The witches, bickering with audible dissatisfaction, surprised everyone who’d been looking up when each one began taking steps away from the ledges, and head for the small tunnels from which they’d come. Leaving their skeletal archers behind.

“Where are they going?” Alkiath asked, having only catched the last glimpse of their figures descending into the dark holes.

“Perhaps they’re worried-”, Rum suggested, “-about Royath’s arrows coming their way. They might also be out of mana. Those spells they were slinging at us, they must’ve cost a lot.”

“The question-” Royath added, “-is whether they will return.” Royath ended his statement by piercing the skull of another archer. Half of the archers up high were now downed.

The witches gone, Rum reached out with his magic, pushing it far and up, up, up. “Disrupt Skeleton” he said with calm and practice. In little time, Royath and Rum disposed of the remaining archers, and just in time too, for their square to penetrate the ranks of skeletons and break their formation in favour of a new half-circle, which they formed around Urvanom’s body, standing there like guardians over their mate, their friend.

Rum went up to the bloodied mess of an old elf, touching and looking for life signs. He wasn’t a doctor or really any healer of any kind except that he had his healing magic. Even so, he managed to find breath when he decided to put his index finger into the elf’s mouth and felt moist warm air circulation. “Rumalize!” he said, curiosity overtaking his concern for a second. The knowledge flooded his mind:

Urvanom (male green-elf)

Level

64

Health Pool

220/1420

Stamina Pool

221/1000

Mana Pool

325/650

Constitution Score

15 (natural) + 127 (level)

Strength Score

7 (natural) + 51 (level)

Dexterity Score

11 (natural) + 89 (level)

Intelligence Score

8 (natural) + 57 (level)

Wisdom Score

8 (natural) + 90 (level)

Willpower Score

5 (natural) + 46 (level)

Luck Score

16 (natural) + 180 (level)

Known Basic Effects

Open Wounds (reduces effective Constitution)

Major Physical Trauma (reduces effective Constitution, -Strength and -Dexterity)

Minor Mental Trauma (reduces effective Intelligence, -Wisdom and -Willpower)

Taking but a second to admire the elf’s statistics, he yelled out “Trinity of Healing!”, pouring a small river of mana into the spell.

“Huuuh” the elf gasped, and as the green light restored the elf from his many wounds, his eyes opened up, landing on Rum. “Saaaaah... “ the elf gasped, trying to speak, but decided to close his mouth again. He swallowed and took a few breaths, before trying again. “Savior” the elf said, a little hoarse, but smiling. Rum smiled too; wide, relieved, even a little honored by the remark. Although, as always: ultimately this is a team effort. I just happen to be the most specialized team member.

Within a mere handful more minutes, the elves were on their last skeletal warrior, ganging up on it and finally bashing its skull in with a looted mace.

As the bone-wacking stopped, a calm and quiet descended upon the cave. Everyone just breathing, chests rising and falling, expressions falling from the tense excitement of battle, to the tired neutrality of the resting. In the immediate moment following the calm, each elf wordlessly, yet collectively, decided to sit down on the ground. Various stages of exhaustion was endemic to the party, and no one was ready to talk, everyone preferring to recover stamina, or in Rum’s case mana. At various nearby spots on the hard mountain ground, a few elves even began to spread down their arms and legs, their ordinarily lazy tree-life habits wishing to relieve them of even the little burden of sitting.

Urvanom, fully patched up, was the first to stand, but did so only to lean against the rock wall, giving his fellow elves glances with a small warm smile. An attitude perhaps ironic to the trauma he’d just been through, the death he’d nearly faced, and the blood still covering his now torn robe.

“So... “ an elf woman finally said. Everyone turned to look. It took the elf a few seconds to prepare her continuation, but everyone waited patiently. “They’ve stopped attacking us.” She added. “What do we do?”

For a while, nobody answered. Alkiath didn’t have an answer, and it was clear on his face even if he tried to hide it behind fatigue. Some of the others appeared to think with their face muscles.

“She’s right.” Arrovani acknowledged. “Its our initiative now. We can’t know for how long of course, but right now, it appears that we decide what happens. So... what do we do?”

“I think we should do nothing-” Udevi replied, “-until we have a plan to get out of here.”

Everyone took on a troubled expression, and the mood of victory and exhaustion gave way to depressed relaxation. The bright and literally magical smile of Urvanom being the sole exception. And Rum of course, his face was neutral. Untroubled.

“You want to hear some good news?” The mage said.

Every elf in the platoon looked at him expectantly.

“You have a way out?” Udevi asked.

“No.” He said to faces too hopeful for their own good. “But there’s something you should know. I’ve gone up 2 levels since we got here, and I was level 42. You low level elves probably went up 3 or 4 levels each, even 5 levels is possible with the size of this challenge.”

It took a little while, but slowly, the statement spread some smiles around the cave, a small but enduring new positivity overtaking their eyes and cheeks. Of course, Rum added mentally, that depends upon which theory of levelling is most right. Personally, I’m starting to suspect there’s a 4th theory that needs to be explored. Maybe, we need to think with more sophistication, perhaps what it’s all really about is inte-

“I say we move out!” It was Alkiath who had spoken. His voice loud and clear, interrupting Rum’s train of thought and bringing his attention to the elf who began standing up.

“We are not in a good spot here, and there are many tunnels we could try out.” Alkiath gestured with his sword at the main path, then swung is blade slightly left and right as if to indicate they could go in either or both directions.

“What does The Great Mage think?” Arrovani asked. Alkiath lowered his blade, and looked over at Rum, as if suddenly curious as well to what Rum thought.

“What do you think about all this, Great Mage?” the sub-committee leader asked.

Rum stood up, stroked his beard and narrowed his eyes, as if thinking. “Urvanom” he said when his hand reached the bottom of his beard. Rum turned, to everyone’s surprise, and stared at the happy elf. The old elf returned Rum’s stare, an expression of incredible gaiety on his face. At least that’s how Urvanom’s warm smile felt like to probably everyone present, considering its contrast to their imminent prospect of sudden doom. “Your book, Urvanom. I think we should see if your book has any answers to these situations.”

“My book?” Urvanom asked, for a brief moment appearing as if he didn’t know what Rum was talking about. Then his eyes became wide and he quickly reached for a larger belt pouch at his side. Inside his hand went, and a second later it was out: Algor’s Guide To Dungeon Expeditions. For show he held the book up for everyone to see, before turning the little thing around and opening its pages to look. “Hmm” he thought out loud, “what am I looking for exactly?”

“How to escape a trap?” Udevi suggested.

“No” Rum quickly replied, “this isn’t a trap. Not anymore at least. We can get back to the trap problem later if necessary, but maybe for now: we see if there’s anything about finding your way out if you’re lost? Like totally lost. Because that’s what we are. There could be many ways out of here, we just happen to only know one of them.”

“Hmm” Urvanom thought out loud, directing his attention to his book, and for a while just standing there, jumping sections and skimming text at advanced speeds. “Hmm... hmmmmm... HMMMMMM...” Everyone, every elf and Rum included, patiently either sat or stood, while the old elf harassed their ear drums with the loud noise of consideration. “AH!” he finally said, and half the elves looked excited, while the other half looked relieved to escape the humming. “I think I found it. Let’s seeeeeeeee... Yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah, yeah... mmm...”

“Will you share it with us?” Alkiath asked, on behalf of everyone really.

“Yeah, yeah...” Urvanom said, and for a few seconds did not share with everyone. Before finally relieving the tension: “It says here that we should make our attempt to find the way out into a systematic endeavour, at which we must not linger. If we linger, our provisions may be consumed before we find the way out. By systematic endeavour, they mean we must keep track of our relative positions – we must know where our search has started and where we’ve been before. From then on, it’s just a matter of trying every avenue, starting with the least risky and most likely ones. They further write that in cases where we are totally lost, exploration tasks should be abandoned in favour of regaining access to the surface or where we came from.”

Rum looked around, as if to allow for objections. None were raised.

“I think that’s a good idea” Alkiath said, “it makes sense and this book would be written by experienced adventurers I assume?” Urvanom nodded, displaying his by-now classic magic-induced smile, confirming Alkiath’s assumption. “Then, anybody else have an alternative?” No heads were raised. “Alright” Alkiath said, “let’s follow that plan, if there are no objections.” The sub-committee leader waited for a very brief moment. No objection came. “Everyone up if you would please.” Alkiath gestured with his hands for them to get up. ”Time to find the way out!”

They’d rested for a while now. Nobody was exhausted anymore. Breaths and speaking was calm and normal. Fighting strength is not at full though, Rum observed, but assuming the enemy benefits from more time to prepare as well: moving on is prudent.

The elves collected most of their still intact arrows, and all their lost torches, liting the ones that had gone out. When that was finished, they reformed their loose square marching formation, with Rum as before taking up the awkward add-on position next to the elven platoon, a torch once more in his right hand. Thus together, the 12 dungeoneers marched out of the cave, and out onto the main path of the great cavernous hallway.

“HEEE-HE-HE-HEEE!”

FAAAST! That was Rum’s first thought, singing like the pivotal point of a dramatic opera throughout his mind. The sight of 5 witches flying on broomsticks, in a perfect spearhead formation, zooming speedily past them all, gripped Rum and likely everyone else with utter immediate terror. Surprised and caught off guard, but rapid in each of their reactions, every non-shield-wielding elf who hadn’t already now sheath their swords, and every bow was brought forth and readied. Arrows were put to strings, and the strings drawn in smooth motions. Within just a few seconds, there was a volley ready to be unleashed against the airborne threat at the mere word from Alkiath. Or the word of anyone else for that matter eager enough to seize the initiative of battle.

While this volley came into being, the speeding broomstick airforce sailed through the air way past them and into the darkness far away. Or at least it felt like it was far away. Given how faint the light was outside their immediate torchlit surroundings: far away might’ve been much closer than first assumed.

Everyone’s eyes fixed on the vanishing shades. But just before being consumed by the mountain darkness, the shape of the witches, barely visible, appeared to change directions. Instead of disappearing, their new course took on a sharp strong left curvature. Almost as soon as their arcing flight path had begun however, it ended, and the witches put themselves at a direct line of confrontation: with Rum, his elven friends, and their party ready for battle.