Your sleep is suddenly interrupted by the sound of the door being kicked in by heavy booted feet. In the entrance are five undead warriors, two heavily armored Turric Vanguards and a Turric Deathmagus, a necromancer by any other name. You rise to your feet pulling your broadsword and charging. Deathmagus takes no prisoners. This is going to be a fight to the death.


You swing a heavy blow and decapitate the lead zombie as the others charge forward. You've fought the occasional zombie in the past and you know from experience that you have to decapitate them to bring them down. As the first zombie falls, you face a thicket of swinging blades, what zombies lack in speed and accuracy, they make up in fearlessness and tenacity.


You need to fight without getting cornered or overwhelmed. You duck to the left and then run to the right, making the zombies slowly try to follow you. You pick a zombie at the edge and cut at his knees while parrying two blades aimed at your midsection. The zombies legs are undercut and you duck and blade and stab upwards into a zombie's gut. They keep onrushing but you roll to the side of a blow and parry a second before leaping on a table.


A downward chop takes another zombie downward and you backflip off the table landing on your feet. Taking a mirror, you toss it into the face of a nearing zombie and slip to the left before arcing right and using your sword to decapitate the next.


Several seconds later, you pant as the last zombie falls.


The Deathmagus claps his bony pale hands slowly, "Very good little Silver one, you are most impressive. I've decided to give you one last challenge, if you can over come it I'll let you live." He turns to one of the fully armored vanguards and points at you. The Vanguard silently obeys stepping forward with his barbed Falchion at the ready.


The other Vanguard stands by his master and together they watch the duel. You know from experience that Vanguards are heavily armored juggernauts with undead endurance and massive two handed falchions with rasping barbs attached.


Do you:

You stay at range and use throwing blades and daggers.

You begin the duel with two throwing knives as you try to stay at range. The blades hit square but ricochet off the heavy armor. You growl as you duck under his heavy blade and cartwheel out of his range. Having more space, you throw two more knives, one bounces off and sticks in the ceiling and the other lodges under his armor. The Vanguard pulls the blade out and throws it to the ground and you pull a dagger with two more knives.


Since the Vanguard seems to be taking his time, steadily moving forward, you carefully aim the next two throws. The first slides into an eyehole of the armor and for the first time you get his attention. The blade spews brackish blood that leaks from under his helm and dribbles down his chin.  He pulls the blade from his eye and grasps the Falchion with both hands, the old leather crackles under his grip.


"Great..." you think as you dodge a powerful but slow swipe that smashes the cabinet you ducked behind. You pull back and throw the second blade trying to lodge it through his plates under his arm. It connects with the armor and bangs off into the floor.


Pulling your daggers you duck under a sweeping cross-swipe and punch the dagger into his breastplate. The dagger rings in your hand without doing any apparent damage. He kicks but misses as you flit to the side and stab him in the neck. The blade slides into his neck but it doesn't slow him even a bit.


He backhands you and you barely escape a full on hit but feel your jaw instantly bruise and you see stars as you fall backwards into the debris around you. He is upon you instantly but you dodge his reversed blade and watch the heavy blade pierce the stone itself. You roll to your feet and try to kick out his feet but your leg meets with an unmovable object and you back away limping.


He closes in on you as you switch to your throwing knives which clink off his armor. You can't believe it when he raises his hand and you feel dark energy course through you.


"That wasn't fair..." is the last thought you think as he plants his falchion deep into your stomach and rips downward splitting your body from stomach to crotch. The last thing you see is his dead eye peering at you as you bleed out.


YOU HAVE FAILED.