Dear finder of my possessions,
I write this now on the forty-second day of Summer in the twelfth year during the reign of Illvanador first to his name.
The tides of war have made it to the shores of our nation. Already my men have done combat with the foul orcs on our shores. While they are still small in number the fact that we have been found in this remote place holds ill tidings. Similar reports have come in from the other frontier keeps. The command has come down to hold off the probing forces as long as possible while we reinforce our second and main lines of defence. I’ve already sent my wife and young children back to the inner cities. My eldest, Vallavor, chose to stay behind with me. I commend his bravery in the face of the adversary and his commitment as the firstborn of a keep lord.
Today is the sixty-third day of Summer.
The invasion is taking its toll on our forces. It's still only small skirmishes throughout the forest but they’ve become too frequent and casualties are mounting. We’ve lost five, seven are wounded but able, and three are too wounded to fight. The keep council have sent out a scouting party in the hopes of finding out when the main force will make landfall.
Today is the eighty-seventh day of Summer.
The council is calling for a retreat and abandoning of the keeps. The scouts have returned and those blasted green skins are a lot closer than we initially thought. We will depart when the sun rises in the morning and make our way back to the inner cities. We have given the rites of farewell to those too injured to make the journey. Their resistance will be a pittance against the coming tide but they’ll die a warrior's death compared to a senseless death on our journey.
Our final count is eleven dead, twenty wounded, and nine to hold the tide.
I leave behind this report of departure for those that come after.
As per our custom, I’ve left behind an ornamental dagger of my house as well as a mark of blood and essence so my rightful heir can claim this keep as lord if it still stands after the war.
Signed,
Vallavor third to his name.
I dropped the letter back on the desk. While I now knew what had happened to the keeps previous lord it did nothing about my current situation. Ultimately, I decided to just stuff the three items into my backpack. Just to be sure there were no other hidden spaces I tapped my way across the floor but it all sounded dull. I shouldered my backpack and made my way back down to the kitchen. I drank as much water as I could and refilled my water skin. I stuffed some torches I had found on the second floor into my backpack as well. Hopefully exploring the forest would bring me better rewards than the keep and tower did.
In the end, I decided to make my way back to the hole. After considering the sizes of the goblin groups I had seen so far, finding their camp looked to be a pretty big hurdle to overcome. Fighting any more than three at the time was a bad move. Since I would regain five points per day I could potentially kill five groups and come out neutral. Yesterday's fight with the group of four was pushing it too much.
It took me a bit longer to find the hole again since I was going off a general instead of a specific location. I came across some smaller creatures on my way there but they quickly made their escape when they noticed my presence. I did spot some kind of moose or elk in the distance but decide not to chance it through the forest. Just like the previous time I was here, I decided to observe the hole for a while to see if anything came in or out. I waited ton to fifteen minutes with nothing moving in or out of the hole. I dropped down from the tree and made my way inside.
I made it a couple of feet inside before it became too dark to see. I grabbed the fire starter and a torch from my backpack and lit the torch. The inside was exactly what you’d expect from a hole in the ground. The floor near the entrance had scattered twigs, leaves, and other forest material strewed about. The walls felt like packed dirt and it smelled of damp earth. The deeper I went the smaller the tunnel became. After walking for a few minutes it was down to roughly three men wide. I had yet to see any creatures, plants, mushrooms, or anything of interest. All of a sudden the world lurched.
Combat initiated with disadvantage (caught unaware).
You’ll draw one card less in the first round of combat.
Battlefield modifiers are in effect.
Lanes one and five are disabled for both sides.
The battlefield alignment only moved my body a few feet but the sudden initiation made it a lot worse than when I initiated combat. And then confusion set in as my opponent's side was empty. No creatures were visible on the board. I even checked the ceiling to see if it was some type of bat but nothing stood out. I did a quick mental recap. I was in an underground tunnel and some sort of invisible creature had somehow ambushed me.
Wait, I got ambushed.
My mind quickly recalled my fight with the lone wolf and the invisible ambush wolf. So something was lying in wait for combat to start. I drew my three cards for the round Skeleton (1/1), Skeleton (2/1), and Skeleton (1/1). I tried to see if any of the fields looked different to try and get an idea of which space the ambusher was placed in. Unfortunately, nothing stood out and it was a complete gamble. I played one of my (1/1) skeletons in the middle spot and ended my turn.
The skeleton walked forward and took a swing with its weapon at the empty air and nothing happened as it got back into position. Something shot out from the ground in the left lane and impacted my chest. It then scurried back to its own side. A brown mole the size of a small dog stood on the field while twitching its nose in the air.
Tremor Mole
Beast - Mole
Cave Ambush: When played on a Cave tile this creature gains Ambush.
Ambush: A creature with Ambush will only reveal when attacking. The first attack by a creature with Ambush can not be counterattacked.
Attack 1 Health 3
My card for the turn was another of my (1/1) skeletons. Since only one mole popped out of the ground, this would be over in two rounds. I played my (2/1) skeleton opposite the mole and ended my turn. My skeleton, now wielding two swords, charged the mole and jumped in the air. Posed like the fangs in the mount of a snake it descended and planted both swords in the mole’s back. The mole screeched and pulled the skeleton in a bear hug with its front paws and effortlessly broke the skeleton into pieces.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Drawing a (2/2) knight for the turn I played the (1/1) Lizardman skeleton against the mole. Like the other skeleton, it made an aerial attack. The mole swiped out with its claws and bisected the skeleton. While his legs fell on the ground, the torso kept its momentum and with a two-handed overhead smash it caved the mole’s head in.
An icon in the middle of the battlefield flashed and another mole popped out of the ground in the middle lane. My creatures were still on the field indicating that combat was still going on. First I focussed on the new arrival and then on the icon that had flashed in the centre of the field.
Blood nosed Mole
Beast – Mole
Attack 2 Health 2
Mole’s Nest
Field effect (unique)
While this field effect is in play there is a 100% chance to summon a Blood nosed Mole to the field when a Mole is killed.
This chance is reduced by half each time a mole is summoned.
Once again I cursed the shitty tutorial. The more I learned the more the giant flaws of it became clear. It also made me excited. The existence of field effects would add another tactical layer to combat. If I could obtain an effect to boost or buff my skeletons I´d be able to get surprise my opponents with a well places field effect. Unfortunately, that was a dream for the future. The unique tag probably meant it was specific to this tunnel or maybe just this section. While the effect was in theory quite powerful it was also useless. With nothing to leverage this effect, it would be easy to deal with any creatures it would summon.
My card for the turn was the (1/2) skeleton. With my first skeleton already facing off against the newly summoned mole I played my (2/2) in the left lane. The field effect only said summon and did not indicate where the summon would be played. With my knight in the left lane, it would trade with any mole summoned there. I would play the (1/1) skeleton to kill the mole in the middle lane next round. I could have played the final card in my hand on the right lane but since it wouldn’t kill a mole on its own I kept it in hand and ended the turn. While my knight stood by idle the skeleton charge forward with its sword at its middle with the tip pointed forward. With a mighty thrust, it stabbed the sword into the mole’s shoulder. It shrieked from being stabbed and with its already open mouth it chomped down on the skeleton's head.
I drew the horse as the card for the turn. Since it was also (1/1) I decided to play it instead of my skeleton since I wondered what it would look like on the actual battlefield. While I had a general idea of what a skeletal horse would like this horse had some very distinct differences. Instead of the normal open ribcage, it was completely closed almost like it was one piece of bone. The head sat closer to the body and the legs were a lot bulkier than I would suspect it to be. All these things combined definitely made it look more like a beast for war than one for riding. With a few heavy paces, it reared up on its hind legs and brought the front legs crashing down onto the already wounded mole. Surprisingly the mole didn’t even fight back which left me confused. A sudden tremor made the ground shake when a mole shot up from the ground in the right lane and crashed into the war horse. It crushed the horse underneath its frame as it landed in the left lane opposing my knight.
I quickly checked the field effect and saw the summoning chance had dropped to twenty-five per cent. The knight would trade with the mole meaning there was a one-in-four chance another mole would show up. I drew my spear-wielding (1/1) goblin for the turn. I played it in the middle lane and my (1/2) skeleton in the right lane. Luckily the tunnel limited the battlefield to just three lanes since having to cover all five lanes would be a hassle at this point. The mole and knight struck almost simultaneously. The mole swiped a clawed paw through the midsection of the knight while it planted its sword in the skull of the mole in return. With a rumble yet another mole popped up in the right lane.
As I drew my card for turn a second card manifested in my hand. The card I drew was another (1/1) skeleton and the second card was another (1/1) skeleton. This left me confused until I looked at the card closer. Unlike all my other skeleton cards this skeleton held no weapon and the cost showed a five next to two bones in a cross shape. I took a quick glance at the crystal resource counter and the five crossbones tokens next to it. My previous encounters had never gone on long enough for the deck box bonus to apply and I was glad to see it was an automatic process. If it automatically spawned a card I could never forget to take advantage of its effect. With finally having the card in hand I could test out one of my earlier theories. I pulled it from my hand and cast it on the rearguard slot behind my (1/2) skeleton. A big smile appeared on my face along with my skeleton. It held a bow made of bones and was already nocking an arrow. Just to cover all the bases I played another skeleton in the left lane and ended the turn.
The mole charged forward while my skeleton braced for impact behind its shield. The mole swiped with its right paw and bashed the shield aside. With its flank exposed the skeleton smashed its mace against the outstretched arm. I could hear the bones breaking on impact. Enrage by the blow the mole retaliated by swiping its left paw through the stalwart skeleton reducing it to only a pile of bones. Distracted by victory over the skeleton the mole's head snapped back and it sagged to the ground with a large arrow protruding from its skull. The skeletal archer made a rattling sound in victory by repeatedly opening and closing its mouth causing the teeth to clatter.
VICTORY!
Exp gained: 5
Coins gained: 10
Cards gained: Special common card.
Additional rewards: None
Claim
Seeing as the summoned moles also made me gain experience and coins it made me a little sad that the summoning steak had ended. Even if they counted only as common it was still free experience and coins. A card made out of light started to materialise in the air in Infront of me. When it was fully formed I snatched it out of the air and with a not-bright flash the details were filled in. It only took a quick glance to identify the card as a copy of the Blood nosed Mole. While it held no synergy with the rest of my skeletal deck at this point in time any card was better than having no card and so I added it to my deck.
Before continuing my trek through the underground tunnel I decide to take a short break. I sat my backpack against the wall and fished out my water skin. Sitting down next to my backpack and with my back against the wall I slowly drank my water. While the ambush had cost me a point of life the outcome was more than worth it. After a few minutes, I put my water skin back in the backpack and hoisted it back onto my shoulders. With a firm grip on my torch, I made my way further inside the dark and seemingly endless tunnel.
After walking for roughly ten more minutes a chance happened in the so-far straight and monotonous tunnel. The path was beginning to wind and turn slightly. After a few more minutes I came upon a split in the tunnel. Neither path seems to be different from the other. I walked up to the left tunnel first and inspected the entrance a bit closer but it looked just like the rest of the tunnel. I repeated the same thing for the right tunnel and came to the same conclusion. A slight sound turned my head to the torch. The flame had started to slightly flicker. I stepped back to the left tunnel and the flame returned to its normal straight flame. As I stepped back to the right tunnel it started to slightly flicker again. I stuck my finger into my wet it with my saliva and held it up in the air. The side facing the tunnel very lightly became colder and that confirmed my suspicion that there was a draft coming from the right tunnel meaning there was an exit nearby. Using my feet I carved an x into the dirt and stepped into the right tunnel. After a couple of minutes of walking, I started to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, I found a cavern. The light came from a few cracks in the ceiling and cast the cavern in a gloomy twilight. As soon as I put one foot into the cavern a message popped up.
You have found a dungeon challenge!