I wasn’t sure how long I had been out and the drunken state I had been in threw off my internal clock. What ended up waking me up was a flashing red warning pop up from Scout 1.

The dungeon is under attack!

I felt weight hold me down and I rolled Rolada off me. I sprang to my feet and in a flash managed to get my pants on. As I looked between my laced work boots and my brand new wizard shoes I went with the latter, simply slipping them on. I grabbed my sword and shouted to the girls to rouse them from their sleep. “I’m heading up, we have a big problem!”

I threw on my cloak and sprinted up top. Flying past a drowsy Sten being dragged down the hall by a drone. I barely felt my feet touch the ground as I sprinted to the wall. Scout 1 was up on his platform and pointed me towards the river and when I peered towards it I saw in the light of dawn a very strange sight.

A tight knit formation of stag hare riding gnomes had their weapons drawn and slowly marched towards our town. Behind them in the woods a single gnome on his steed darted back and forth as shambling shapes followed it along like it was a carrot before a horse.

I counted ten riders at the front and the one at the back led two dozen or more skeletons on a wild chase. It was clear that they were trying to set the undead loose on us.

“Damn it.” I cursed.

I tried to think of why they would be attacking us but the blue collars with orange stones around the necks of the stag hares told me a tale. Whoever was making them had decided to set their sights on me and was now making as much trouble as possible.

One gnome rode ahead of the pack and rose in his loose cloth saddle. “We are here for your tribute, give us your valuables or perish!”

A small fist sized stone flew high into the air and made an audible bonk off the thin metal dome the gnome wore on his head for a helmet. Guard 1 beside me hissed at the gnomes and bared his teeth. The lead gnome pointed his finger towards us and opened his mouth. I already knew what would happen next.

“Produce fire!” I said, sending the bright blast straight at the gnome.

As soon as the poison orb had formed at the end of his fingers, the fire made contact and a glorious explosion shook the earth. A charred statuette of the gnome and his steed remained in his stead. A stiff wind scattered it apart leaving behind only the blacked scorch mark on the ground.

“That was easier than I thought.” I mused.

Then my sleep deprived, hungover brain remembered the other bad guys and I grabbed Guard 1, diving for cover. The newly made wall stopped the first salvo of spells and it buckled towards me by an inch. The fresh mortar fell to the ground as it was still moist and a few bricks followed suit, dropping onto the earth beside me. The green clouds seeping over the top still got me to move and I retreated towards one of the fixed up houses.

There was a rumbling sound as the riders ran along the edge of the wall and then dipped back towards the woods. The one leading the pack of the undead jumped over the wall and behind him the skeletons barrelled towards us at full speed trying to catch the fleeing gnome. The mounted rider then tried to cut through our town towards his allies only to be stopped by one furious dwarf.

Sten spat on the ground and tossed a brick up into the air, catching it in a gloved hand. The gnome pointed a jagged nail towards the dwarf and when he opened his mouth he was hit squarely in the jaw by a speeding brick. The stag hare went wild and dashed towards Sten but he grappled the antlers stopping the charge. There was a sickening crunch as Sten wretched the stag hare’s head to the side and he dropped the dead animal off to the side.

The gnome spat out fragments of the brick and sneered. “Poison o-”

Scout 1 dove off the roof platform and brought his stick down, bearing his full weight and momentum into the attack. The gnome’s spell was cut off and the simmering energy at the tip of his finger went out with a puff of rancid gas that dissipated a second after. He was either dead or unconscious at this point.

“The others are gearing up, we need to hold this line until they can get to us lads.” Sten said in a commanding tone. He walked forward standing in the street by the pump and faced the oncoming skeletons. He rolled his shoulders and looked up at the sun, letting the early rays soak into his skin. “Oh it's a good day to fight too.”

A bottle of booze was tossed to Sten by Drone 1 and the dwarf downed it in one go. He tossed it to the side, shattering it off a wall and let out a defiant belch towards the undead to either intimate them, or challenge them.

Guard 1 tugged on my cloak and we joined the dwarf and Scout 1 forming a loose battle line against the shambling skeletons. We were outnumbered but we were quicker than our foes and they could only fight us two to three at a time while in the tight street. I drew my sword finally and felt more comfortable with the weight of my weapon in hand. I felt anxious waiting for them to attack us but I didn’t dare break the fighting line to attack them first. It was eerie seeing the corpses move to us with uncaring mindless violence.

One skeleton was slightly ahead of the pack and lurched towards us with its dirty, moss covered fingers stretched out. I took a step towards it and slashed with my blade at the exposed elbow and felt little resistance as my swift strike hacked away the arm. I back peddled as the other hand shot towards my neck and dodged the attack by only a hair's breadth.

Sten’s pickaxe came into view and slammed into the skull of the skeleton with titanic force, shattering it apart from head to toe. The bone splinters shot across the opening and down the small side street. More skeletons took the place of our first slain foe and we took turns moving in to deal a quick strike, while another would come in to finish off the target. However each attack, each dodge and careful movement expended more and more of my stamina. There was far more undead than I had anticipated and an ill timed attack resulted in a skeleton striking me squarely in the jaw.

“Damn that stings.” I said, holding onto my face to make sure everything was still in place. “They are just piles of bones!”

“It’s the magic that binds them lad, necromancy is foul magic.” Sten said, swinging the pick with a ferocious arc. No less than five skeletons met their end from the single attack giving us the space we needed. “Step up your game lad, you're falling behind.”

Guard 1 jabbed at the knees of the skeletons breaking apart the weak joints holding onto the bones and letting a solid strike from Scout 1 break the weakened area. Skeletons were knocked down onto the ground and crawled towards us but Drone 1 would step in and crash a brick down onto them, finishing them off.

One of the crawling skeletons grabbed onto my leg as I failed to get out of the way. The others were busy with their own issues as the wall of undead pushed against our tiny force and I was left to deal with it on my own. I tried to break out of its grip and the skeleton surged forth trying to bite me.

I leapt back and saw a spark of magic light up the soles of my new wizard boots. As the ground vanished from view, it was only then I remembered what Rodney said they did. My foe and I were sent up into the air clear over the surrounding homes. I ended up doing a loose back flip and crashed into the roof of one of the buildings driving the wind from my lungs. My new flight attendant had lost its hold and sailed down past me, crashing into the street below. It fragmented on impact, knocking down another skeleton letting Sten have an easy kill.

The trap door opened behind us and the rest of the team joined us just in time to see the last few skeletons get obliterated by a series of wild swings from our resident dwarf. With the cannon fodder dealt with I searched around wildly for the gnomes, knowing they were still probably around.

It was tremendously quiet with only the wind and our beating hearts making a sound. I got back onto my feet and hopped back down to ground level. I barely even felt the impact of my two story landing in my knees as my new footwear absorbed the force.

“Josh, what are we dealing with?” Lin asked, shaking my shoulder. She looked at me with concern and said. “You might want to sit down.”

Warning, severe stamina depletion can result in unconsciousness.

I wiped my brow, flicking a stream of sweat onto the stones under our feet. I weakly pointed the end of my shaking sword towards the woods and rasped. “Gnomes on hares, about ten of them left. Bastards lead this group of undead here and probably have something else in mind too.”

As if to answer my question, a stream of glowing golden bolts hurtled over the nearest house towards us. Guard 1 and Scout 1 tackled Rolada out of the way while Bent dragged a chunk of loose wood off the ground for some makeshift cover for himself, Lin and Burn.

Sten and I took the brunt of the attack as the bolts struck the ground or us before arcing off to each other or off a random wall or spot on the ground. I hit the ground hard as all my nerves sent off pain signals to my brain nearly overpowering me completely. I felt my muscles all clench as I was held down by the electric force shocking me.

Small hands dragged me back into the storage building and Rolada immediately started to give me aid. She took out bandages on which she applied a snot green cream before binding them onto the burn spots I had. I jerked in place as she worked on me for nearly a full minute as the magic kept arcing off me until whatever spell they had lobbed at us finally ended.

“Fucking hell!” I hissed. As my tired body remembered pain, all I could do was clench my teeth as my head sorted out where each place of agony was on me. I grabbed the fox girl’s wrist and weakly groaned. “Just knock me out, doc.”

Sten groaned beside me, looking worse for wear. His beard was sticking out in every direction, smoking and sending off little sparks of lighting as the spell worked its way through his system. His mail armour was glowing and as the seconds past the burn mark on his cheek vanished as did the ones on his arms.

“Take five lad, I’ll show them what for!” Sten grumbled, rising to his feet and charging straight back to the battle.

Rolada and I listened out intently as the sounds of fighting shifted between the houses and walls. Lin called out and heckled the gnomes as we heard spell after spell being thrown at her. I heard Burn order Bent around and from the sounds of it the ogre was taking hit after hit in stride.

I crawled towards the door not trusting my own two legs as I surveyed the battle. Burn was on Bent’s back and lobbed flask after flask at the speeding gnomes. The swift hares dodging the worst of the explosions as their riders send spells, throwing darts, spear thrusts or arrows at the ogre.

Bent Plate stood tall in the street as attack after attack bounced off his massive frame, the weapons making not even a noticeable mark of damage to his skin. The spells however were a different case altogether. The orbs they shot at him knocked him back a foot and the magical hits made him flinch in pain.

One gnome stood back from the pack, he had heavier gear and wore a thick cap. He clutched onto a metal rod ending in a crystal and began to chant a spell. The sudden flux of magic made my hair stick on end and I knew I had to do something. I opened my palm and felt the words fall heavily on my tongue.

“Produce fire!” I cried, putting behind it my force of will.

The fire streaked towards the caster and he was caught in the side. The spell he was casting shot out and missed Burn by several inches and crashed into the side of a house. The wall exploded and the roof collapsed as the spell shook our town. Debris shot into the air and crashed down onto the battlefield causing chaos.

As two gnomes bore down their spears at Lin, the ground opened up below them, tripping the steeds and dislodging their riders. The gnomes crashed to the ground and from the hole out popped several drones who started swinging bags stuffed with bricks at the downed gnomes. Drone 1 held onto a chair and swung it with all the might he could smashing it into the side of the riderless hare.

As the downed hares and gnomes recovered, the drones dove into the hole and resealed the ground in a second stopping any reprisal. I grinned at the ingenious ambush and saw Lin strike the unaware gnomes from behind. She took out the two of them and dashed up a building before the hares could gore her on their antlers.

I sent off another fire spell at the hares setting one ablaze and making the other scream in panic. Lin gave me a thumbs up from the roof and dashed across the top of buildings to rejoin the team. Sten had lent a hand to Bent Plate and they dispatched the gnomes there. I quickly ran the numbers through my head and we were one gnome short of victory.

The wall behind us split open and the final foe dashed in at full tilt. His hand glowed with magic as he readied a second spell towards me. Guard 1 was distraught and without thinking I sent a command telling him to protect Rolada. I grabbed at my pocket and tossed the string towards the gnome.

“Rope of binding!” I said.

“Jolt!” The gnome screeched.

The rope shot passed his small bolt of lightning and wrapped up him and his steed. I was prone on my back and took a direct hit to my core from the spell. The lighting arced off my body, striking the roof before coming back down and blasting the ground beside me. Pieces of roof and floor were sent into the air and crashed around me as I tried in vain to hold up an arm to protect my head. My vision blurred from the pain and exhaustion. I fought to keep awake and I saw the gnome struggle against his bonds.

I needed to finish him off and I opened my palm knowing I might suffer from mana blight but I sent off a quick attack with my fire spell. My voice barely registered in my ears and the flame hit the gnome squarely setting his greasy shirt ablaze. Between tears of pain, and darkening vision I saw Guard 1 with Scout 1 charge the gnome to protect Rolada.

I collapsed on my back out of breath as more and more warnings appeared in my vision and I fell unconscious. As darkness enveloped all my senses one last pop up appeared giving me the shred of hope that the attack was truly over.

The dungeon has been defended successfully.

All parties have been awarded 200XP.

Keeper Crystal has gained 200XP.