The Mad Rat’s Lab

A human walks through a dark forest at night. There is almost no light, the moon hidden by thick dark clouds. But there is no foliage that stops the little light that filters through the clouds because the trees are a husk of what they once were. The trees have no leaves remaining. The dry branches are twisted and covered in a dark slimy and slightly shining substance. Their branches break with the simplest of touches from the human. On the ground, the little grass crumbles to dust as the human steps on it. A thick fog covers the ground. It only reaches twenty centimeters from the ground but it seems to stick to everything it touches.

*Clink! Clink!* The human’s armor is the only sound in the forest. Clad from head to toe with armor, a sword on one hand and a shield on the other, the human looks imposing. A faint holy aura surrounds its figure. This isn’t a normal human, it is a paladin, a high ranking profession specialized in dealing with wicked and evil creatures.

The paladin sees a bat on one tree branch, and tries to cast a spell to kill it. But the bat notices first and flies away while screeching loudly. As if in response to its cries, the ground trembles a little and hands start rising from it. Slowly, the hands push and raise the rest of their bodies from the ground. Decrepit, putrid and extremely disgusting corpses of different humanoids surround the paladin. They are Zombies, undead creatures created when animating corpses with black magic. The paladin raises its sword and readies the shield while murmuring:

"This is starting to get annoying… How many stupid zombies does this dungeon have!?"

Zombies start attacking the paladin from all sides, who, with a single swing of his sword, immediately decapitates the closest two. After less than a minute only the paladin is left standing, surrounded by a bunch of corpses with multiple parts cut and strewn on the floor. The paladin sighs and continues moving forward.

A hooded figure is running through a huge columned hall. The hall is lit by torches that illuminate the numerous engraving in each of the columns. Not too far away, a giant golden flying figure can be seen, chasing after the hooded figure. The hooded figure barely has enough time to hide behind a column before *Fwoooosh!* a huge cone of fire envelops the area. A golden dragon is the one responsible for the fire. Luckily, the column protects the figure from being burned to a crisp.

The figure is covered with a multicolored veil, the visual effect of the Invisibility spell. It seems it is powerful enough to hide it from the dragon. But the dragon can still sense its presence somehow, and continues to chase and attack in the general direction of where the hooded figure is.

Despite the hot air and the intense chase, not a single drop of sweat can be seen in the skinny and mummified hooded figure. This is because it is not a normal human, but a lich: a high level undead sorcerer. And liches don’t get tired, nor do they sweat. An eerie blue light emanates from the lich's eyes while it looks around, trying to find a way around the dragon.

After having an idea, the lich summons a few skeletons and makes them move in random directions. And in a do or die bet, it starts running towards the end of the hall. The dragon gets distracted by the skeletons and momentarily loses track of the lich, allowing the lich to reach the end of the hall. There, the lich finds another chamber illuminated by torches, with lots of engravings and a glowing purple crystal in the center. Without wasting any time, it reaches towards the crystal with its bony hand and grabs it. Then, the lich breaks the crystal.

In a dark room, bright letters appear on the only illuminated screen:

A voice sounds in the dark room:

"Wow, that was quite something! It was almost like a movie! Ricard was right, I had to take a look at this game. The dungeon battles in Dungeon Masters Arena are amazing. The best part is the thrill of not knowing what enemies they will face and how they will fight against them. Well, let’s watch another stream before going to sleep."