Rum woke up the next day feeling tired. They all were. No attack had come that night, but they’d all served on the rotating lookout, which deprived them of a full rest. Also, the idea of fighting a hundred skeletons had frankly put terror into more than a few of them, the kind of terror that keeps one awake. Rum was probably the least scared person here, except perhaps White Rose who had no awareness of danger at this point. But this apparent bravery was only because he’d fought them before and won, and against worse odds too. Nothing lost at that time were too dear or too permanent, and he knew a spell now that could put the skeletons down if need be. A hundred skeletons might be more than he could initially handle, but if they managed to create a choke-point or hold them off, he would be able to regenerate the mana necessary to keep putting them down until the last one.

“Will you join us for a meeting?” asked an even more tired-looking Alkiath, as Rum yawned lazily on his Softify-improved sleeping spot.

“Sure” Rum yawned, and sat up properly. Next to him lay White Rose, horizontally like a plank under a Magical Blanket. “You can get up now” he told ze, and the skeleton rose up to a sitting motion in an eerily smooth motion, one that was only possible by magical animation. No muscles were needed to make White Rose move of course, so it was no wonder ze got up like that.

The reason why ze’d been laying down at all was because of an idea that Rum had gotten yesterday. The idea being that maybe White Rose should pretend to sleep. It looked too unnatural and spooky if the only mute, secretly veiled person among them either sat or stood up all night without moving an inch. That had to count as suspicious, Rum had reasoned. And so for many hours he’d made White Rose lie still as a rock on the ground, outstretched like a plank, with the Magical Blanket intending to deceive people into believing White Rose could feel cold – a very normal feature of living beings. Could be a good educational moment on human-like behaviour too, Rum thought as he stood up on both legs, and bent and stretched out his own back.

When stretching was done with, he merely said “Let’s go”, and White Rose stood up as well, following behind him as they both approached the nearby circle of elves, who’d already began talking to each other. Just before entering the circle, Rum cast Become Clean on himself for refreshment. When he stood among them, the other elves quickly stopped talking, and all tired eyes and serious faces looked over at him. “What?” Rum asked their collective expectancy.

“What course of action would you recommend now, Great Mage Rum?” It was Alkiath who spoke. “No attack came this night. Do we wait another night, or descend the dungeon?”

Rum opened his mouth with hesitation, before producing instead the grimace of a difficult question. “I don’t know” he admitted after a moment. The elves sighed, looked down or looked over at Alkiath for an answer. “But... well” Rum continued, sighing himself, “we could end up sitting out here forever. If they didn’t come tonight, I would think it’s because either of 2 reasons, both promising. Either they don’t know that we’re here, and then our base is secure. Or, they’re gathering their strength because they feel too weak. In the first case, we may come at them with at least some element of surprise. In the second case, offense would be prudent to defence. Or at least that’s what makes sense to me.”

Alkiath smiled with his tired face, and the other elves looked at least a little bit more hopeful now. “That sounds good, then we go in!”

“Of course” Rum added, before the elves could get too optimistic. “They may also be assessing us, and planning an ambush even grander than the one my party walked into last time.”

11 elven faces suddenly dropped, and they were now back to serious ones: to worry and pessimism.

“But I have a spell for that eventuality!” Rum quickly added when he understood the considerable pessimism his comment had caused. “A spell which saved my party last time, but which I had to make on-the-spot then. Now when I use it, I will have it from the start, and with the experience of how it works. If we end up in such a situation, just stay on defense and buy me the time to finish off our skeletal foes.”

“And the witches? The wizards?” commented a particularly depressed-looking male elf, which Rum did not remember the name of.

“You got arrows” Rum retorted, “shoot them somewhere it hurts. Casting spells will be much harder then.”

The elf nodded, and it seemed to Rum that at least some of the pessimism left the platoon.

“We should make but a probing attack for today” Royath spoke up.

Alkiath turned to Royath and put up an eyebrow.

Royath answered the eyebrow: “We go in, find a fight, defeat our enemy, and then retreat. Our elves need combat experience, we’re not operating on full capacity, and it might be good to test the enemy too. Know their strengths, and their weaknesses.”

Alkiath nodded. “Sounds reasonable” he commented. “Alright then!” he shouted. “This is the plan, if anyone disagrees, please say so: in 20 minutes you all meet at this spot, and be ready for our first dungeon dive. Today we will, as Royath suggested, do a probe. Just a small attack. We assess ourselves, and our enemy. Good? Then go! Make any preparations you need to, and be back here in 20 minutes!”

Everyone dispersed. Rum turned around to face his skeleton. “So, my friend. My White Rose. I think it is time that you perhaps learned some self-defence.”