He cleared all the rooms down the left hall, only finding one more Intake Skeleton. The hallway turned right and ended in a large door with a vision port in it. Peeking in, he could make out a large room that was mostly shrouded in darkness. Backing away from the door, he decided to go back and check the other way first. Three skeletons and many rooms later he found himself at a dead end. “Well, that answers that question,” he muttered to himself as he retraced his steps and dropped the femur that only had 1 durability left on it. He pulled another one from one of the holes he had torn in his robe to hold more femurs. He waited and watched the in-game clock to see how long it took a dropped item to despawn. Five minutes later he had his answer and was wondering if he could cheat the system by picking up and re-dropping an item to extend the time. Something to test later when he had an expendable item.
Before he made it back to the dark room he pulled a torch from a wall sconce so he could have some light with him. He smirked, thinking back to some of the fucked up things his GM of the old D&D group had run them through. This place would have fit right in.
Stopping at the door, he glanced in seeing straw pallets lined up evenly along the walls which made him think of a very poor barracks. Pushing on the door, it opened with a tortured screech of rusty hinges. It was odd, as no other door he had opened had done that. Pushing the door all the way open, he put the torch before him into the room to get a better view.
Sure enough, looked like a barracks crossed with a living space. The pallets had what looked like bits of tattered cloth over the straw, and just at the edge of the torch light he could make out the shattered remains of what might have been a table. He waited a moment, but didn't see any movement. Still, he didn't trust the situation.
Without stepping into the room, he tossed a torch towards the remains of the table. It spun, making crazy shadows before it landed on the wood, which began to smolder. As the table caught fire, Alburet could see one skeleton rising all the way across the room. He targeted the new mob, a level 3 Decayed Guard, which had tattered pieces of leather armor and carried a wooden club as it started to shamble towards him. “Fuck, two levels above me and equipped,” he muttered, stepping into the room and casting about for anything useful.
Not seeing anything useful ready to hand, Alburet grimaced and swung on the Decayed Guard as it came into range. Trading blows with the Guard taught him something very quickly, that he didn't stand a chance in a straight up fight. Alburet's attacks weren't doing the normal 5 damage, instead only doing 1 while the guard pummeled him for 6 with each hit it landed.
Backing up, Alburet tried to break the combat so he could run only to be pummeled as the mob kept advancing with him. A minute later Alburet was a ghost floating above his corpse and letting out a deep sigh as a two minute clock counted down. He was able to see the guard shamble back across the room and lay back down on its pallet thanks to the small fire from the table. Two minutes later, Alburet found himself back in his cell. A quick inventory showed that he had all of his stuff, including the femur he had been using which was down to one durability.
“Okay, I need a plan,” he muttered as he pulled the combat log up and looked it over. The leather the skeleton was wearing blocked 4 damage from each of his attacks due to the armor rating. He needed a way to get rid of the leather the thing was wearing so he at least had a chance. If he could find a way to disarm it even better, as the high damage it did was an issue.
He brooded for a moment, considering all of his options. What did he have access to that could help him he thought as he chewed his bottom lip. Sitting back, he shifted his seat which slid him slightly. Looking down he found himself sitting on the straw that had been in each room he had checked. A plan formed in his mind causing him to chuckle before he set out to prep his battlefield.
Once he had everything prepared, Alburet picked up two torches from the far side of the wing. He tossed one as far across the room as he could, aiming towards the pallet the guard should be on. The torch spun wildly as it flew, landing on the cloth covered straw pallet the guard lay on. It went up instantly in flame, causing the mob to clamber to its feet. Each second it was in the flame it lost five health.
Grinning, knowing his plan would work, Alburet drew a femur with his free hand and waited as the Decayed Guard crossed the room. As the Decayed Guard came into range, Alburet dropped the torch onto the flammable pile of straw under the mob, taking a half step back as it went up in a blaze.
The mob was down to 320 of 350 health, and the fire was steadily taking its toll on both the creature and its armor. The fire was uncomfortable to be near but wasn't actively hurting Alburet, so he swung on the guard and was parried.
Grimacing, Alburet took a hit to the left arm which did 5 points of damage. Obviously, this one had more Constitution and Strength than the other skeletons he had fought. Alburet focused on trying to parry the attacks while letting the fire damage the guard for him.
By the time the fire had burned out, the guard no longer had leather armor and its club vanished into a puff of ash. The damage the guard was doing to Alburet dropped off to two per hit with the loss of its club. The guard also only had 100/350 health left, while Alburet had 50.
Alburet focused all his attacks on the Decayed Guard’s head. Each blow to the head was a critical, which did 10 damage. The guard mindlessly attacked Alburet’s chest, only doing 2 damage with each swipe. When the Decayed Guard finally collapsed into a heap, Alburet was on the verge of passing out with only 30 health left. As the skeleton hit the floor, Alburet was engulfed in a bright light and a loud DING echoed in his ears. When the sound and light faded he found he was fully healed.
Laughing, Alburet shook his head, “Level two in under an hour after leaving the first room, nice.” He quickly opened his character sheet to find he had five stat points to distribute as well as a new spell. He checked the spell first, while he considered how to divvy up his stat points.
The spell was called Demonic Retribution and did five fire damage, ignoring all armor to anyone who attacked the one buffed with the spell. It cost 15 of his mana, but stayed up for five minutes. Alburet wondered if he could place it on his imp when he got one next level. He checked the casting requirements; slapping his hands together along with speaking the word ‘Retribution’ were the required steps to activate it, then touch the one he wanted to buff. He cast the spell on himself before turning back to his stat points.
Alburet chuckled over the fact he was still basically four levels higher stat wise than he should be. He shrugged and evened out the outliers on his stats for now, bringing Constitution and Charisma up to 10 and 20 respectively.
Once he was done placing his stats points, he checked the loot, gaining a new Femur Club. He snagged a torch before crossing the ashes of the fire that helped him defeat the mob. He entered the room and began to search it for useful items.
The room was fairly large, with over twenty pallets along the walls where he supposed guards would have been if this place was still running, so it took Alburet some time to search. In the end all he found was a Dirty Satchel that had been tucked into a corner. Inside was aged meat, a flask that sloshed slightly as he shook it, and there were eight other spots for things in the grid that appeared when he looked inside the bag as well as ten copper which showed on a counter along the bottom of the grid. Slinging the satchel over his shoulder, he transferred all but two femurs into it, leaving one in easy reach tucked through one of the holes in his robe while he equipped the other into his main hand.
He crossed to the only other exit from the room, a set of double doors. As he neared the doors, he passed the burned out remnants of the pallet and saw a glint from the ashes. Stopping to investigate, he brushed the ashes away, revealing a slightly larger key. After that find, he took the time to shred the other pallets, finding a rusty pitted dagger for his trouble along with another ten copper. He examined the dagger, nodding at what he saw.