With dawn, we rose, breaking camp and making our way over to the hill, inspecting the entrance and then opening it. The door was made out of a large, stone wheel, allowing us to roll it into an opening so the entrance was open. The moss that we had seen outside was also inside, shedding green light, bathing the corridor in an eerie glow.
Looking at the narrow corridor, Sigmir asked me if I could create a shield and an one-handed axe for her, worried that she wouldn't be able to use her Lok'nar effectively inside the narrow space. I sat and first created the Rune Heptagon I'd need to make items out of Hard Ice, then I let myself fall into a trance that allowed me to draw as much power through me as possible. Everything around me faded away, leaving only the item I wanted to create and my connection to the Astral River. Shaping the Ice as it was created was easier than before, maybe it was the connection with Lenore, maybe it was the experience I had, maybe both. Anyway, it took some time but then I had the shield.
Hard Ice Shield Rarity Uncommon Type Shield Base Protection 12 against Piercing Damage Base Protection 12 against Slashing Damage Base Protection 8 against Blunt Damage Special Effect Imbued - Due to the process used for the creation of this weapon, it is strongly in tune with the Ice-Magic of the Traveller Morgana. 25% lower cost when wielded by her Ice-Magic. Special Effect Brittle – Blunt Damage may shatter this Shield A Shield created out of Hard Ice by the Traveller Morgana. It provides good protection but may shatter due to the material used.
Spiked Frozen Axe Rarity Uncommon Type One-Handed Axe Base Damage 3 Damage Piercing Base Damage 10 Damage Slashing Base Damage 8 Damage Blunt Strength Modifier High Special Effect Imbued - Due to the process used for the creation of this weapon, it is strongly in tune with the Ice-Magic of the Traveller Morgana. 25% lower cost when wielded by her Ice-Magic. This Spiked Axe was created out of Hard Ice by the Traveller Morgana. The material used, makes it lighter than normal, brittle and vulnerable to heat.
Sigmir hung her Lok'nar from the baldric she wore and held her hands out for her new gear. I handed Sigmir both items and she stepped back to test their balance and heft while I replenished my Astral Power. Then it was time to enter the Dungeon.
As we entered, a blue screen appeared.
Dungeon entered! You have entered an instanced Dungeon, the Barrow Den. Only those of your party can enter this dimension from the outside. You are the first Traveller entering the Barrow Den. For the first three days, you gain the Dungeon Traveller-Buff, granting Bonus EXP.
I placed my buffs on Sigmir and Ylva and we started down the corridor, being watchful as we had no idea what to expect in here. There was no sound, other than our own breathing which sounded incredibly loud in the narrow room. Even our soft steps broke the silence of the corridor, it was truly silent – like a grave.
Soon, we got to a crossroad, ahead was a massive stone door, that did not move in the slightest, no matter what we did with it. To both sides, a mirror image of the corridor we were in, continued further into the mountain, curving to follow the shape of the mountain. After a short deliberation, we started down the left corridor. After maybe 50 steps, there was an opening on the left wall and as we came closer, we suddenly heard shuffling noises so we hurried closer. Looking into the opening, there was a small room with multiple alcoves set into the walls. Inside, multiple skeletons were just starting to move out of their alcoves. Their eyes were glowing in a strange, dark light, similar to my own Dark Radiance spells only with a slight, reddish tinge to it. The shuffling noises were the skeletons getting rid of dust and cobwebs and moving about, I could see two with weapons, the rest had none. I guess we had been heard and started them into action.
Sigmir placed herself into the opening, bracing herself for their attack and using the narrow opening to her advantage. She could have used her Lok'nar inside but I guess she felt it would be better to only face one or two skeletons at a time without them being able to flank her. I stood behind her, and began throwing magic at them. Pure Cold was completely ineffective, and Icicles were only mildly effective, I guess piercing damage was useless against skeletons. I didn't even try to attack their vitality, after all it was a magic based on life and blood, something skeletons had in very little supply. That left me only a few options, I tried to grasp them with my Dark Magic and there was a slight feedback but all I did was make one stumble a little for quite a bit Astral Power.
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I observed one and got:
Skeleton, Level 35
Observing the rest told me that all of them were Skeletons, with levels between 35 and 38.
Meanwhile, Sigmir was blocking the entrance, holding them at bay with her shield. From time to time, Ylva was darting through her legs, biting a skeleton's leg, destroying it's stance and giving Sigmir the chance to land a punishing strike with her axe.
However, similar to me, Ylva was unable to deliver lasting damage making it quite hard on Sigmir who was slowly pushed back by the weight of the skeletons. I tried striking with my shuttle and it helped but not enough to stem the tide. Then I had an idea and as soon as Sigmir brought down her axe, I used my Ice Magic on it, trying to strengthen it's momentum and the strike smashed into the collar bone of a skeleton, breaking it cleanly off and destroying large parts of it's ribcage before I helped Sigmir to recover it. In the same way, I was able to help stabilizing the shield, lending my magic strength to Sigmir's physical strength. With that, the pressure on her greatly decreased.
But it wasn’t enough, I needed another idea. Their eyes were glowing with dark magic and I was able to influence them with it. Maybe a devouring effect against their Dark Magic would work. So I created a simple spell of Dark Radiance, Devour and Curse, combining it with the mental image of the magic that held them devouring itself.
The beam struck one of the skeletons in it's arm and the bones dropped down, no longer animated. Excited with the fact that I had something that worked against them, I re-cast the spell, this time aiming for the head of another skeleton. Again, the dark beam struck and the glow visibly weakened but didn't vanish. A second triangle-spell was not enough, but two more were able to reduce the weakened skeleton to loose bones.
Four triangle spells were quite the expenditure of Astral Power so I tried it with a Rune-Pentagon and it took two of those to destroy a single skeleton. So my next spell was a seven rune spell and the effect was uplifting, the beam struck the head of a skeleton and it collapsed.
Casting those spells reduced the skeletons to bones in short order and soon the room was almost empty. Just as we rejoiced, we heard a soft growl from Ylva. “There are more!”
I looked around and indeed, from further down the corridor, another, smaller group of skeletons was approaching. I redoubled my efforts with the skeletons in the room and was able to shatter them before the second group reached us. I snapped off one of my spells but to my dismay, the front skeleton was able to lift it's shield in the way, blocking the beam and the spell was unable to affect the metal shield.
Then it was time to switch, with us being in the room and the skeletons being outside. It was a risk to trap ourself like that but it was either that or getting overrun in the corridor. I had a little less than half my Astral Power remaining so I used some of it to heal Sigmir, trying to heal both the wounds she had received and the exhaustion. Then I rebuffed her and Ylva as the new group was upon us. Looking closer, there were only four skeletons, compared to the eight at our feet. I waited until Ylva had unbalanced the one with the shield and struck with a prepared rune-formation, reducing it to a heap of bones. The next skeleton went down easily but then the tortured shield on Sigmir's arm was shattered by a heavy blow, forcing her to use her axe to parry. I threw both thought processes into helping her, activating bullet time so my left hand could keep up and started casting two spells at once, each hand drawing one spell and using Rune Projection to insert the last runes. Moments later, Both skeletons were struck and joined their brethren as heaps on the floor.
Skeleton died You gain 1 800 EXP. For killing an opponent 1 level above you you gain Bonus EXP For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain Bonus EXP For killing an opponent with the Dungeon Traveller-Bonus in effect, you gain Bonus EXP . . .
You reached level 37.
Skill increased You increased your skill: Darkness Rune-Mastery [48/100]
Skill increased You increased your skill: Ice Magic [46/100]
Skill increased You increased your skill: Darkness Magic [6/100]
As Sigmir's shield had shattered, she picked up one of the shield the skeleton had used but the metal was causing her pain while draining stamina at a rapid pace, making her unable to use it. Even holding it to throw it into the Bag of Holding for Thekk was painful enough that we only handled the metal with covered hands but that only blunted the effect, it didn't stop it.
The next step was healing Sigmir up and recreating her shield, trying to increase it's thickness and strength this time. After healing her, I fell into meditation to regain my Astral Power.
Skill increased You increased your skill: Astral Meditation [25/100]
Then I recreated the shield, trying to strengthen it against shattering by focusing on the individual crystals and trying to somehow weave them together. Sadly, there was little success but I felt as if there was the possibility but my skill was insufficient. While I was doing that, Sigmir collected the weapons and bones of our enemies for Cisar and Thekk. Then it was time to move on.