 4 Guardian Skeleton Mage, Level unknown These are the reanimated skeletons of the Duergar, raised to protect their former homeland from intruders.

While identifying the monsters wasn’t very helpful, it did make one thing very clear -

“They have a mage! And it’s at least level 5!”, warned Ben as he quickly loaded his crossbow with another iron bolt. The skeletons were 50 feet away from them, which was way too close for Ben’s liking. He was a D&D veteran, after all, and he knew that if he was in a party of four level-two adventurers (meaning a combined level of 8), and they encountered five enemies with a combined level of at least 21… he would curse his DM and flee. Truth be told, he nearly suggested it at first, but then he thought of the awesome weapons each of them held in his hands and thought better of it. Maybe they did have a chance. He also had a feeling that most of the encounters in this dungeon will be just as difficult, so running wouldn’t get them anywhere.

There was one thing that gave him hope, though, and that was that almost none of the skeletons held a ranged weapon. Two were holding battleaxes, one a heavy mace, one a flail and the mage was wielding a wand in one hand and a glowing small sphere in the other. Even as Ben looked, he saw that a thin beam of light shot from the purple energy ball to the sphere in the mage’s hand, connecting the two. As it did, the skeleton’s eyes began to shine with twin familiar flames and Ben knew - whatever power the undead mage was siphoning from the energy vortex above, it didn’t bode well for him and his companions.

In the few seconds Ben had to think before all hell broke loose, he quickly devised a plan. If this was a fair fight he would unleash Milenna against the enemy’s mage, but Ben didn’t want to think what would happen if the four level-four warriors would descend upon them without magical protection.

“Milenna, try to hold the fighters off. Shiraz, help me against the mage. Can you use your shadow-leap-thing again? Red - “

“Let them come,” said the warrior with a bloody grin. He raised his sword and shield and planted his feet firmly on the stone floor. To his side, Milenna was already casting a spell. And Shiraz… the woman was gone! The shadow mage had stood next to him a second before, but he couldn’t see her anywhere now. Ben didn’t have time to marvel at that, though, as several things happened at once.

First, the four skeleton fighters began running toward them. They weren’t very fast but then again 50 feet wasn’t very far; they would get to them in a few seconds. Behind the running skeletons, the mage stood its ground beneath the purple energy ball - and raised its wand. Ben didn’t intend to give the guardian magic-user a chance to activate its magic, though. He cocked his crossbow’s trigger back and released, planning to hit the sphere that connected the mage to the purple ball. Ben had already guessed that the ball was feeding magic to the skeletons and had no doubt in his mind that the mage should not be allowed to keep that connection.

It was a long shot. Ben was using a crossbow for only the second time in his life and the 50 feet was a respectable distance. He was also only level 3 in his crossbow skill, he was agitated as he couldn’t ignore the four killing machines that were almost upon him - and his virtual dice roll was lousy.

So he missed. Badly. His bolt never scratched the mage, passing a good two feet away and continuing into the shadows beyond. Ben could swear he saw the skeletal jaw of the mage turn in a grin. Then the mage released its own attack - and a purple bolt shot from its wand, increasing in size as it sped toward them.

“Take cover!” Cried Ben. He took his own advice and dropped himself to the ground. As he did so, he saw something shimmer in the corner of his eye - a semi-translucent dome appeared around the three companions. Milenna finished casting her spell.

It wasn’t a moment too soon. The purple bolt - now the size of a basketball - rammed into the magical shield with a resounding BOOM - and everything shook. If Ben wasn’t already on his knees he would have fallen from the magical impact. While Red managed to remain on his feet, Milenna did fall with a cry.

Ben’s ears rang and for a few moments, he felt disoriented. A “dazed” icon appeared in his vision, with a timer counting three, two, one...

When Ben looked up again, the four skeleton fighters were already upon them, hammering on Milenna’s magical dome with their weapons. The shield was holding, though, and it seemed they couldn’t get through.

“How long can you hold it?”, Ben shouted. The skeleton’s hammering against the shield filled the cavern with loud banging sounds, as if the dome was made of steel instead of pure energy. Milenna got herself to her feet, her teeth clenched. “Not for long,” she said tersely. “I could have managed longer against the melee fighters, but that magic bolt took 70 percent of the shield’s power. It was one of my strongest spells,” added the sorceress. “You’d better think of something.” Was there an accusatory tone to her words?

“Where’s that confounded shadow mage?”, asked Red. The mercenary seemed eager to join the fight, but he was wise enough not to exit the perimeter of the shield.

As if in response, Ben heard a woman’s cry from the direction of the guardian mage. He looked above the heads of the undead Duergar and saw that shadows danced around the mage - Shiraz had reached her target.

“She’s keeping the mage busy,” answered the scout. He took another bolt from his quiver and loaded his Skewering Crossbow. Better to make use of that shield while I can. “Can I shoot through this?” he asked Milenna.

The sorceress nodded, so Ben didn’t wait before releasing again. This time the odds were in his favor - it was almost point-blank range. A moment later his iron bolt exploded against one of the ax-wielding fighters, shattering a sizable chunk of its skull. The skeleton dropped its ax as it stumbled and fell back and Ben was thrilled to see the resulting prompt. His Skewering Crossbow was badass!

Critical hit! You hit Guardian Skeleton with Skewering Crossbow for 42 damage.

It was a staggering amount of HP, but Ben was dismayed to see it wasn’t enough - the sonofabitch started to rise from the floor!

“The shield is coming down!” Warned Milenna. She was standing next to Red with her enforcer staff and started to cast another spell.

Ben started reaching for another bolt but then had a fit of inspiration and thought better of it. I’m a scout. Not a melee fighter. He decided to play to his strength - and began to look around. He remembered extremely difficult fights in his D&D sessions that ended in victory only because he and his party knew how to use their surroundings to their advantage. If Raxlon was as cunning as they said, maybe that was his intention as well. So, trying to ignore the skeletons that were only a few feet away, Ben looked.

The hall they were fighting in was once a magnificent foyer - an entrance hall to the kingdom of the dark dwarves. It spread about 150 feet in diameter and was supported by a dozen huge pillars. Six of these pillars supported a high balcony, which was accessible by a wide staircase at the far end of the hall. The staircase, the balcony, the floor, and the pillars, all showed the marks of time and destruction. Pieces of the balcony had fallen off and lay crushed on the floor and on the stairs, the majority of the room was littered with debris and some of the pillars were broken - of the twelve original pillars only eight reached their original height, whereas four lay broken across the floor. For some reason Ben’s eyes were drawn to one such pillar, only ten feet away from his position. As he looked, his Passive Focus power stirred to life; everything around the pillar became blurred and part of the gray stone came into sharp focus. Was something written there? Ben concentrated and took a step forward to look better -

“Ben! Look out!”

Shiraz’s shout brought him out of his focus. Alarmed, Ben looked back -

SLAM! Something heavy hit him in his mid-torso and Ben was thrown off his feet and smashed forcefully against the floor. He thought he heard some of his ribs crack from the impact and tasted blood in his mouth.

You were hit! Skeleton Guard hits you for 6 hit points. HP remaining: 9 out of 16.

Ben grunted in pain and looked wide-eyed at the half-skulled monster that stood over him. Half-skulled. He almost smiled at this, but had no time as he realized it was the same monster he’d damaged for 42 HP a few moments before, come to take its sweet revenge.

Ben found it hard to breathe. From the corner of his eye, he saw that Red and Milenna - now without the protection of the magical dome - were hard-pressed, facing three opponents. Red was on the defensive, his shield glaring white again and again. It seemed that the white glow kept his adversaries back somewhat. Milenna was a step behind the warrior and even as Ben looked lightning cracked from the tip of her staff and momentarily stunned the flail-wielding skeleton. His companions kept the skeletons back, but for how long?

Not long enough for me, he thought desperately. The angry broken skeleton looming over him was perhaps weaponless, but unlike Ben it felt no pain - and was two levels above the scout. Having lost his crossbow when he was thrown back, Ben frantically reached for his dagger but he wasn’t fast enough. The skeleton was on top of him and before Ben could stop it, a massive bony fist slammed against his face.

You were hit! Skeleton Guard hits you for 2 hit points. HP remaining: 7 out of 16. Be warned! Your HP is at 50% or less. You should probably take cover or something.

The dazed icon once again blinked in his peripheral vision and the only thing Ben could do was to raise his hands and grab the bony arms above him. Ben knew he was going to be punched to death. He also knew that he could do nothing about it. Dazed, wounded, cursed, and with a low strength characteristic of 8, he stood no chance against this formidable foe. His only hope - that Shiraz would come to save him - was also blown away when he heard her cry of pain, coming from the direction of her fight with the mage. She had problems of her own.

The skeleton changed tactics and, instead of punching Ben again, pushed its bony fingers into the scout’s neck - completely ignoring Ben’s pitiful attempts at counter-attack. Ben tried to pry the hands away from his neck, but he might as well have tried to remove an iron peg that was hammered into a pavement. Pain blossomed in his neck. He couldn’t breathe. Black dots appeared in his vision.

Knowing he had mere seconds before he once again perished, Ben did the only thing he could: he examined the prompts that waited for him. When they killed the first guardian there was something about crossing the first threshold of his tactics skill. He didn’t get a chance to read it then but, as his life was squeezed out of him, Ben figured that he had nothing to lose. He accessed the dismissed prompt:

Well done! You have crossed the first threshold for the skill Tactics. You receive the following bonus: Tactics Power 1: Pause The Game! Once in an encounter, you may activate this power and gain 5 seconds of respite to think about your next move. Note: while you can look around and do certain simple actions, you cannot move around, attack or cast spells during this time. However, some powers may still be used.

Ben couldn’t breathe and could hardly think straight, but his mind was still clear enough to realize that what he had just read was a potential game-changer. Might as well try it.

He found the new power icon - with the two vertical lines of the “pause” symbol on it - and mentally clicked on it.

Time stopped. Everything became dead quiet. The half skull of the skeleton guardian loomed over him, frozen. Its fingers were still pressed hard into Ben’s throat, but they too stopped moving. Ben had just gained himself five seconds to think.

Five. He knew he couldn’t exploit this power to escape, so what could he do? It was a tactic power, designed to help him devise a better plan in order to prevail. But he was trapped under a killer skeleton, nearly dead. What could possibly help him?

Four. The pillar. There was something there that drew his attention, wasn’t it? Ben moved his eyes toward the broken pillar, actively using his Passive Focus again. As before, part of the pillar became sharper, calling out to him. He looked harder.

Three. There were words! Black letters were engraved into the stone pillar. They weren’t in English, though, but in some strange language Ben had never before seen in his life… or had he? As the scout focused on the letters, he felt a sharp pain somewhere behind his eyes, similar to the sharp pang of a headache. It lasted only for the briefest of seconds, and when it was over, the strange letters suddenly became clear in Ben’s mind. Somehow, his mind translated the words: ‘FOR YOU, EXILE, WE WILL FOREVER ENDURE’.

Two. Exile. Ben didn’t know how he knew it, but the word, written in that old and forgotten language, triggered another sharp pain in his mind - and new hidden knowledge was suddenly available to him. The Exile was the title of the banished king of the dark dwarves. And the name of this king was -

One. Ben locked his gaze with the one remaining eye socket of the skeleton that was killing him. He opened his mouth and just as the timer on his pause power turned to zero, he used the remainder of the air that was left in his windpipe to utter a few words - words he spoke in the language of a dead dwarven race. “Long live Ghol Ironhead,” whispered Ben with his dying breath. “Long live the king.”

Time returned to normal with an explosion of sound. Around them the battle raged on - Milenna was shouting, Red was roaring in pain or in anger, bright purple light flashed from where Shiraz was fighting - but Ben’s words seemed to have a monumental effect on the skeleton who was killing him. His foe removed its fingers from Ben’s throat and the scout gasped painfully as air rushed back to fill his lungs. Then the skeleton stood, slowly straightening. With all the dignity an undead monster with half a skull could muster, the guardian curled his bony fingers into a fist and brought his hand close to where its heart once belonged, completing an ancient salute to a long-gone ruler.