Dungeon Master (Karma System)

The second group of assassins waited until Tharic was less than half a day from his family’s stronghold.

Rod’s party had escorted him for a week.

The contract began in Highforge after the city watch finished taking statements about the first ambush. Investigators identified the false maintenance wagon, several rented horses, and two places where the assassins had purchased ordinary supplies. None led to the person who paid them. The dead attackers carried no family marks, written orders, or accounts.

Tharic received a message from his uncle on the second day.

Helmar Ruskell urged him to come to the ancestral stronghold, where family records might reveal why anyone wanted the ring. The stronghold maintained its own guards and stood beyond roads used by ordinary freight. Helmar claimed it would be safer than any public inn while the Highforge investigation continued.

Tharic hired Rod, Lana, Dirk, Dain, and Nessa for the journey.

The pay reflected the attack already made and the warning that another crew would follow. Tharic did not pretend the work remained a low-threat caravan escort. He traveled with two pack animals, one enclosed wagon carrying business records, and three employees who had worked for his family long enough to know the mountain roads.

The ring stayed inside a pouch beneath his shirt.

They saw no assassins during the first six days.

Dirk checked every road crew, abandoned cart, and occupied ridge. Dain inspected camps before Tharic entered them. Nessa placed Held Remedy on the dwarf whenever the road narrowed around blind turns. Lana used Midnight to examine slopes too steep for a person to climb quietly. Rod divided his time between the front and the wagon rather than allowing a predictable formation to settle around the same target.

The party’s new members no longer felt provisional.

Dain understood when Rod needed space to use the axe and stepped into whatever line Rod left. Nessa knew which injuries Lana tended to hide until her casting slowed and which movements meant Dirk had seen something he could not yet explain. The week of ordinary caution did more to establish their place than one successful instance had.

On the seventh morning, the road entered the Ruskell mountains.

Pines replaced the lower scrub. Gray cliffs closed around a stream that had cut the only wagon route through the pass. Old family markers stood at each mile, their carved crests worn but maintained. Tharic identified the final one before the stronghold.

”The gate is beyond the next ridge.” He said. ”After that, the road remains inside family land.”

Dirk looked toward the ridge without answering.

The horses had become uneasy.

No animal smell came from the road ahead. No predator moved through the trees. The draft pair pulling the wagon kept turning their ears toward the cliff above the stream.

Dirk left the road.

He climbed beneath the tree line and used Far Mark on three points where loose stone met older cliff. Fresh scrapes crossed the largest boulder. Smaller rocks beneath it had been removed and replaced with narrow wooden chocks.

The slide had been prepared.

He descended far enough for Rod to see him and pointed toward the cliff, then held two fingers toward the rear bend.

Rod walked beside Tharic’s wagon.

”Someone prepared the slope ahead. Keep moving until Lana stops the team. Do not leave the wagon unless Nessa takes you.”

Tharic’s right hand closed against the pouch beneath his shirt. ”How many?”

”Dirk has not shown us yet.”

Dain moved to the uphill side. Nessa stayed near the wagon’s rear wheel. Lana loosened Midnight from the top of her pack and allowed the cat to disappear into the trees.

The party advanced another hundred yards.

The first chock broke.

Stone moved above them with a sound too deep to be mistaken for an animal. The prepared boulder struck the slope, gathered smaller rocks around it, and crossed the road behind the wagon. A second section fell ahead.

Lana froze the road beneath the horses’ front hooves before panic carried them into the slide. The ice did not trap the animals. It gave the driver a stable line while he turned them toward the cliff wall.

The forward fall struck thirty yards ahead.

The rear fall cut off the road behind Rod and the last employee. Dust filled the pass.

Crossbow bolts entered it from above.

They did not target the party’s exposed archer or healer.

Every first shot angled toward the wagon.

Dain used Intercepting Step when Tharic appeared through the open side. His shield reached the dwarf before two bolts did. One broke against the rim. The other entered the shield and stopped with its point less than a hand from Dain’s arm.

Nessa pulled Tharic below the wagon frame.

”Keep the pouch covered.” she said. ”They know which side of the wagon you are using.”

Rod entered the dust instead of remaining beside a target everyone could see.

The first assassin descended the cliff on a dark rope. Rod heard the metal hook strike stone before the person appeared. He moved beneath it. The assassin released early, expecting the dust to hide the landing.

Rod’s axe caught him before both boots reached the road.

More ropes fell.

These attackers did not wear road-worker coats. Their armor had been darkened, their faces covered, and their equipment selected for climbing. Two carried hooked blades similar to the one used against Tharic’s hand during the first ambush.

Dirk fired from the tree line above their position.

His first arrow cut a descent rope below its anchor. The assassin using it dropped onto the slope and slid into the stream. His second shot struck a crossbow limb as another attacker aimed through the wagon’s front opening.

Far Mark held positions after the dust concealed them.

The assassins changed their plan.

Three descended beyond Rod and moved toward the stream, using the wagon as cover from Dirk. Two more remained on the cliff and launched narrow glass spheres instead of bolts.

Lana saw the throw through Midnight’s eyes.

The familiar had climbed above the dust and crouched on a branch behind the attackers. One sphere passed over Dain’s shield. Lana formed a thin sheet of ice in its path. Glass broke against it, releasing a colorless vapor across the frozen surface instead of inside the wagon.

Nessa identified the effect when the edge reached her.

”Sleep poison. Stay out of the low ground.”

She used Clear Pulse on the driver, who had inhaled enough to begin losing control of the reins. The spell removed the effect before his hands released.

The second sphere landed near Rod.

He drove forward before the vapor could settle. Unbroken Advance converted a blade striking his shoulder into the step he needed to clear the cloud. Held Remedy activated beneath his armor. He used the movement to force one assassin away from the wagon and into the open angle Dirk had marked.

An arrow struck the attacker’s leg.

Dain held the uphill side alone for several breaths. Brace Line fixed his shield against the road while two assassins tried to move him. They did not attempt to pass him toward Lana or Nessa. Both reached around the shield toward Tharic.

The purpose of the attack remained unchanged.

They wanted the dwarf and the ring.

Tharic drew his narrow sword but stayed beneath the wagon frame. When one attacker came low, he thrust through the gap above the axle. The blade entered the man’s forearm and disrupted a hooked chain intended to catch Tharic around the chest.

Nessa’s Shelter Thread warned her when Dain took a blade beneath the edge of his shield. She placed a barrier against his side before the second thrust landed. Dain shifted only after the barrier formed, giving Rod room to return from the dust.

The two frontliners did not chase the same enemy.

Dain stayed between Tharic and the cliff. Rod moved through the open road, using the axe to destroy whatever approach the assassins tried to establish. When Rod drove one attacker downhill, Dain did not follow. When Dain forced another away from the wheel, Rod caught him outside the shield’s reach.

Lana prepared the battlefield around them.

Water from the stream had spread across the lower edge of the road. She froze three narrow lines through it and held lightning above her hand. The assassins saw the ice and avoided it.

That forced them onto the dry ground Dirk could see.

His arrows stopped being attempts to find hidden targets. Far Mark fixed one attacker between the wagon and a pine. Threading Shot carried the next arrow through the open wagon wheel and into the man’s shoulder. A second arrow struck the hand reaching toward the ring pouch.

The cliff shooters tried to reach Dirk.

Midnight saw them turn before Dirk did. Lana warned him and released one controlled current through the nearest ice line. Lightning crossed the wet stone below the attackers. It did not strike them directly. The flash made both hesitate at the exposed edge.

Dirk left his firing position.

The first crossbow bolt entered the tree where his chest had been.

He moved farther uphill, found the receiving end of the assassins’ signal line, and cut it. Without signals from above, the attackers on the road could no longer coordinate with the people searching for him.

The fight narrowed around the wagon.

One assassin reached Tharic from beneath it. He crawled through the gap between the rear axle and the road, ignored Nessa, and caught the dwarf’s coat with a hooked blade.

Tharic could have pulled away and left the pouch exposed.

He moved toward the hook instead. The coat went slack. Nessa struck the assassin’s wrist with her short staff, and Dain drove the edge of his shield against the man’s shoulder.

Rod finished the threat before the assassin recovered.

The surviving attackers began withdrawing.

They did not scatter in panic. The two remaining cliff shooters covered the ropes while three people on the road retreated toward the stream. Dirk killed one shooter after Far Mark reacquired his position. Lana froze a rope against the cliff before another assassin could climb beyond Rod’s reach.

The last two attempted to cross the stream.

Dain remained with Tharic. Rod pursued to the water’s edge while Dirk fired from above. One assassin fell beneath Rod’s axe. The other reached the opposite bank with an arrow in his side, continued twenty steps, and collapsed among the trees.

Nessa reached him while he still breathed.

He carried no poison tooth.

He also carried no contract, token, identifying mark, or payment record. His climbing gear used components available in any large dwarven city. The dark armor had been stripped of maker’s marks. A small purse contained mixed coins from three regions and nothing minted near the Ruskell lands.

Nessa tried to keep him alive for questioning.

His injuries were too severe. He died without speaking.

The party searched every attacker and firing position. They found spare bolts, empty poison spheres, climbing hooks, signal cord, and enough provisions for another day. No item named the employer or explained how the assassins knew Tharic’s route.

They cleared the smaller slide from the forward road rather than return toward Highforge. Tharic’s stronghold lay less than four hours away. Its guards, walls, and family records offered more protection than an exposed pass.

The ancestral stronghold appeared before sunset.

It occupied a stone shelf above a narrow valley. Square towers grew from the cliff on either side of a central gate. Family crests marked the outer wall, each representing a Ruskell branch that had contributed to the stronghold’s defense. Some had weathered almost smooth. Others had been restored recently.

The gate opened before the wagon finished climbing the final road.

Helmar Ruskell waited inside with two lines of armed guards.

He was older than Tharic by more than twenty years, with the same square jaw and iron-gray hair gone almost white. He crossed the courtyard before a servant could announce the arrivals and gripped his nephew by both shoulders.

”You should have come after the first attack.” Helmar said. ”The road has become less safe every day you remained beyond our walls.”

Tharic looked toward the family guards. ”I believed Highforge could identify them.”

”Highforge investigates hired hands. We need to identify the person hiring them.”

Helmar listened to the account of the second ambush without interrupting. His anger appeared controlled rather than surprised. He named old trade rivals, inheritance disputes, and distant family branches that might believe Tharic’s ring supported a claim they wanted removed.

”The archives may contain something our generation forgot.” He said. ”We will examine them tomorrow. Tonight, you rest.”

He thanked Rod’s party and assigned guarded guest rooms along the inner courtyard. Tharic received the room that had belonged to his father. Two Ruskell guards remained outside its door.

The party ate in a private dining room after Nessa finished treating the injuries from the pass. Dain inspected the windows and found them covered by working shutters. Dirk walked the courtyard with permission and marked the gate, stables, and two public stairs. Rod kept the recovered assassin equipment sealed for the family steward to record in the morning.

Lana opened her window long enough for Midnight to enter the corridor.

The black cat crossed the inner gallery, passed beneath the chairs of two off-duty guards, and continued through the stronghold while the household settled for the night.