The next morning, I double checked everything I had prepared for my trip. I had several meals worth of a smoked fish dish, Alnoss having perfected a few recipes on the smoker while I was dealing with dungeons. For alchemy supplies, I had 200 acid potions and 200 of the pyrophoria potion. I also had ten large clay jugs filled with pyrophoria potion as well, each one equivalent to 20 individual potions. Several lengths of rope as well as a few of the eyebolts, and a fully repaired bladed tripwire trap that had worked so well against the goblins. I had 500 armor piercing bolts, 300 of the ones with a cartridge for a potion on the end, as well as 300 of what I called smasher bolts. These had a heavy lead weight within a harder, blunted steel case. I hoped they would be able to do some blunt damage from a distance. With all my equipped gear fully repaired, I headed out.

The path to the Bone Citadel was back through the cavern with the lake and waterfall, I had to walk on a ridge past nearly a half a mile of lake just to reach the opposite shore. There were some crablike creatures there, but they were low enough level that they gave me a wide berth. I made my way through a winding set of caverns, each one oddly devoid of life. Well, life other than ubiquitous cave moss. Seven or eight caverns later, and I found one that had a random assortment of roughly carved humanoids. Several of them had stalagmites coming from their heads, so I couldn’t tell if they were just poorly carved or if a millennia or two of water had worn away any features they originally had.

I was about ten feet away from the first one when it suddenly started grinding to life.

Ancient golem

Lvl 34

The origins of these golems have been lost to time, and any clues based on their bodily markings have been erased by the elements. Incredibly strong, but ponderously slow, these should be no challenge for a spry adventurer.

I backed up slowly, hoping to see if it had a minimum radius that it was sworn to defend. Once I had drawn it another twenty feet from its original position, I figured they would plod along until they caught whatever disturbed them. I slowly started jogging forward, and when it wound up an arm to attack I dashed past it as fast as I could. Skidding to a stop as the fist slammed into the ground behind me, I checked the back of the golem for any type of vulnerability. Unfortunately, there was no colored crystal or runic text that screamed “Hit me to kill the golem,” So I started dancing in and out while unleashing mana shockwaves upon the joints of the construct. Three solid blows to the knee, and the joint crumbled. After that, it was a simple matter to get in and crush the head, which killed the construct. Loot was an enchanted core. Not anything I would be using, but possibly good for selling. I wonder if Dharkiss could use it to make some sort of automated crossbow? Oh, now that would be something worth looking into.

I suddenly looked into the cavern of golems with a new gleam in my eye. Automated crossbows with minor decision making ability, rapid firing to take out infantry. Siege crossbows, bolts so big that they need a pair of golems to load, firing into hordes of light siders, smashing them into paste. How could I possibly sell these cores? Imagine the havoc those massive bolts could cause if they were loaded with potions that would explode on impact? I gleefully slaughtered my way through the golems, collecting almost 40 cores in my rampage.

The last golem having fallen, I headed towards the end of the cavern. The rock shifted, from what I assumed was limestone to a white with blue veins marble. The exit was guarded by two golems, each one almost eight feet tall. They were much more defined, giving off an almost Egyptian vibe with their chin beards and striped head guards. They had no shirts, and those strange skirt looking things. The most dangerous parts were the dual khopesh’s each one wielded.

Ancient marble golems

Lvl 38

A cut above the normal golems, the marble golem was made to withstand the test of time. They are still slow, but their dual weapons and large reach make strides in overcoming their deficiency.

Heh, so a pair of minibosses? This could be fun. I started off by making a rough field, roughly twenty feet by twenty feet, where there wasn’t a level surface in sight. Safely in the back of it, I took aim at the right hand golem with an armor piercing bolt and fired it right into the bastard’s face. Unfortunately for me, the bolt shattered against the face, doing minor damage. It did, however, succeed wildly in pissing them off. Both golems stood, and gave a silent shout of rage before advancing. The one I had shot first led the way, and never noticed the slanted ground as I managed to nail it in the eye with one of my smasher bolts. That actually had an effect, sending a crack through the face and left eye of the construct.

“What’s the matter, Chip? I think that last blow made you lose some face. Your peers are all going to look down on you.” I taunted, and it sped up a bit. Three steps later, and its leading foot slipped sideways. Gravity took over, and it wasn’t pretty for the golem. The right side of its body slammed into the ground hard, smashing the khopesh, arm, and knee on that side. With one golem effectively immobilized, I saw the other had stopped for a bit to evaluate the floor. Well, if it wasn’t going to attack right away, I would. “[Mana shockwave]!” I shouted, leaping forward and smashing my hammer into the back of the construct’s head. Two more overhand strikes were enough to take out the downed golem, and I smiled as the other one somehow managed to look unsure. “Oh, don’t be like that. I’ll reunite you guys, wherever it is golems go after being destroyed.”

It backed up a bit, but I stayed with one foot on the back of the rubble and loaded an acid bolt into my crossbow. It hadn’t seen one of these yet, but I was counting on it assuming everything I did was dangerous. Sure enough, it blocked the bolt with crossed blades, seeming confused at the hissing noise. I took my time reloading twice more, hitting nearly the same spot on the khopesh. It was visibly cracking at this point, and I chose a smasher bolt to finish it off.

The golem stared at its broken sword for a second, before it turned to me and threw it. I couldn’t quite dodge all of it, and took a nasty slash along my left arm. The golem charged in with the khopesh in a two handed grip over its head, waiting to smash it down into me. I backed up as fast as I could, and was well out of range when he slammed the weapon down, hitting so hard it shattered as well. I took the chance to close in, bobbing and weaving to make myself a difficult target. He tried to spear me, and suddenly dropped the broken sword and tried to grab me, but my hammer was already impacting his arm with a [Mana shockwave], knocking it away. I gave as much room as I could, while darting past the golem to flat ground. The unevenness was only hampering me, as I couldn’t lure him into it. Keeping my distance wasn’t too hard, and I started throwing acid vials at his knees. Three to each one, and they started crackling with every step. He stopped, and glared at me, staying as still as possible to avoid further damaging himself. I circled around, and crept in behind him, staying in his blind spot as he swiveled his hips to try and keep me in his sight. One more [Mana shockwave] to the knees, and he crumpled to the ground. In a bit of desperation, he tried to fall and crush me beneath him, but it wasn’t too hard to avoid him. Once he lost mobility, the result of the battle was determined.

I looted both bodies, and couldn’t help but smile. Two enchanted marble cores, and each one gave me a half of a heart of the mountain. Combining them was as simple as bringing them close together, and they fused automatically. I headed into the next set of caverns, and after several of them with the occasional golem, I came to a vast chasm. A stone bridge, wide enough for two wagons to pass side by side, arched across the gap and to the gates of the Bone Citadel.

Walls extended straight up from the cliffs, and they were somehow still a gleaming white. As I got closer, I could see that it was speckled with colors instead of veins, so I assumed the walls were made of granite instead of marble like the golems I had previously dispatched. Facing me on the walls were six guard towers. Four of the smallest ones made a trapezoid shape around the gate, with the smallest side being within the fort itself. The two tall towers were built into the rounded corners of the walls, and had a crenelated path in front of them. Though they lacked a drawbridge, the towers were set in a way to maximize the amount of airborne weaponry they could bring to bear on the lone path from this side. Rising behind the towers in a leveled pyramid shape was the keep, the corner of each visible level having its own minaret.

The front gate was a plain slab of metal covered in several layers of spikes. There were long, thick spikes set every ten feet or so, while they were bracketed by two levels of shorter, thinner spikes. The different rows were offset from each other, making it incredibly difficult to bring any battering rams to bear without several someones getting poked. I was glad the devs took pity on poor adventurers, as there was a small port on one of the leaves that was left ajar. As soon as I touched the door, I got the option to enter the dungeon.

Congratulations!

You have discovered the heroic dungeon, The Bone Citadel. Who knows what awaits you in its hidden depths? Will you emerge victorious, or shall your corpse join the legions enslaved within?

Selecting yes, I was treated to an unusual cutscene. I was suddenly looking at a silver seal inside of a staging area inside the gate. Motes of light started swirling and rising, before a column formed. As the column rapidly shrank in diameter, I saw my avatar standing there. My point of view swirled around behind and closed in, before slowing down and moving through the back of my head. When that was done, I was back in control of my avatar. While I appreciated the showmanship, I wished there was either a warning that this was going to happen or a way to opt out.

Taking stock of my surroundings, I was in a large empty chamber with the silver seal that promised safety in the middle. Murder holes criss crossed the ceiling, but were unmanned at this time. A lowered portcullis prevented access to the courtyard beyond, and my only way out was a doorway off to my left. I stealthily crept close to the door and peeked my head in, but at waist height just in case. The room opened up into a guardroom, though dilapidated. Half rotten armor racks lined the walls, next to spear cases that had long since fallen apart. There were a few barrels that looked like a strong wind could end them, as they spilled arrows that had long since lost any guide feathers. Across the way was a magic fire, with a blackened skeleton warming his fleshless hands on it. It had rusted chainmail and a short sword for gear, but as it was sheathed I couldn’t guess as to its shape.

Heroic skeleton guard

Lvl 38

Through some unknown process, the bones of a humanoid hero have been corrupted and resurrected. Though it has lost a bit of its original power, it is still far more dangerous than a normal skeleton.

Yeah, yeah. I hear ya devs, be careful with the heroic monsters. Slowly making my way through the room, avoiding spilt arrows and spearheads, I smashed the back of the skeleton’s head with a [Mana Shockwave]. Staggering, I was rather shocked when the skeleton shook its head and gave a silent scream at me, the blue flames in its head and chest changing to a vivid purple. I tried an overhand blow as it pulled out its sword, and that’s when everything fell apart. The skeleton caught my blow at my wrist, its strength stopping my swing cold. “Ugh.” I grunted as it stabbed me in the stomach with its blade, followed quickly with an agonized, “GYAAAAAAAAH!” The bastard had twisted his blade and slashed it out through my side. I barely gave the heavily bleeding icon any notice as I frantically grappled with his sword, all the while trying to free my own weapon so that I could retaliate. I had already lost over half of my stamina in my futile struggles before the stalemate broke.

Two crossed blades erupted from my chest, and as I looked down at them in surprise I swear the skeleton I was battling managed to grin. That was just before the blades were viciously ripped out sideways, ripping my body in two.

You have died!

Death in a heroic dungeon has different penalties than elsewhere. All equipment suffers 10% durability loss. You lose neither experience nor coin, and the only monsters that will respawn will be in unconquered boss chambers. As a member of the church of Thanatos, you will not lose any kills towards your weekly quota.

“What the ever loving fuck!” I yelled as I respawned. What the hell killed me, and where the hell did it come from? I pulled up my battle log and checked.

Angus MacG used Mana Shockwave. Heroic skeleton guard is resistant to blunt attacks.

Heroic skeleton guard uses Iron Grasp.

Heroic skeleton guard uses Vicious Thrust.

Heroic skeleton guard uses Rending Blade. Critical hit. You are heavily bleeding.

You have massive internal injuries. Stamina consumption x2 for three minutes.

Unknown uses Double Backstab. Critical hit.

Unknown uses Eviscerate. Critical hit.

You have died.

“What the? Skeletons that are resistant to blunt attacks? What the shit!” I railed. “Damn devs, taking out traditional weaknesses. If they are resistant to holy magic too I’m gonna be pissed.” I muttered.

“Ack, back so shoon?” I heard from a voice behind me. “Boy’s got no chance.” I turned to look at who was speaking, and was stunned into silence. It was a ghost, wearing a weird open shirt with a second shirt underneath. He had some fancy gloves, and his wide brimmed hat had a massive feather on the left side. His swashbuckler style outfit gave of a fairly Spanish vibe that clashed with his Scottish accent.

“Who and what the hell are you?” I asked.

“You can shee me?” He asked, eyes widening. “Bloody ‘ell, he can shee me! Finally! Ha Haaaa!” He cried out, dancing in a circle. He tried to take my hands, but his ghostly form passed straight through them. “Ah, well I guess that would be too good to be true. Allow me to introduce myshelf. The name’s Ramirez.” He said, flourishing his hat in a bow.

“So, Ramirez. What are you doing here? I didn’t think ghosts would do well in a dungeon home to a necromancer.”

“Curse that vile bastard, he’s the reason I’m stuck here. He is using the bones of heroes, and he shtole mine and my sword.”

“You were a hero?” I asked incredulously.

“Aye. And if ya know whats good for ya, you won’t be laughin’.”

“Sorry. So, what do you want me to do?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Go get my sword! Only then can I be freed.”

“Fine, what kind of sword is it? How will I recognize it?”

“It’s an ivory handled katana.”

“Wait a second, wait a second.” I said. “Let me get this straight. You are a Spanish hero, who talks with a Scottish accent and wields a Japanese sword? What, are you secretly royalty too?”

“I’m no Spaniard, I’m Egyptian. And I shupposze you could say I have the blood of kings in me.”

“Ha! . . .HAHAHAHAHA! Go ahead, pull the other one!” I laughed, turning and sticking out my leg at him.

“I’M FECKIN’ SHERIOUS!” He yelled, and I stopped laughing as I actually got a popup.

New Quest Alert

The disembodied spirit of Ramirez has asked for your aid in the return of his sword. His origins seem odd, but his need is real. Will you help the guy come out ahead?

Quest

Success

Failure

Find and return Ramirez’ sword, an ivory handled katana.

???

???

“Holy shit, he’s tellin’ the truth.” I muttered to myself, a little louder than anticipated.

“Of course I’m tellin’ the truth, why would I lie?” He practically snarled.

“Calm down old man, calm down. I’m gonna help you, but what’s in it for me?”

“I’ll have you know, I’m a master swordsman. I’ll teach you any technique you want.”

I simply pulled out my weapon and asked, “Does it look like I would need a sword technique?”

“WHAT is that abomination of a weapon!” He yelled, shocked. “My god, man. That, is a right bastard of a weapon. I’ll not help you wielding somethin’ as ‘orrid as that.” His face scrunched up as he started thinking of a possible reward.

“Tell ya what, Ramirez. I’ll just go and get your sword, and kill whatever is wielding it. While I’m doin’ all the work, you sit back here and think about what you want to give me for a reward. Do I have to come back here with it?”

“Just yell my name, I’ll find you.” He said.

“That’ll do. I guess I’m off then. Catch ya later.” I waved, then headed over to the door. This time I wasn’t going to get surprised, and loaded my crossbow with an armor piercing bolt. I also used mana excavation to add an eyebolt with a rope tied to it at shin height across the door, but left the rope loose. If I needed to, I would pull the rope taut and trip the skeleton as it came through the door. I took aim, and shot the skeleton in the base of the skull at a slightly upward angle. It might be able to resist blunt trauma, but the bolt shattered the bone that it struck, as well as the bone of the forehead, effectively splitting the skull. I smiled as the remains of eldritch fire burned out on the way down and the rest of the body collapsed into a pile of bones.

Rather than rushing in and getting ganked by the unknown monster again, I sat in the doorway and looked around. No matter how hard I stared at darkened corners and possible hiding places, I couldn’t find him. Or her. Do resurrected skeletons have genders? STOP! Back to the issue at hand, finding the assassin. Nearly slapping myself for my stupidity, I activated [Mystic vision] and immediately caught the magic reanimating the assassin on the ceiling. It was using its hands and feet to hold itself up between two rafters, midway through the room. Deactivating my skill, I lost sight of it. The fires animating it must have somehow been turned black or been hidden somehow. Reactivating my skill brought it back into sight. No movement gave it away, though the flames in the eyes would shift ever so slightly on occasion. It was armed with dual wrist blades, hinting at a probable hand to hand combat mastery.

I still hadn’t gotten a popup with the information on it, but that could be from a skill in the assassin tree. I tried mapping the flows of mana through it, but it was hard as there were strands of darkness that seemed to be holding it together, flowing through bones and joints, while there was a network of blueish lines that appeared to flow outside of the bones and terminate in fingertips and palms. I traced the big line back from the arm, and instead of heading to the heart, it went down to the bottom right of the ribcage where it met several other blue and black lines. The resulting mass was an odd blue-black combination that gave slow, steady pulses. On a whim, I chose that as my target instead of the head, though I was aiming slightly more towards the center of mass so that a miss would still hit something.

Sure enough, the assassin must have had a danger sense, as it started dropping almost as soon as I fired it started to look at me while dropping. The new power of my crossbow saved me, as the bolt flew far faster than most and grazed through the mass in the creature, and tore open a rent that started spraying mana in rhythmic pulses. It also managed to sever the line leading to the left leg, and the entire limb dropped off.

As it crumpled form the landing, I slowly moved forward, maintaining enough distance that it couldn’t leap strait toward me without having some bit of reaction time on my part. The initial attack had taken off a third of its life, and it was slowly lowering with each pulse of whatever I had cut, so I charged a [Mana shockwave] and waited. “We both know how this ends. You can’t heal your wound, and I’m not going to come in close to your range. The question is, how long will you wait around, growing weaker by the second?” The fire in the eyes seemed to condense into a far more intense flame, I guess he was glaring at me. “That’s right, come attack so I can send you back to your rest.” I said, as I saw a pulse of mana surge down its last working leg. I started an overhead swing right as I saw that, and was glad I did as the assassin launched itself forward at a speed that rivaled my crossbow bolts.

My hammer crashed into the back of the head as each of the wrist blades dug into my sides, the downward force of my blow keeping them from biting too deep. That was a good thing, as the blades had been crossed and I was sure were seconds away from ripping my stomach open and disemboweling me. I followed through with my blow, however, and the skull got caught between the stone floor and my descending hammer, which finally gave enough resistance to trigger the shockwave that blew it apart.

Finally dead, I looted the body to see what they would drop. I got a high quality steel wrist blade, and a low quality mana reanimation core. The core was the torn piece I had shot, and looked like an incredibly complex knot with several different strands of string coming out of it. I really wanted to toss it, having always been of the thought that necromancers almost always ended with an army of weak minions that could never truly survive in battle. Sure, eventually they got to the good summons like Death Knights, but I wasn’t ever going to have the patience to follow that path. The more pragmatic part of me, however, pointed out that these were probably at least as valuable as the golem cores I had gotten. Hell, some enterprising necromancer might even be able to fuse several within a body to make a bone golem. The guard corpse gave me several silver. I turned back to the door I had entered from, and saw a ladder leading up to the next level. I headed towards it, but stopped as I had climbed halfway up. Tilting my head, I heard a slight rustle of chain and the click of bone on stone. There was no light in the room above, so I couldn’t use shadows to see where my ambusher was waiting. I climbed slowly back down to the floor, and pondered how to get up to the next level in a way that wouldn’t lead to my imminent demise.

Taking another look around the room, there wasn’t much that was useful. There was one spear that wasn’t completely useless. I thought of using it to spear through a hole in the ceiling I drilled, taking the skeleton from below. That would work, if I could get close enough to the ceiling to do any good. I could easily extend my mana to make the hole, but the spear wouldn’t reach. Circling around the ladder wasn’t an option, as it was set against the wall. My mind kept coming up blank until I saw a flicker of light out of the corner of my eye.

Looking over, it was the fireplace. The fireplace, with a large chimney. I walked over, and with mystic vision the activation controls for the magical flame were easy to find and shut off. I gave it a few minutes to cool down, before sticking my head into the chimney and looking up. There was no flue, and it was more than big enough to shimmy up. Of course, I used mana excavation to cut hand and footholds, slowly moving my way up one at a time. I had to hunch down as I got closer to the second floor fireplace, as I didn’t want my head to pop up prematurely. Once I had everything set, I slowly lifted my head and looked around a large, mostly empty room. There was a chair by the door, one that was right above the one in the room below. Standing and staring at the ladder, spear at the ready was a skeleton spearman, back to me. I was content to wait for a while, as there was still no explanation for those footsteps I had heard earlier.

I checked the room thoroughly, but saw no hidden assassins. After about ten minutes, when my stamina had slowly drained to half and my arms were aching something fierce, I saw another guard coming in through the door. I hunched down, but it simply gave the room a cursory scan before nodding and heading back out the door. I have it another minute after I couldn’t hear footsteps anymore, then pulled out my crossbow and shot the still guardsman in the back of the head. While this one’s head didn’t split, the bolt had enough energy while getting caught in the skull that it tore it right off the body and with a series of thunks, hit the wall and bounced down the ladder.

I scrambled inside the room, and looted the body for another few silver and again pocketed the reanimation core. As I looked around, I could see the beginnings of a curved staircase on one of the walls, midway down the length of the room. Not letting myself get distracted, I tried to think of a creative way to take out the guard that was going to be returning soon. I thought of using an eyebolt or two on the ceiling and some rope to snag his foot and flip him upside down, but that would take too long and be too obvious. Before I could come up with anything, I heard the clacking of his approach. With nothing else, I slipped up next to the wall, and softly spoke, “For Thanatos. [Keen edge].” As soon as I saw the foot enter the door, I started torqueing my body for as strong of a backhanded slash at the neck as I could. The spin, along with the surprise of the move caught the guard completely by surprise, and the added upward trajectory smoothly separated the head from the body. I guess even skeletons needed a head to function, as the decapitation killed him.

Thanatos finds your offering acceptable.

For sacrificing an acceptable offering, you gain 20 favor.

For sacrificing a heroic monster, you gain 40 favor.

For sacrificing a monster at full health, gain 20 favor.

Total favor: 144/500

Instead of heading out along the curtain wall the guard was patrolling, I decided to head up the stairs. I did mentally tip my hat to the devs, as they followed medieval design and had the stairs climbing clockwise, forcing me to either use my left hand for assaults or risk having the central pillar disrupt my attacks. I slowed as I saw the top of the stairs, it had an open slot in the floor of the top of the tower I was in. The top was empty of everything save two dilapidated ballistae, the cords and several of the load bearing wooden parts having long since given way. I finished entering the top of the tower, and finally got a nice, bird’s eye view of the compound I was attacking.