What awaits you at the end of the dungeon?

Looting the necromancers

The hall standing before you is massive: an underground facsimile of the church above. On the far side of the room, a marble altar draped with black-trimmed white cloth holds a shining sword and radiant mail. Between the two, robed figures sit quietly on rows of pews, staring attentively at a wizened, hunched man with white hair and three skulls tied to a gnarled crook. A few hoods have fallen back to reveal the bleached bone of bare skulls, betraying the undead nature of the 'worshippers.' Several other alcoves sit in the back of the room, no doubt leading back to the other crypts that served as entrances to this sprawling dungeon.

The necromancer leading this mock congregation looks considerably stronger than the ones you met in the crypt, no doubt the boss of this dungeon. However, given you've largely avoided combat thus far your group is still relatively full of power even despite your recent tantrum. You doubt his pride will let you take the treasure without a fight: after all, you certainly wouldn't in his position. Besides, even though it seemed like there was a small chance the other necromancers could be convinced to defect, convincing a dungeon boss to leave his position at the top of his own realm to become someone else's minion is a much harder sell.

Seeing no real way to be stealthy, your group simply steps into the room. Immediately, the man raises his staff and the rows of skeletons rise with a clatter of bone and scrape of wood.

"Ah, welcome to our congregation, young woman. I sense the taint of the goddess upon you. No matter, you will become part of our flock in the end, and your minions will be released from their servitude." You feel a bit indignant being mistaken for some sort of brainwashed minion, but perhaps it's for the best that you don't get even more of a reputation as a monster who works with adventurers against his own kind.

The necromancer brings his staff down upon the ground, the crunch of wood on stone causing his minions to lurch into action. Several dozen robed skeletons charge at your group with surprising agility, only to be completely annihilated by a wave of flame. The display of power merely elicits a cackle from the ancient wizard, and suddenly the remaining congregants scatter, several fishing daggers, phials, rocks, and even bones from their swaddled robes and the alcoves that surround the room. Unfortunately it seems like you'll have to take this seriously: the skeletons aren't as mindlessly **** to your area attacks as they were when not commanded by a necromancer. You create a wall of fire that bisects the room, cutting off at least some of the enemy forces. Meanwhile, Tlax and Ari rush into the fray, hoping to begin destroying the skeletons before you're overwhelmed in a barrage of makeshift ranged attacks.

Not wanting to expend too much power on the scattered, weak enemies, you lazily flick firebolts while you watch your champions at work above. After quickly realizing that skeletons aren't really **** to being bitten, Tlax wraps herself around a nearby skeleton and squeezes, causing it to collapse in a shower of bone shards. Meanwhile, Ari's sword glows with a dull red light and cuts through bone far easier than any sword ever should, leaving acrid smoke where it passes. Through the roar of the fire wall you hear the clatter of bones, so you duck a few jagged knives flung in your direction and rush ahead to peek through and find out what the wizard is planning.

The congregation on the far side of your barrier seem to be forming into some sort of huge, hulking figure, like a headless giant of bone. Its torso is made up of the skulls of the individual parts, while its arms and legs are formed of huge numbers of the corresponding bones. The ground cracks as it rips a pew out of the ground and then leaps over the burning barrier. Tlax narrowly ducks out of the way as the pew slams into the ground and explodes with a loud smash. You hear a hiss and a pained yelp as your companions are peppered by sharp shards of wood, the new enemy charging forward just as your group dispatches the last of the weaklings.

You run to attack the necromancer, but the moment you step in his direction another pew barely misses your face, snapping in two as it strikes the opposing wall. Seeing that the hulking bone construct has no intention of letting you reach its master, you turn and leap on top of it, hoping to avoid its swings. Meanwhile, Ari ducks between its legs and slashes at its left foot while Tlax winds up its right. You pour fire into its torso to relatively little effect, ducking every time a swooshing sound announces the golem attempting to swat you off of its back with another swing of a pew.

You look down below to see that the bone giant's left foot now has a large gash in it, slowly widening as the warlock repeatedly hacks away. However, Tlax's squeezing doesn't seem to be finding any purchase: the bone legs are simply too thick to be crushed by a snake her size. Finally, a kick from the giant sends her flying across the room, where she strikes the back wall and crumples to the floor to an amused cackle from the necromancer, who slowly hobbles over to her prone form while his hand glows with a frigid blue mist. Meanwhile, you feel your power draining from the exertion of bombarding the gigantic skeleton with your powers, and a shriek announces your elf companion has her own problems: suddenly you see her dangling in the golem's bony right hand, her sword lying forgotten on the floor. She squirms and then groans in pain as it slowly begins to squeeze the life out of her.

Suddenly, you find yourself being buried in skulls as the golem falls apart into a pile of bones. Confused but grateful, you glance over to see Tlax wrapped around the necromancer, her fangs sunk deep into his neck. With a pained sigh, he crumples to the ground. Ari gives an exhausted cheer and begins to dig you out, and the group of you slowly make your way to the altar. Ari begins to strap on the mail as you inspect the sword. You skim through the flavour text, something about a sword granted to Enileve's faithful by some sort of messenger angel called Seramiel, meant to aid them in destroying evil. Adventurers and their lore... why can't they just tell you what it does? Finally, you find what you're looking for.

Enileve's Wrath
20% bonus crit chance
20% bonus crit damage
+20 STR, +10 DEX
Ignores damage resistance to slashing.
Double damage against undead and daemons.

Not bad, not bad at all! You'd really rather it wasn't themed around killing your kind, but given its other bonuses it'll still be a huge boon for your companion. Besides, you feel a certain satisfaction in seeing a fallen priestess of Enileve perverting her the goddess' tools to serve her enemies. You give the blade a twirl and then hand it to Ari, who's just finished attaching the last piece of her new armour. You turn to leave, ready to have a rest and properly appreciate the sexy little minx, when you hear the crunch of footsteps coming from one of the other entrances to the room. They couldn't have arrived at a worse time: you're exhausted from the recent battle.

The three of you duck behind the altar just before you hear voices in the room. "Ach, I told ye that there were another party in this dungeon, and now they've gone and taken the treasure! If ye hadn't taken yer sweet time with that stupid angel thing maybe we could've beaten them here!"

"Well, if you had've actually seen which of the sorcerers was controlling it and shot him, maybe I wouldn't've had to?"

"Quiet, you two. Let's just head back to Stoneford for now and run some other dungeons. We can come back next week." You breath a sigh of relief as her voice becomes suddenly muffled as she turns away from you.

"Aaah!" The barbarian yells in frustration and a pew explodes above you, raining slivers of wood down upon your group. Tlax hisses in pain.

"Fine, let's—wait, what was that?" Suddenly, the footsteps start approaching your position.

Oh crap

You motion to your companions and get ready to ambush the berserker, seeing little alternative. Soon after, her form peeks over the altar, and a massive hand reaches down. Ari slashes at it with her new sword to a yelp of pain, but her other hand swings down and picks you up by an ear. "Ah ha, I knew I heard something!" The barbarian cheers and grins at you. "Grugnik, doesn't this guy look familiar?"

"Ach, I'll say he does! I wouldn't mind using him for a bit of target practice for a change."

Out of the corner of your eye you can see Ari and Tlax rising behind the barbarian, now facing back to her friends. "Watch out!" yelps the invoker, and Amana leaps out of the way just before Ari's new blade slices the air where she stood moments before. She tosses you into a wall and grins. "And it looks like we've found the little traitorous bitch too, and wearing our loot no less." She grabs her maul from her back and charges with a loud yell. You rub your head and stand up, but a barrage of lightning bolts from the dwarven archer quickly knocks you back down, and then you're suddenly surrounded by a bubble of hard light as the invoker holds forth a glowing, yellow gem. You pummel the barrier with your remaining power and it collapses just in time for you to see the massive maul crash into your warlock's side, throwing her against an alcove. She lies **** in a pool of blood for a moment before disappearing to leave all of your hard-earned loot. You just manage to let out a yell of frustration as another arrow pierces you, and the world goes dark. No! You were so close!