Stealth skills are unon, in truth, but we Pathfinders ot afford to ighem. Far too many have found themselves dead before they even knew what hit them, victims of Ambush attacks from the cealment of a good stealth skill.

  For those of you who wish to take the Tank role, you mitigate the effects of stealth and Ambush by the simple expedient of having enough health and armor to survive, and further iing enough into endurao blunt the danger of critical damage. But for the rest of us, our only choice is a solid iment in perception, and items or skills to ralize the advantages of stealth.

  Even in duels between assassins, it is most often not the best dagger nor the highest dexterity that wins. The highest perception alrovides an advantage.

  If you hear the invisible rogue sneaking up behind you or see the sniper lining up a shot from the shadows, Ambush will fail. There are tless forms of stealth, and you will be forced to rely on the diverse skills of yroup for long-term safety. But there is no substitute for your own iment in perception – it will keep you alive.

  - Lyeneru Silverleaf. Lecture to novice Pathfinders.

  Aliandra

  Ali was jolted awake from the simultaneous chime of her notification and a fresh surge of pain. It was both worse than st time, but also somehow easier to manage. Or it seemed that way – this time, at least, she was able to stop herself from screaming out loud. Still, she tasted blood in her mouth immediately.

  You have been afflicted with Domain Withdrawal.Separation from your domain weakens you.-10% to maximum health.Affli – Duration: Indefinite. t: 2

  The way enduraigated pain without actually eliminating it was rather bizarre. The pain was still present, throbbing through her head like a debilitating migraine, but somehow, she was able to fun.

  She hesitated for a moment, but the five more attribute points on endurance, redug the pain to a muanageable level. Alresent, but possible to ighe only problem was that, with two ts of Domain Withdrawal, she was dowy pert maximum health – she would o be very careful to avoid being hit. As if that hadn’t already been a big problem with her racial disadvantage.

  Ha. Big problems for Tiny people.

  Ali rose from her unfortable bed on the cold dirty stone floor of a dark and ruined house. Breakfast was a brief affair, sisting of a couple of slices of an apple Mato produced from his pack, and then they headed back out into the streets and alleys of the a, deserted city.

  “I think I know where we are,” Ali said, after a few minutes, getting Mato’s immediate attention. “It looks a lot different than I remember, but we’re in one of the mid-level residential districts. The Grand Library Ara is in the ter of the city, it should be over that way.” She pointed. It wasn’t a precise dire, but it was the best she had. It ’t be too far, and we always adjust whe closer. “The surface was always accessible from the library, so I think that’s our best ce of getting out.”

  Unfortunately, that was roughly the same dire as the two skeletons they had run into before they hid for the night, but Mato didn’t seem to mind. He, at least, seemed fident they could avoid them.

  “Skeletons aren’t supposed to be too smart,” he noted.

  Ali raised her eyebrows. “Better to be killed by a smart monster or a brainless one?”

  Mato chuckled hoarsely. “Right. Love the positivity.”

  Following his lead, they were indeed able to avoid any enter with the dangerous skeletons, skirting them while they wandered into a dead-end alleyway, and they pressed on through the district. Progress ainfully slow as they were forced to check for tripwires and duto hiding spots at regur intervals whehey heard monsters passing nearby. The clig or cttering of skeletons, or the chirps of hunting Kobolds – Ali quickly lost t of the hey had barely avoided, many of them too high level for her to eveify.

  “There should be another main road just up there,” she said, studying the looming rise of the errace level. Somewhere along the main road, they should find a path up – access to the upper districts had been provided at regur intervals, and without the glowing magical shields running, they should have no trouble.

  Turning a er, Ali found herself staring down a couple of green-scaled Kobolds, just as surprised as she was.

  Warrior – Kobold – level 6-7 x2

  The slightly bigger Kobold in the lead turned a scarred face toward them and instantly drew his sword, chirping the arm. Without hesitation, both monsters rushed toward them.

  “We got this,” Mato said, shifting to Bear Form beside her and then charging to meet the oning Kobolds.

  I hope so, Ali thought, trying to reassure herself that they would be ok. Remember the noise might attract others. Keep alert. Mato was level six now and it was two-against-two, with her summoned Sewer Rats to break the tie. Mate bulk smmed into the first Kobold, knog it off bance as he swiped an attack that left bloody gashes across its torso and tihrough, sshing high ohigh of its panion.

  He remembered. Ali let out the breath she had been holding at the little fsh of green mana, and the soft warmth of nearby nature magic washing up across the exposed skin of her forearms and face.

  “Go!” Her rats sprang forward immediately at her mental and.

  Pig on the rger Kobold in the front, Ali triggered her Are Bolts, ung her tiny missiles of glowing are energy into high-speed curving arcs around Mato. Malika had been right from the beginning, the target-seeking missiles were strategically powerful, and she was growing far more profit in guiding them around her allies and summoned monsters.

  Ali gasped as something heavy smmed into her back. The cold hard stone of the pavement rose and smacked her in the face. Darkness pressed in as her vision dimmed briefly, and the warm gush of blood soaked her shirt, running down her back. Pain seared through the numbness. I’ve been hit! How?

  She jerked sideways as something gleaming hit the stoh a sharp k. Ali scrambled away on all fours, panting, every shallow breath drawing a sharp stab of fresh pain through her lungs. Rolling to the side of the street, up against a gray stone wall, she finally came face-to-face with the hard reptilian eyes of a Kobold who must have been stalking her from the shadows. The dim light gleamed off bared fangs in a bck-scaled face, and the amber blood dripping from the wicked dagger clutched in its talons.

  The dagger stabbed toward her neck with shog speed. Ali summoned a barrier that snapped into pce just in time to intercept the attack. She experienced a moment of intense relief as her barrier deflected the powerful strike without breaking, but she could tell it wouldn’t hold long. Scrambling backward along the wall, she left a trail of blood in the dust as she retargeted, sending her are bolts flipping around in mid-flight to sm into the bck-scaled Kobold who had somehoeared from nowhere.

  The Kobold made an annoyed hiss and rapped on the barrier with its cws before leaping over it in a feat of ridiculous agility, chirping and chittering angrily as it dht for her. Again, she summoned a barrier just in time to block the deadly dagger strike, stopping the rusty bde a finger’s width from her face. She screamed again and scrambled away, still somehow maintaining enough focus to fire her are bolts.

  Calm down Ali, she berated herself, trying to emute the sense of Malika’s posed voice advice when she had been afraid, despite the vicious Kobold trying its best to stab her. You have more spells. In her panic, she had entirely fotten her basic tools. She took a breath and cast Grasping Roots on the rogue. Unlike her inal trip magic, this spell did not require dirt and pnts to grow – the thiarled roots, created entirely from mana in an instant, sprang forth from the stone pavement to tangle around the ankles and tail of the Kobold, binding it in p the edge of the street.

  The Kobold screeched in frustration, frantically thrashing against its bonds.

  With a thought, she redirected one of her rats from the warriors behio attad resumed her are bolts while slowly slipping herself backward into Mato’s aura. She had kept her distanitially because she was afraid of him losing trol. She was still terrified of him – but this Kobue had taken more than half her health in a sirike. At least, if she were close enough, Mato had said he could redirect damage to himself.

  While giving Mato more damage to feed his rage was an incredibly poor idea, dying ireet to an angry Kobold with a dagger was infinitely worse.

  With several sshes of the dagger, the rogue severed the roots and charged. Crap! Ali again blocked its advah a barrier and the her Grasping Roots while it tried to sidestep to find an ao strike. Uo get to her, it hissed its frustration and stabbed her rat in the side of the head, killing it instantly.

  I ’t let it reach me!

  She risked crawling a little closer to Mato, sidering redireg her other rats, but she discovered that both had already perished in the fight with the other Kobolds – clearly too low-level to be a threat to these monsters. In her panic, she had not even noticed the loss of her mana reservation. The withering barrage of bolts finally dropped the Kobold on the dusty stone pavement, still bound by her root magic. Phew!

  Her relief was short-lived, however. Mato’s healing magic had a telltale greenish flicker which she had learnize quickly. Wheurned, she saw Mato still pinned down by the two y Kobold warriors. There was no sign of his healing magic, just the red mist of his swelling Berserker rage.

  “Mato! Heal!” Ali snapped. She had fotten to remind him in the midst of her fight with the rogue. Nothing happened. “Mato!” she screamed. Her voice sounded shogly desperate even to her own ears, but Mato’s green magic suddenly flickered to life with his strike, and she sagged against the wall. Better. Maybe he learn?

  She summoned a barrier just in case. With a powerful strike, Mato took care of the injured Kobold warrior in front of him, and then spun to face the st oh a snarl and sshing cws. Ali unleashed a tinuous stream of bolts that arced over his head and into the final Kobold until it, too, colpsed.

  For a long, agonizing moment, Ali crouched behind her barrier, trembling, ready to defend herself while Mato growled and paced, but after a while his bulky form began to stretd , and he reverted to his Beastkin form.

  “You’re in trol?” she asked, her voice crag. She was in far too much pain, sitting in a pool of her own blood, to run.

  “Yes…” he said, sitting on the ground where he was without approag. “It wasn’t easy, Ali, without you remindio heal, I think I would have lost it again. Thank you.”

  She watched while the red mist slowly dimmed as his restoration magic petered out. He was still hurt, and so was she.

  “Let’s rest,” she told him. She would need some space where they wouldn’t be disturbed, so she gnced around, spying the ruins of a rger house. “In there?”

  Onside, she cleared a rge se on the floor of what might have once been a living room, brushing the bigger bone fragments to the sides, and began to inscribe her restoration runic circle. It was the painstaking work of several minutes, but this time she was able to create it on her first attempt. By the time the magiapped into pletion, Mato appeared, dragging the third and final Kobold corpse into the room.

  Grateful for his thoughtfulness, she began to destruct it to recover her mana, and, notig that he was waiting, she invited him to join her in the magic circle. “You o heal, too,” she told him. She uood his retice, and she had to have been making him feel worse by avoidiing close to him. But having him healed as soon as possible would be the safest choice for both of them.

  Ali distracted herself by cheg the notifications from the fight.

  Yroup has defeated Dagger Rogue – Kobold – level 6.Yroup has defeated Warrior – Kobold – level 7.Yroup has defeated Warrior – Kobold – level 6.

  Grove Warden has reached level 8.+10 attribute points.

  Are Bolt has reached level 8.Barrier has reached level 8.

  I made a mistake. A big one.

  Malika had goo great lengths to stress just how important vitality was, and how if she died, it wouldn’t matter what else she did. Unfortunately, she couldn’t decide exactly how she could have doer. If she hadn’t had free attribute points, she wouldn’t have been able to prevent the pain from her domain withdrawal by iing in endurance.

  I could spend it all on vitality now, but what if I need more enduraomorrow?

  The only thing she knew for certain was that the u points were of no use to her at all. Especially in a pce where Kobolds could appear from nowhere and stab half her life away in a single blow. That was far too close, she sighed inwardly, deg to take Malika’s advice literally. She spent all her remaining points on vitality. Tomorrow will just have to take care of itself.

  Ali pulled out her Grimoire and was about to summon a new set of rats when Mato stopped her.

  “Do you have anything stronger?” he asked. “Those rats don’t st very long. Maybe the wolves? Those have pack tactics fhting in groups.”

  “Aah, yes, I fot.” Ali grimaced. “I think the wolves will be the same level as the rats, but if you think they are better for us – for this situation, I mean – I make them instead.”

  He nodded gravely, so she eled her mana, taking careful note of how much she could spare for creatures.

  Starving Wolf – level 1Your reserved mana has increased by +7.

  That’s worse. Her Sewer Rats had at least been level two.

  Starving Wolf – level 3Your reserved mana has increased by +20.

  “Nice,” Mato said as the level three wolf appeared.

  Starving Wolf – level 2Your reserved mana has increased by +13.

  That’s ok too, she thought. I probably handle one more. She eled her mana again.

  Starving Alpha – Wolf – level 5Your reserved mana has increased by +34.

  “Oh!” Mato let out aed excmation.

  “I didn’t know I could make those,” Ali admitted, puffing out her cheeks. She had wondered about it before but cluded that she would o destruct several more of the pack leader wolves before she lear.

  A little of the tension in her shoulders and neck eased as she watched the Alpha prowling among the smaller Starving Wolves, sniffing them, aablishing domih just his sheer size. A most wele sight, indeed.

  “Maybe if the lower-level ones die and I repce them, we get a few more of the Alphas,” Ali reflected aloud, wishing she could unsummon her creatures without making them go wild and having to kill them. I may want to do that anyway, she thought. Then she checked her mana and sucked in a short breath of surprise. Her calcutions hadn’t taken into at the steep cost of the level five Alpha – taking a whopping thirty-four mana, it was nearly as expensive as the rest of her pabined. Valuable mana that she wouldn’t be able to use for anything else.

  I don’t think I afford another one. With a total of one hundred and fifteen mana reserved for everything she was going to have trouble sting through a long fight. She could recover forty-two mana by releasing the Restoration circle, but she was still going to o be careful with the mana cost of her other spells if she didn’t want to run out.

  Mato I hate this. He was used to enjoying a good fight, but Mato found this pce to be miserable. He was outcssed in every enter, and he was often struggling to keep trol of himself.

  She looks at me like I’m the mohis was by far the worst part. And she’s right to be afraid. This was a dungeon – if ’s skill was to be believed, but the darkness of the pce, the challenging level of the monsters, and being lost, all paled in parison to the way she looked at him, her wide amber eyes filled with barely-suppressed fear.

  He had no idea if and Malika were even alive. And Ali had almost died again – this time tue. The idea of losing his friends, and him being uo help, g him. When had he e to care for them so much? Was it merely the dahey had braved together?

  He stepped over a tripwire and tinued down the dark alleyway soon reag one of the untable twisting dark streets that had long since blurred together in his mind with a sense of sameness. The only things to break the monotohe sudden patrols of Kobolds, or occasionally skeletons that sent them fleeing into hiding whehe monsters were too high level for them to face. Which is almost always the case.

  “We should be pretty close to the library now,” Ali whispered to him. “It should be around there, past the residential district.”

  She had been direg their progress for most of the day and, slow as they were going, Mato still felt they had made some good ground. He peeked around the er, spying a Kobold group on guard up ahead.

  Mage – Kobold – level 8Warrior – Kobold – level 9Rogue – Kobold – level 7

  Mage! He flinched involuntarily from the mere memory of that searing fire. “Kobolds. you hahe mage?” he whispered to Ali. “I get the other two.”

  “Yes.” Aliandra’s steady response diffused some of the bite out of his ay. He had no desire to face the mages. Even though he had reached a much higher level now, and had a lot of armor, he had no defenses against their fireballs, and being burnt alive was not something he was excited to experience again.

  “Ok, I’m going.” He began his transformation, reminding himself to begin with his healing magic as he twisted into the shape of the bear.

  Ali o him, and he charged, his skill lending power to his muscles and accelerating him across the stone paving to sm into the Kobold warrior before it could eve. He used Swipe and Brutal Restoration simultaneously, striking both the dark rogue and the tougher warrior in a single sweeping attack.

  At least she won’t have to yell at me from the start.

  The darkereet suddenly began to glow with the angry red light of fire magic. A chill ran down his spine, as his body reacted to the remembered pain. Trust her. Ign the impending fireball, he swiped a sed time, weling Ali’s Alpha wolf to the fight. Shifting sideways, he used the wall to block the Kobolds from fnking him and instead sent his io the Alpha wolf with a growl overid with a pulse of empathic emotions and images. It responded with body nguage indig agreement and shifted to fnk the Kobold warrior. Taking advantage of his positioning, the Alpha executed a brutal rending hamstring attack, causing the Kobold to stumble.

  This is so much easier with a pack fighter. Especially with his Beast nguage proficy aiding unication.

  The Kobold warrior recovered its band wheeled with a powerful ssh, striking the Alpha in the face with the rusty steel bde, but Mato was ready. He intercepted the damage using his Arboreal Sanctuary, transferring it to himself instead. Anger exploded forth from deep within him as his Primal Rage skill fought for trol. But his power surged too. This time, he mao remember to use his Brutal Restoration skill as he shed out with his Swipe, eg with both the Kobolds in quick succession, and even knog the rogue off bance.

  The warrior spun to attack him instead. That’s right; don’t show me your back! The rage began to ebb as his healing magic pulsed steadily, erasing his wounds. In the distance he could still hear the yelps and howls of the other wolves, and the whistle-thump of Ali’s bolts as she fought the Fire Mage. He was most annoyed by the warrior, so he focused his attacks on him, ign the smaller rogue and its pesky stabbing dagger. I have armor, you idiot! He sent the thought to the Kobold, even though it couldn’t hear him.

  The rogue swarmed into the attack with a plicated series of feints. Instinctively, Mato took advantage of a small opening to sm it into the wall with his paw. The Alpha, anticipating his attack, pced itself in the perfeking position taking the opportunity he had created to hamstring it. He followed his surge of satisfa with another swipe, knog the hamstrung Kobold sprawling across the stone pavement with blood spshing from several deep cw gashes.

  Beyond his world, the darkness glowed red again, and the heavy thump of a detonation shook the ground, but he ig, taking a wicked ssh on his shoulder to savage the downed Kobold.

  “Mato, heal!”

  Heal… oh! He suddenly remembered to use his spell, applying it to the attack, and a rush of soothing energy flowed through his body, easing his pain, and slowly clearing away the fog.

  A soft chime sounded in his mind, and suddenly a stream of golden magic bolts arced over him and smmed into the rogue that was hamstruween him and the Alpha. It panicked and tried to run. But it was still limping badly from bone-deep gashes in its lower calf, and the lingering effects of the Alpha wolf’s debilitating Hamstring attack preve from getting too far before the chasing bolts killed it.

  The bolts, mid-flight, suddenly switched dire and began raining down on the unfortunate Kobold warrior. It screeched and shed out with a frenzy of sshes. Down to one enemy, Mato igs bde and simply unleashed attack after attack at the Kobold, reveling in the ripping of scales and the spray of blood, until it, too, colpsed from the onsught.

  Yroup has defeated Fire Mage – Kobold – level 8.Yroup has defeated Warrior – Kobold – level 9.Yroup has defeated Dagger Rogue – Kobold – level 7.

  Druidic Shapeshifter has reached level 7.+10 attribute points.

  Arboreal Sanctuary has reached level 6.Swipe has reached level 5 (+2).Bear Form has reached level 6 (+2).Brutal Restoration has reached level 7.

  Identify has reached level 5.

  His restoration magitio pulse, slowly mending his wounds and freeing his mind from the grip of Primal Rage. He shifted, reverting to his Beastkin form, and breathed a sigh of relief.

  I’m still in trol. Better. That was much better.

  “How was ye?” Ali had lost all her lower-level wolves in the fight – they y strewn across the street, still smoking from the aftermath of the fire. The only exception was the Alpha Wolf standing beside him.

  “It was easier to mahis time,” he said. Realistically though, this fight hadn’t been nearly as hard as the ones which had put him in danger and their strategy had helped him enormously. “I leveled up to seven, and Bear Fot two levels, so I have more armor.”

  “That’s good,” Ali said, sounding relieved.

  “I’ll spend all my points on vitality. That should help too.”

  Ali sighed, visibly rexing at his words. I never want to see her terrified of me again.

  He carefully moved t the corpses into a nearby house so that they could set up camp and Ali could use them for mana. It had been a long and stressful day, but winning this fight retively easily had put him in a better mood.

  Ali inscribed her healing circle for them and while she finished up barrig the doorway with several sizeable ks of stone and destrug all the corpses, he sat within the circle feeling its soft healing magic restore his body from his wounds. He had been sitting quietly for several minutes when his notification chime surprised him. Curiously, he summohe image of the giant oak in his mind, immediately notig a denser vibrao the aura of transparent leaves that swirled about its lower branches. New writing appeared uporunk glowing the familiar green and he drew closer to study it.

  Requirements met for skill adva.

  Survive a fight with less than 5% remainih.Vitality has reached 50.Recover more than 1000 health from your own healing magic.Recover more than 1000 health being healed by an ally.

  Arboreal Sanctuary gains Advanced Regeion.Arboreal Sanctuary – level 6You emit a spherical Sanctuary aura of nature magitered on yourself. Range: 11.8 feet.Your natural health regeion rate is increased by +107.9% [100 + skill + wisdom / 10] and you recover even from critical injuries. Yeion is shared with allies (including animals, beasts, and pnts). Range: Sanctuary.Mana: You redirect damage from ao yourself. Range: SanctuaryNature, Domain, Area, WisdomAccept this adva?

  He stared at the notification in stunned silence for a long time.

  Five pert.

  It had been that close – that first fight after falling down the hole. The rest of the requirements seemed crazy, but nothing came close to that one. He was always being hurt, and his healing and Ali’s cireeded to do a lot of work as they crept through the darkness. Even now, the restoration circle was still w hard to heal his body.

  “Mato?” He realized she had been shaking his arm.

  “Sorry. I got a skill advance, Ali,” he said, sharing the update. The advaself was substantial – his health would nee, just like mana and stamina did, healing even the most severe injuries given enough time – if he uood the skill correctly.

  As a passive skill, it wouldn’t require any mana, or even that he was scious. Most people had to rely on potions or healers to recover their injuries, but, provided he didn’t die ht, he would heal automatically.

  “That seems very good,” Ali observed quietly. “How much health do you have now?”

  “Five hundred.”

  Ali coughed and stared at him for a moment before speaking. “If you recover a bit more than five hundred per hour,” she muttered a bit under her breath, clearly doing some arithmetic, “that’s nearly nih per minute!”

  “I share my health regeion with you and your minions too,” Mato said, beginning to appreciate the sed part of the advance more and more. Already there had been numerous times when he was fighting side by side with Ali’s Sewer Rats or Starving Wolves. Even though it would only amount to a slow trickle of healing over the duration of a normal battle, any amount of healing was worth it. “What do you think?”

  “It will definitely help,” Ali said.

  That was enough for him. Mato nodded and accepted his first skill adva.

  Immediately, Ali g him in open surprise shuffling backward a few steps, and then a few more, before she advanced again. She said, “How iing! Mato, you’re not just sharih regeion. My stamina and mana regeion are higher in your aura.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yup, look at this,” Ali answered and then shared her regeion numbers with him. “This Sanctuary buff shows up as soon as I step close to you.”

  Health RegeionPertage of maximum health regeed per hour.

  +107.9% Sanctuary.Total: +107.9%Stamina RegeionPertage of maximum stamina regeed per hour.+100% Racial (Fae).+100% Sanctuary.Total: +200%Mana RegeionPertage of maximum mana regeed per hour.+100% Racial (Fae).+100% Sanctuary.Total: +200%

  “How in the world?”

  “Look at your skill description again,” Ali said. “It has two cuses – the first one grants you passive health regeion, which almost nobody has. The sed cuse shares yeion with your allies – it doesn’t specify which kind eion, so it must mean all of them. You must have a base racial regeion of one hundred pert per hour for mana and stamina, just like me?”

  “Wow, that’s far better than I thought!”

  ***

  Name: Mato BahrRace: Beastkin Buffs: Bear Form

  Css: Druidic Shapeshifter – level 7- Arboreal Sanctuary – level 6- Swipe – level 5- Brutal Restoration – level 7- Bear Form – level 6- Wolf Form – level 2- Primal Rage – level 6- [Locked]- [Locked]- [Locked]- [Locked]

  General Skills- Identify – level 5- Cooking – level 4- Wilderness Lore – level 5

  Aptitudes- Languages: o- Mana (Affinity): Nature- Strong (Racial): +7 Strength- Tough (Racial): +10 Endurance

  Attributes- Vitality: 50- Strength: 33- Endurance: 34- Dexterity: 7- Perception: 6- Intelligence: 8- Wisdom: 19

  Armor: 190Physical Damage Redu: 49.22%

  Health: 500/500Stamina: 340/340Mana: 190/190

  timewalk