Chapter 9: Isekai Life & Rope Trap

“Hey, are you alright? Let me see that?”

Katriana allowed me to lift her makeshift bandage to look at her wound. Miraculously, the clawing attack missed her jugular and her windpipe, but the three slashes looked fairly deep. Not that I had Healing proficiency, something that was locked to Priest classes like Druid and Cleric, for some reason. Because the people who needed nigh-exclusive access to that sort of knowledge were the characters who had easy access to magical healing.

“What do you prescribe, lord physician?”

“Well, if you can joke, it can’t be that bad.” I was mainly grateful that Katriana had at least two hit points. Maybe even three. Let’s see...

“Your turn, Voss.”

He grimaced as I took a peek at his wound. It was only a glancing scratch from one of the claws, and definitely looked a lot less threatening than Katriana’s wound.

So, in conclusion: Katriana had at least 3 HP, and Voss at least 2. Hopefully they both had a lot more, though.

“Alright, well, keep the pressure on, and when you’ve both stopped bleeding, I have a plan for dealing with the skeletons, using the best weapon in our arsenal.”

“Oh?” replied Voss, “And what would that be?”

“Well ... one of you brought rope, right?”

It only took us twenty minutes for us to set up for my plan.

The switchback that lead up to the entrance of the ruin started from the bottom of the cliff, rising twenty-five feet to the right of the entrance, before turning 180 degrees and rising the rest of the way. I imagine that when whoever built this place was working, they probably had a pulley system outside the entrance for lifting materials ... but that doesn’t matter right now. What was important was that at the top of the path, you had to turn 90 degrees to actually see inside the building ... or rather, I should say, if you left the ruin and walked in a straight line, you’d fall off a fifty-foot cliff.

Using a length of rope and some pitons that Voss had provided, we strung a tight rope across the entrance to the ruin about six inches off the ground. Anyone caught unawares would trip forward, either falling down on the narrow path with no room to manoeuvre, or go spilling over the edge for a nice, hearty 5d6 damage.

A sentient being might see the rope. Or be too wise to fall into an obvious trap. But for a dumb, Intelligence 0 skeleton, they’d fall for it every time. Maybe they’d get lucky and happen to step over the rope ... and for that reason, Voss would be positioned on the path beyond the door, to fight skeletons that made it through with Katriana’s mace, and also to smash the ones that fell but didn’t clear all the way to the cliff.

There was a small chance that a skeleton with high HP might survive the fall. To counter that circumstance, Katriana would be positioned at the bottom of the climb to finish them off before they could rise again. She’s be far enough away that they wouldn’t fall directly onto her, of course.

As for the bait ... unfortunately, it had to be me.

I don’t know the character sheets or stats of Voss or Katriana, but I did know I had almost the highest Dexterity it was possible for a human being to start with. I also knew that my armor class was tied with Katriana’s (probably, I still didn’t know her Dexterity score) with the Armor spell, and that I had such a good score without being burdened by a shield or armour.

I also had a decent enough missile attack adjustment that I could just nail one with a dart if I needed it’s attention.

There was also just enough room on the path outside the entrance, opposite the switchback, for me to dodge to the right and get out of the way ... hopefully.

There existed a possibility that whoever animated the skeletons ordered them to “defend this ruin” instead of “kill all interlopers” or something similar, which means that the skeletons likely wouldn’t attempt to leave the ruin. If that was the case I’d have to come up with some other idea.

It wasn’t a perfect plan. There was a lot that could go wrong. But, in terms of defeating a bunch of skeletons with zero further damage to the party, it was the best that we got.

“And what if you find a monster that isn’t a skeleton?” Katriana sensibly asked while I was explaining this plan.

“I regroup with you two, we destroy it if it followed me out of the tomb, or we formulate a new plan if it didn’t.”

Like I said, not a perfect plan.

When I reentered the ruin, padding softly, trying not to attract more attention, the first thing I did was kneel at the site of the earlier battle, and try to recover my lost darts.

No good. The tips were all completely fouled by the force I struck with. Oh well, a small price for throwing darts like a motherfucking boss.

I straightened, took a deep breath, and yelled.

“YOUR MOTHER LOOKS LIKE A GORGON AND SMELLS LIKE A TROGLODYTE!”

Hopefully that would have been enough to attract at least one monster.

Instead, it attracted four. I guess these skeletons really cared about their mothers.

I turned and fled, only looking back to make sure the skeletons were following me at full tilt. Well, full tilt for the undead, at least.

I smoothly hopped over the rope and ducked to the right, putting one hand on the side of the ruin to steady myself.

... And exactly as planned, four skeletons stepped out of the ruin, caught the rope, and went tumbling ass over tea kettle down the cliff. My heartbeat pounded in my ears as I watched them go over, keeping an eye out for errant claws, grasping hands...