Chapter 0: Hole in the Sky

As Honey looks more closely at the flying creatures, she sees that they are actually massive insects the size of grapefruits. They have oversized sensory organs that look exactly like human brains under a thin sheath of opaque exoskeleton, and glow a greenish-white color.

Looking around the room, Boxer spots a breach in the wall along the floor. Debris is piled up inside it, though, and it will take some effort to clear it away.

Threadz is the last one into the room, fussing with his overcoat and letting out a loud "Harumph!" Suddenly, there comes a massive roar and a gout of green fire from behind him! Spinning around, you see a monster that looks like a wickedly carved jack-o’-lantern as large as a carriage, with a baleful green flame that can be seen through its eyes and mouth. The beast has eight tendrils of thick ropy vine that it uses both for movement and to attack prey.The monster lashes out with its tendrils, both of which wrap around poor Threadz! More tendrils quickly grab the weaver from all directions, and before he even knows what is happening, they tear and rip him apart! Blood and gore splatter all around as the monster brutally slaughters Threadz!The jack-o'-lantern creature gathers up the pieces of Threadz in its tendrils as it scurries towards the wall behind you, clambering several feet up off the ground. It speaks in a quiet voice that somehow sounds like it is coming from right beside you. "I apologize for the necessity of such a senseless act of violence. You are intruders here. Leave this dimension immediately, or you will be summarily destroyed."

It opens its gaping maw wide as it begins to devour Threadz's remains!

Throughout the journey, the Dwarven herder, Dwarven miner, and Armorer keep to themselves and keep watch. Kip seems to have a new heart when they passed into the new world. All three of them crawl through the opening as quietly as possible. Kip is wide-eyed and covers her mouth to stifle a gasp. Alister, the miner, breathes silently, "By the Mountain...." Roy's gaze finds the sleeping beast, and he is struck with fear. In his silence, he hears his father's voice berating a young Roy "Show no fear. A real man shows no fear!"

Enraged by the senseless attack and death of another comrade Kip runs at the creature and lashes out with her staff.

Alister and Roy rush to the pile of debris and try to move it out of the way.

As the others try and create an opening for them to get through, Threadz is slaughtered in a manner that he never even thought imaginable, the others cried out, Ulric puked and Asha and Bren cried as they tried with the others.

It was then that something came over Pyne, a great sense of urgency and adrenaline that he had never felt before. Wherever it came from, he wasn't about to waste it and rushed to the opening and bashed right on through with his shoulder, creating the opening for the others. He began to wave the others to go on through.

"Now's our chance, let's go!" He tells the others.

The other three and Pyne then run through.

Confidence Artist - Pyne, Luck 12
Halfling Chicken Butcher - Asha Luck 8 (currently sick)
Cutpurse - Ulric Luck 12
Scribe - Bren Luck 6

Talon's hurled dagger sinks into the side of the pumpkin-creature, causing orange juice to bubble forth. Kip lands as solid blow with her staff while the rest of the party wisely flees through the breach in the wall! Pushing past the debris, you find yourself in a gloomy chamber that smells like autumn leaves after a heavy rain. The chamber is lit by several of the same strange glowing creatures you saw in the main chamber contained in a hand-woven cage that hangs in the center of the room. This room is full of debris, and walking across it will be difficult. To your far left you see a shadowy passageway, slightly curved as it runs along the interior wall of the huge chamber you just left. In several places down that wall, a tiny breach allows a ray of the strange light from the main room to shine in.

Meanwhile, the plant monster finishes devouring Threadz and glowers down at those who dared to attack it. "I am Cur Maxima. I gave you one warning. You will not get another," the plant monster says in its soft voice that somehow can be heard clearly even in the side chamber. It clambers back down the wall on its tendrils and looms large over the foolish trio who failed to flee.

Its tendrils lash out. One of them wraps around Talon, holding him tightly! The other one flails wildly, missing Kip, its intended target!

Seething with rage, Kip takes another swing at the tendril that holds Talon.

The holy water has no obvious effect on Cur Maxima. Talon struggles in vain to escape the tendrils, neither his brother nor his bird able to help. The pumpkin monster opens its maw wide and shoves Talon inside, the green flames inside its body burning the elf!Kip lands a powerful blow on Cur Maxima, drawing its ire! Several tendrils grab the dwarf by her arms and legs and then they tug, ripping the unfortunate woman apart!

The flames burn Talon as he struggles in vain to escape. Cur Maxima simply stares at Fox as his brother slowly burns to death.

The falcon pecks at the pumpkin monster, tearing a small hole in its side. The creature swats at it in annoyance, pulping it into a bloody mess of gory feathers!

Talon continues to burn within Cur Maxima’s body, his skin blackening and hair smoldering. The creature glowers down at Fox but still does not attack him. Perhaps it is enjoying the agony in his eyes as his brother slowly dies in front of him....

Ulric looks to the others that had made it through, while the sounds of death and battle continued on from where they once were.

"We need to keep going, we cannot let their sacrifice go to waste." Ulric said to them.

Bren and Asha nodded in agreement, Pyne was the one of the group that seemed to think differently.

"We can't just leave them behind like that, they'll be slaughtered!" He said.

"And so will we if we don't release that ally that we were told about!" Ulric replied, "you saw that thing and what it was capable of! We as we are now don't stand much of a chance, and once it's done with those people out there, it's going to come for us, and it's much bigger and faster than us! So we need to move!" He shouted to Pyne.

"Fine!" Pyne responded.

The group then started to look around the space they were in now.

Confidence Artist - Pyne, Luck 12
Halfling Chicken Butcher - Asha Luck 8 (currently sick)
Cutpurse - Ulric Luck 12
Scribe - Bren Luck 6

Once Fox is through the breach, you pile up more debris behind you to close the gap in the wall. It would seem you are safe from Cur Maxima, at least for the time being.

The shadowy passageway continues ahead of your group. Looking closely at the walls, Pyne spots two niches ahead. Concealed in in the shadows there, partially hidden by debris, are two ragged people with crazed looks in their eyes.

Realizing they've been spotted, one of them, a man, leaps out and yelling something unintelligible. He hefts a makeshift spear. The other person, a woman, breaks into a run down the path ahead, shouting for help!As the woman gets further away down the debris-strewn hall, the man jabs at Asha with his spear. Fortunately, he misses the halfling!