Chapter 0: Hole in the Sky

Fox and Bren both strike Cur Maxima, injuring the plant monster. It quickly clambers away and out of sight. Did they really drive it off, or is it just toying with you?

Either way, you hurry up the ladder, making it to the top and hauling yourselves up into the room above. This is a long, low chamber with the offensive odor of too many humans living in too small a space. Light comes in from several tiny holes in the walls. Around the room is a ragged group of humans – adult men and women in over-worn clothing, unkempt and filthy. There is one dwarf here, as ragged as the rest but wearing a rusty suit of scale mail. The dwarf sits at a low table against the interior wall, his back to the shaft. There are sleeping pallets around this room, a small cooking area partitioned off by a low circle of blackened rocks, several hanging bundles, and two woven cages holding the glowing giant insects you saw in the main chamber.

It doesn’t take long for the people here to notice your presence. They cry out, and the dwarf turns to glare at you all. "Invaders! Defend the sanctum!" he shouts. The people all grab clubs and prepare to attack!

"We curse the name of that treacherous liar!" the dwarf spits back. "She's the devil that sent us to this hell!"

The people continue to advance menacingly. It looks like you won't be able to talk your way out of this fight!

Joe and Henry join the make shift line and attack when others are close enough. Pipit attempts to attack through the spaces of the others.

Seeing the others engage in battle, Roy charges forward to swing his hammer. Alister gives a choked and takes a defensive stance.

Rat crushes the skull of the first opponent as he rushes into battle. Boxer manages to wound a second person.

Asha, Bren and Pyne all miss with their attacks. Pyne accidentally ends up stabbing his dagger into the stone wall, bending it and damaging it so that it is useless for now. Ulric manages a good hit, the cutpurse slicing open a woman's throat with his dagger and dropping her.

Havlar whacks the person that Boxer wounded with his staff. The man staggers but doesn't go down.

At least, not until Roy comes running up and bashes him with his hammer, finishing off the wounded man!

Both Joe and Pipit manage to fell a foe each! Fox rushes through the gap in the enemy lines to get to the dwarven leader. His dagger finds a gap in the dwarf's armor, eliciting a cry of pain from the ragged dwarf! He glares at the elf. "You'll pay for that!"

Meanwhile, Honey releases one of the insects from its cage. The glowing creature buzzes around harmlessly.

Three of surviving humans panic and flee to the corners of the room, but the remaining four stay and fight. They swing their clubs, and while Boxer and Havlar manage to avoid the deadly weapons, both Pipit and Ulric take fatal hits! The halfling and the cutpurse both fall, blood pouring from their deadly head wounds.

The dwarf, meanwhile, swings his axe up at Fox's face, scoring a critical hit! The unfortunate elf's head is split in two as the axe makes quick work of him!

Roy and Alister charge again

Pyne grabs the dagger from Ulric's dead corpse and stabs at the dwarf!

The others join in as well to kill off the leader!

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

Hyde and Sage team up on one of the people still attacking, their combined efforts taking him down! Boxer wounds another person, whom Yvon is able to finish off with his spear. Havlar clobbers a third foe with his staff, beating the enemy to death! Joe finishes off the final of the humans, clearing the way to the dwarf.

Alister manages to wound the dwarf with his pick, but his armor holds against the rest of your attacks. Still, the dwarf looks around to see that all of his allies are either dead or cowering in the corners of the room. He puts down his axe and raises his hands. "Damn. Alright, you got me. I surrender. I would ask you show mercy on me and spare me!"

"You the Lady in Blue sent you here? Well, she sent me, too. She sent all of us, group by group, duped into this impossible suicide mission. I wish I had just stayed in the mines of my homeland never wished for anything else in life!"

"They killed Ulric! He deserves to die and rot in this cursed place!" Cried Pyne, "Oh, Ulric..." He looks at the dagger that once belonged to his comrade.

"You tell us what's ahead and where you got stuck! Or we're going to make sure that your mind is not the only thing missing from your body." Said Bren.

"Quiet you two, there is still more dangers ahead, Bren you're onto something, dwarf! Tell us how far you made it and what stopped you from continuing? Tell us now!" Demanded Asha, standing close to the dwarf as Hyde holds their blade to him.

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