Ashery

The pathway to the chest for his treasure is to the right of the spiral staircase, on the eastern most part of the south facing wall iirc. I actually ended up reloading it to kill him simply for the satisfaction of doing so, since you also get the tunic if you kill him and the rest would've just been sold. Mind, I was playing on Hard at the time, and the fight was actually pretty easy (Mage just spammed slow on him iirc after he casted SoA).

What Disappearer said... The skill values listed above are the amount you need to train the prereq skills in order to unlock the new ones. Just tested this in the editor to confirm it... However, the first stats, 2Str/Dex/etc *do* count towards what you need. I think it might be easier to measure in the cost to raise the skill rather than quote the pre-special ability level...(Blademaster at 8 to raise and Parry at 7 would be the requirements for Ripostle) Side note: Ripostle of 8 seems to give a 24% chance to counter attack...3%per for Parry/Ripostle. Question is, however, which does it check first?