Story I: The Rift

Peering into the hole does not provide much information, as it curves rather quickly, breaking your line of sight. Zubie can be heard (not seen) flying over to the hole and climbing inside with his claws scraping the dirt and stone.

The ringing continues even still, always three strikes and then a pause. The vibrations can be felt in the air, and only stronger the more you pay attention to it, causing the hair on your arms to stand on end, and your face to tingle. It is the only sound the occupy the room for a moment after the echo of Zubie's movements fades.

A series of strange, bluish lights catch your attention, and you soon notice several translucent masses seeping up from the ground, or out of a wall, nearby. As more of each of these masses come into view you begin to see their shapes; humanoid forms with skeletal, ghastly faces and emaciated, rotting bodies. They are spectral, and glowing, moving with an ethereal grace despite their disgusting forms. Small, ghostly maggots bore holes out of their bodies, grouping together and dropping to the ground in large masses before burrowing into the dirt or stone. The corpses have roots sprouting from their calves and ankles which writhe and twist along the ground with a life of their own.

The fighting began swiftly, and it was brutal.

Devanis and Ameera reacted most expeditiously. Between the Wyrden's dark magic and Devanis' bolts, which pierce through the ghosts as though they were made of some soupy, ectoplasmic goop, the ghost is overwhelmed before it can even act. The specter howls, writhing until collapsing into a formless mass of blue light and wispy smoke.

Erran and Baric both charged into the room on the southern side. Erran turned, slashing his blade horizontally to catch the ghost around the corner, but he ended up aiming too high. His greatsword sliced through the air above the wraith, slammed into the wall beside him, and dug into it almost half an inch. This left him open to an attack from both sides, as the spell Baric had cast against one of the other ghosts apparently had no effect. Erran was attacked from both sides, but only one of the strikes got through, piercing his armor and searing his skin with a white-hot pain across his skin (10 cold damage). Pyrrah and Ameera, likewise, were attacks as they got into their new positions. Ghosts approached on either side of them, slipping through their defenses, digging ethereal hands past their armor and causing pain to wrack their forms (Ameera takes 9 Cold Damage). Specifically, however, Pyrrah takes the worst of it as the ghost is able to grip her throat with its long, clawed fingers (Pyrrah takes 17 cold damage).

As this occurs, the room seems to emit a blue glow from all sides. It is difficult to notice at first, since it is already glowing due to the ghostly forms that now occupy it and endanger you, but as the walls begin to emit their own luminescence, and that illumination increases, it becomes more and more noticeable. With a glance, you can each see that this light is caused by the writhing rot worms that had burrowed into the ground and are now digging up through the stone and soil from all sides. They are ghostly, like the corpses that spawned them, and it is uncertain if they are actually forming holes in the ground, walls and ceiling, or not. However, there is no doubt that they are dangerous. Ameera is unfortunate enough to have some of them fall from the ceiling and land on top of her right shoulder. There's a crackle as they slip right through her armor, and suddenly she can smell the awful stench of burning meat and feel the scorching pain on her skin (2 fire damage).

The fighting by Pyrrah, Ameera and Devanis goes better now. The party retaliates against the encroaching ghosts, and Pyrrah's magically-enhanced attacks combined with Devanis' crossbow shot take down yet another corpse-wraith. Ameera's blast of force causes the form of the specter to vibrate and distort. The blow of force appears immensely painful by comparison to the other strikes that have hit these foes, and causes the wraith to blast apart in an explosion of light.

The fighting by Erran and Baric is not going as well. Erran manages to land a strong hit against his opponent, though it does not fall. Baric's spells continue to prove ineffective, much to the Dwarf's frustration. Though Erran's defenses continue to prove more effective than most, he cannot hold off attacks from two fronts simultaneously, and he gets struck once more in the side (3 damage).

The ethereal worms twist about in the ground and recede back into the earth momentarily. However, you can hear their squirm and writhing within the ground and stone, and they will return in but moments for another assault within the room.