Just sitting there while poison racked your body for five whole minutes sucked but at least I earned a title for it.

Congratulations you have earned the title Grin and bear it; you survived a deadly poison, 50% less damage taken from poisons

Just once I wished a title didn't have to come with me putting myself in deadly peril, but I guess that's where the best titles would be earned. The rest of the trip down the stairs was uneventful after I healed all the damage and we exited the stairs into a large open room with four pillars.

Each pillar had a lit torch burning and I could see something moving in the shadows beyond the light. Turns out this was a distraction, a freezing beam of blue light from the opposite side of the room slammed into me.

You have been frozen, 5 seconds remaining

The effect of the spell encased the left side of my body in a coating of ice, doing a fair bit of damage to me. I could heal that but the frozen effect was what really bothered me. Elemental resistance would have been extremely useful right about now. Luckily I could see Fiona had managed to dodge the attack. She was fighting off four skeletons that had rushed in after the spell was cast.

3 seconds remaining

Two more skeletons were circling around to try to get at me while I was immobile. Fiona managed to shackle one of them. The other rushed at me and went for a swing of its sword towards my head.

Less than a second before the sword made contact the spell's effect finally wore off. I managed to duck under the swing, the blade cleaving a gash across the top of my skull. Pain bloomed in my head from the near miss but I pushed through the pain. Carrying through my ducking maneuver. I twisted around, bringing my staff in a sweeping motion upwards, right into the skeleton's rib cage. The blow lifted the monster off the ground before cracking through his torso and separating the top half of its body from the bottom half.

I staggered as blood poured from my head wound. Quickly I cast Healing Touch and Rejuvenate before returning to the battle. I cast Blink Step, avoiding a black beam of energy shot from across the room by what appeared to be a zombie mage. I used Identify to make sure.

Putrid Undead | Mage | Level 12

Geez, can't they just say zombie instead of putrid undead? Blech, just the name of it made me want to vomit. I hit the mage with Healing Touch while I sped towards the trapped skeleton, shattering it apart with my blow.

Critical strike: You have dealt 373 damage to Skeleton Soldier

This was the most damage I had ever done in a single strike, not including my Flurry, and the Area of Denial improvised attack, and I was pumped. Looks like I got a critical hit as well as having impact activate to do that much damage. There wasn't much left of the skeleton afterward, it burst apart into bone fragments as my staff smashed across its chest.

I could hear the mage wailing in torment from my spell so I tried to shut him up with an Earth Fist. I took the moment's reprieve to shake off the lingering effects of Blink Step and ran to help Fiona finish off the last skeleton.

I could see she was wounded as I approached, so I cast Rejuvenate on her. My health was still recovering from before, I was good for now. Fiona finished off her third skeleton by bashing its head in with the Mace, leaving only the mage. We approached the Mage together, it was shaking off my spell as it attempted to stand.

I didn't see the spell in its hand but Fiona must have spotted it, the lightning arced out, aimed straight for me. Fiona intercepted it with her sword, reflecting it back at the caster using her skill. The desiccated flesh on the undead caught fire briefly, smoke poured off the mage. I didn't know how but the creature still stood. I hit it with another Healing Touch and this time the undead glowed brightly, turning into a pile of ash.

"For a caster, that thing sure had a lot of health," I said, inspecting the pile for any items. I didn't find any. I scooped up the remains and tossed them into the bag.

"He must have been highly resistant to magic, most mages are since they lack the endurance," Fiona replied.

It made sense. Otherwise, a mage of that level should have fallen sooner. My first two spells alone did over 450 damage and I know the lightning spell did a significant amount of damage. He might have had a better version of the tunic we found earlier. I was hopeful as we looted the corpses.

I was let down. There was just more of the same bone dust and some unknown goo that we had no container for.

We searched the room and disarmed the one pitfall trap we located. I say disarmed, really I just broke the floor plate with an Earth Fist, revealing the pit of spikes below. There were two exits to this room, one on either side of a central altar, to the far side of the stairs down.

"Well, which way?" Fiona asked, eying both gloomy portals.

"I say we stick to the same strategy and go down the right path," I replied confidently.

"I guess one way is as good as another, lead on."

Before we headed down the corridor I tossed some bone fragments along the floor, which made a racket.

"Early warning system," I said simply.

Fiona just nodded, mace in one hand and a pilfered torch from the previous room in the other.

As we made our way through the filth covered halls, the smell of rot and decay became stronger and stronger. I gagged a few times. Had I eaten anything in the last hour I would have thrown up.

If it wasn't for the flickering torchlight I might have missed the next trap. A tripwire was hidden in the muck along the floor. A glint of light from the torch played across it just in time, allowing me to spot it. I stopped mere inches from activating it.

Inspecting the trap I couldn't see where it led to, or an obvious device it would activate. We chose to leave it be for now. I marked both sides with big white X's so we wouldn't stumble over it on our way back.

The hall let out after another forty feet, into a cavern lined with skulls and bones. It reminded me of the French catacombs. There didn't appear to be anything in the room at first glance. I took a step into the room, keeping an eye out for any more traps. I heard a clink when a bone fell off the wall. This seemed to start a cascade effect as more and more bones fell from the wall and ceiling. This freaked me out a little as I thought the room was collapsing. When they started rolling together to form something I really freaked out.

I tried casting Healing Touch on the pile but it didn't seem like I could target it with the spell. So I hit it from below with Earth Fist sending the bones tumbling apart, where they started forming two piles.

"Not good, I think this creature might multiply every time we break it apart, eventually overwhelming us with numbers," I said in concern.

"Wouldn't this be a good use of your Eye of the Storm spell?"

She was right, I had been so fixated on my fear of being trampled by the undead that I had forgotten about my A.O.E. spell. Fiona stepped back, giving me the space to use my spell without harming her.

I waited until the bone constructs started to form arms and legs figuring they were nearing completion before I started casting. I was also finally able to identify them.

Undead | Abomination | Level 12

The wind began to pick up as the Abominations lumbered to life. They stomped forward on thick legs made from many bones and arms, built like clubs. Despite their immense nine-foot height, they came apart in my windy vortex as they smashed into one another, the ground, and the ceiling. After five seconds I let the spell go, flinging the remaining bits against the walls. It didn't take long for four piles to start coming together and I checked these as well.

"Yup multiplying enemy," I said, sighing, knowing this fight was going to be a slog.

Undead | Abomination | Level 9

At least it looked like the more there were, the lower the level they became. You may have to fight more enemies but at least they would be manageable at lower levels. Fiona took this opportunity to come back into the room and start smashing bones.

"I think you have the right idea, time to smash," I said, but of course she didn't understand the reference. Comedy gold wasted again I lamented I smashed the nearest pile of bones with my staff, using Flurry. At least the satisfying crunch of bones made my mood improve.

It took us another half hour to destroy the damn Abomination. Even with the broken bones, it was able to reform into more and more piles. Eventually, there weren't enough whole bones left to support any of the necromantic magic that animated the things. To top it off it only counted as one monster for the experience.

Just like the previous skeletons it only dropped bones and bone dust, just an extreme amount of the material. It all went in the bag that was slowly filling up. A quick examination of the room showed nothing else of interest so we headed back down the tunnel we came from, making sure to avoid the tripwire. Once we were back in the altar room we headed straight for the other path. Something caught my attention, I stopped and stared at a single lit candle on the altar. I was sure wasn't there when we left the room.

"Um, was this lit before?"

Fiona came back as she had continued walking, to look at the candle, "I don't believe so, do you think we activated it by defeating the abomination?"

"That's what I'm thinking, see, there is a second unlit candle on the mantle," I said, pointing to another candle on the opposite side, "See if you can light it with the torch."

Fiona held the torch over the unlit candle and it refused to light, no matter how long she held it there. It also didn't melt one bit.

"Well, I guess that answers that," I said, frowning at the unlit candle.

We couldn't do anything about the second candle. I figured once both were lit it probably released some hideous undead boss. With the design of this dungeon, we would be forced to deal with it before we could leave.

We would find out soon enough as we were determined to clear this dungeon. The reward for the first clear was just too tempting. And that's what we did, another trap avoided and another abomination, that we were able to kill faster. Now that we knew what to do. In the bag, the bones went and we headed back to the main room to see what awaited us.