It is a busy day in the markets. Sweating bodies crowd the streets of Caliphas. Merchants shout prices. Patrons try to haggle. Guards stand by at the ready. Children chase after a dog.
A dense fog creeps into the street.
A woman’s scream is cut short by a gurgle.
You spin, your sword already in hand. As a yellow clad wight stalks toward you, you see the throng of undead things shambling down the main market street. The creatures cut down any and everyone they can
The wight catches you off guard and slashes at you with a rusty blade. The sun reflecting on the blade snaps your attention back and you deflect the wight's sword before it strikes true. The wight plants a rotting foot on your chest and shoves you back hard.
You wince in pain and when you open your eyes you stand on the edge of a snow covered cliff. A woman cries out to you. You raise a hand in solemn greeting and let yourself fall backwards over the ledge.
The world shifts and you are surrounded by slobbering demons. A man in shining plate stands with his back to you. He jostles you and an orb of flame dissipates in your hand before it can fully form. The knight shouts for a retreat. A fiery whip lashes out and divorces his head from his torso. You see the yellow flames coming back for you and you clamor over a mound of corpses -
human and demon alike. The pile shudders and you are burried beneath the bodies.
Struggling against the weight of the dead, you climb free and find yourself in the middle of an alleyway.
You are running through a dark cavern. There are screams echoing off of the walls all around you. A goblin races alongside you. His eyes are filled with deranged glee.
A man steps out from a shadow and plunges his sword deep into the chest of the goblin running next to you. Crimson blood splatters the man's yellow tabard. The man kicks the body of the goblin you now recognize as a friend off of his blade turns a crooked smile to you. He speaks to you in a slow voice that reminds you of bones being crushed.
"Goblins run and goblins cry.
All the goblins are gonna die."
The man drags the blade of his sword along the cavern floor as he stomps toward you.
"Goblins are all the same.
Don't matter if they change their name."
The man backs you into a corner and reaches down to grab you with a gauntleted hand. The cold metal bites into your throat as he hoists you from the ground.
"Goblin neck bones are so fine.
When I snap it, your soul is mine."
His grip tightens around your throat as you feel your lungs fighting for air.
A fist sized rock slams into the back of the man's head and he drops you to the ground. You are vaguely aware of cheers and laughter coming from the opposite side of the cavern.
A young woman in scholar's robes hoists you into her arms. She races down a narrow tunnel and slides to a halt at the edge of a steep pit. The bone voice sings from behind.
"There's nowhere goblins can truly hide.
Especially here...on my side."
The scholarly woman smiles at you and tosses you into the pit. A metal rose blooms from her chest and as she slumps over. The armored man bellows in rage.
You hit the frigid water below. The surface breaks and you fall through open air. You land flat on a hard surface. When you stand, find yourself in the middle of an alleyway.
On the other side of the glass a woman sits on the ground with her back to the glass. Her legs stretch out beside her. Her head hangs forward. Her shoulders rise and fall in rapid, patternless jolts. Though you are unable to hear any sound coming from the woman you know that she is weeping.
You place an open palm against the glass. Desperate to soothe the woman.
Minutes pass and still she weeps.
You decide that if you can get her attention, maybe, maybe knowing that someone else is here her heart will be calmed.
You tap on the glass. She does not notice you.
You rap a knuckle on the glass. Still she does not notice you.
The woman wraps her arms around her waist and begins rocking. Her hair falls from its intricate bun and spills over her shoulders.
You begin to pound on the glass. Every muscle, every shred of your being, longs to stop this woman's tears.
Her rocking intensifies and as it does, you beat harder against the cursed glass. Why will it not break? You can feel that it is so thin. Paper thin. What magic keeps it from shattering?
Exhausted, you lean against the glass and close your eyes.
"There is one way to break the glass," your own voice whispers in your ear.
You open your eyes and see a distorted reflection of your face smiling from the glass. You step back and see that the reflection is too tall. The proportions too gangly. It needed to bend its spine in order to look you in the eyes. The not-you holds your nodachi in its too-long hand. The reflection offers the sword to you and its arm extends through the glass. You take the hilt in hand. The reflection smiles again and places the tip of its index finger against the glass. Just below the crying woman's left shoulder blade.
"Here," it coos, "Pierce the glass here."
You place the tip of the sword against the glass and ready to force it through.
The woman cranes her neck and peers at you. Bloody tears stream down her agony stricken face. Her face. You know her face.
”You weren’t here!” She sobs.
You lower the blade and step away from the glass.
”Do it! Do it now! Stop her incessant crying!” Not-you shouts. The glass reverberates as the reflection trembles with fury.
The nodachi slips from your hand.
”Weak,” a new voice, harsh, and uncaring, says.
Bony fingers that end with razor-sharp claws settle on your shoulders. The hands give you a forceful shove and you crash through the glass. You search for the woman on the other side but she is nowhere to be found. On the other side find yourself in the middle of an alleyway.
You are aboard a mighty ship. Sailors scramble and call out commands all around you. A powerful storm rages beneath a moonless night. The deck of the ship is slick with seawater. Thunder crashes and moments later lightning fills the night sky.
You cling to a rope. The hemp fibers yearning to be free of your calloused hands. You plant your feet and lean backwards. A patchy-faced man joins you and the two of you begin taking calculated steps backward.
A meaty fist connects with your jaw sending you tumbling to the side. Without your strength, the patchy-faced man is dragged forward by the rope. His body slams into the taffrail and, for an instant he steadies himself. A gargantuan, yellow tentacle rises from the sea to pluck the unfortunate soul from the ship. His screams are lost among the crashing of the waves.
You regain your footing and stand to face your attacker. The man wears little more than rags but wields a brutal cudgel in one hand. Most striking is his face. Instead of eyes, a nose, or a mouth, he has only slits and whorls where his face should be.
Without you and Patch Face to raise the storm jib the sales begin to tear and the ship starts to groan. You see your captain fending off more creatures like the one before you. He has placed himself between the creatures and the mother who bought passage. She clutches her infant son.
The monster lunges at you and you feel the bones in your arm shatter as the cudgel connects. You plant two strong blows in it's grotesque face with your still functioning arm.
The captain parries an attack but takes a curved blade across his throat. The captain sputters and slips over the taffrail into the sea.
The mother meets your gaze.
You race to save her and the babe.
The ocean splits and a second yellow tentacle crashes on the bow of the ship. You are tossed high into the stormy sky.
You continue to rise.
The world spins and you pull your face from a murky puddle. You stand and find yourself in the middle of an alleyway.
ALL
All around is a wall of sickly yellow fog, tumbling through the alley’s canyon of crumbling, gray brick walls like some jaundiced flash flood. Ahead, the unfamiliar alley splits,curving to the left and right. Behind,from the silent swell of mist, emanates the sound of footsteps—slow, but somehow keeping pace with the careening, hungry wave.
Maria thrashes desperately on the alley floor for just a moment, fighting against the cold water that is no longer there. Her hands and feet are bruised from where she pounded them against the stone trying to swim.
With a sob, Maria rises to a hunched over position and brings a hand to her throat. Surprised to see no blood, she looks frantically around.
This alley is unfamiliar but within that fog is the horrible man and his vicious blade. No matter what lays ahead it has to be better than being hunted for her skin.
She yells back into the fog "I am a girl! Take the bad goblins but leave me alone. I can be something better!
after a second, in a terrified scream "I can be something better!!"
With a quick glance behind her, Maria lets out a whimper and chooses a direction at random. Keeping low she darts off to the left.
Merius looks around for the bodies, confused to now be an alley. Where did all the bodies go? They were... here, right? The yellow walls were startling, unusual and unsettling. Merius instinctively reaches for his longbow, but it's not there. Why did I reach for that? I never learned to use a longbow... did I? Instead, Merius reaches for his club and shield, holding them up, wary of the sound of footsteps around him.
Holding his club and shield at the ready, it slowly dawns on Merius that the rest of his equipment is missing.
Rogar sits up groggily, and goes to wipe the grime from his face. He jumps with surprise when something heavy and metallic strikes his forehead. He lashes out, but there’s no one he can see who could have struck him. In the dim light, he can see a few other bodies beginning to stir. The smallest leaps up, revealing itself to be a goblin. It screams something in common before running off. Footsteps approach. Rogar stands and takes a quick inventory.
He was wearing a suit of studded leather armor, and what appeared to be a heavy metal gauntlet, vambrace and pauldron on his right arm. Before he could investigate further, another of the figures nearby rose and drew weapons.
"You there, where am I? What's going on?" he asks.
Zhao falls to her hands and knees, scrabbling around for someone she can't find. Instead she sees a Dwarf, a Samsaran and a goblin that flees. She looks terrified.
"I- I don't know"
She stands up, grabbing her dropped sword as she does, and risks a glance behind her. A feeling of creeping dread taking over her. There's only one thing certain in her mind.
"We have to go. GO!"
While Rogar, Merius, and Zhao take stock of their surroundings and their belongings the fourth individual, a peculiar goblin in a stained and soaked floral dress flees down the left alley. Unsure of what to do and where they they are, none of the four are even able to recall their own names. Only vague memories lurk in the shadows of their minds.
The mist creeps ever closer to the three that did not flee. It carries the heavy footfall with it.
As the fog closes in, Merius begins to feel uneasy. "Perhaps the goblin knows something we don't? Seems as good a direction as any." he says, taking off after Maria.
"Aye, let's go." the dwarf agrees, "I'll take the rear!"
He takes up a defensive stance between the others and the approaching thing in the mist.
Wordlessly, Zhao follows Merius. Some instinct keeps her from a panicked run, instead moving methodically with her sword held in both hands at her side.
The mist reaches out for Rogar as the dwarf places himself between the unnatural haze. It swirls and briefly reminds the dwarf of the kraken's tentacle from the ship before pulling back.
Though they move at a much more relaxed pace than the goblin, the trio easily catch up to Maria.
The alley walls sag, battered brick slumping over the path, nearly blotting out the bruised twilight sky. Again the grimy cobblestone path splits. This time one route curves uphill, while the other recklessly descends. Behind, the yellow fog and the relentless sound of pursuit grow closer.
"If we go up, we may ascend out of the mist"
Zhao makes to go in that direction, but she doesn't want to be alone so she waits to see if she's followed
"Higher ground is better if we're being followed, too. I think we best go up." Merius offers, looking around for the source for the footfalls.
"..wh...who are you? Are you with him? Just leave me alone!!!"
Maria yells as she bolts ahead running up the path ascending, hopefully, out of the mist.
As she runs she looks behind her to see if the strangers are still chasing.
Rogar watches the tiny creature scurry away. “Looks like our choice is made. Go on.” He glances back the way they came, searching for any sign of the mysterious pursuer.
As the goblin reaches the top of the hill, she is greeted by the same yellow haze.
The three below watch in horrible as the mist parts, now mere steps away from the goblin . A mask of gray rags emerges, strips of something fleshier than fabric worming and constricting across a body that’s almost humanlike—but too lean, and far too flexible. Gauzy gray ribbons reach out like tendrils, each grasping for less doubtful flesh to claim.
A bloodstained war razor slashes eagerly at the goblin ...
...and sends her blood in an arc through the air to spatter against the wall.
As the goblin's body tumbles back down the slope her blood forms a pattern on the wall. One that seems to say, "ME"
Zhao Fen tries not to let the horror show on her face. The resolve she feels hardening in her mind is familiar, where the grip her hands make on the nodachi is strange. She lets her worries fade and charges, holding the long blade down and to her side until the last moment before attempting a strike
Merius sees the little goblinoid go down. He knows he's not great with his weapon. Instinctively, he starts chanting.
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Rogar is briefly stunned by the sudden attack on the group's "guide", but recovers and steps up beside the human to deliver a punch with his armored fist.
Reacting on instinct, Merius reaches out with his prayers to, hopefully, save the goblin’s life only to feel his spell dissipate as the small corpse dissolves into a floral stain on the ground.
Both Zhao and Rogar lunge forward on the offensive heedless of the distance between themselves and the Figure in the Mist. The ground shifts beneath their feet to pull them close. The Figure snarls at the dwarf and ribbons of the not-fabric lash out from the Figure’s body to deflect the dwarf’s fist to the side.
With the Figure momentarily distracted the woman in green and white sweeps her blade through its midsection hoping to finish the fight quickly. The flesh turns to mist as the large, curved blade sings through the air.
Almost immediately, the rest of the Figure dissolves and reforms facing the woman. It slashes with the razor, still wet with the goblin’s blood, and rakes the woman across her belly with a cruelly clawed hand.
Zhao doesn't feel the pain of the razor, but she can feel her own warm blood splatter down her skirt and the bottoms of her legs.
The claw hurts more as it drags across her belly, and she feels she is about to pass out, though she finds the strength for a final blow.
Put it all into this, Tsukiyo guide my hand
She tries to unsteadily maneuver to give her strange part golem ally a chance at flanking
Taking the cue from the warrior woman, Rogar circles the opposite way. He takes another swing at the figure.
Merius is startled as the goblin disappears into the ground. Instead, he prays again, channeling magic into his hands, running up to the injured woman to heal her.
Again sword and fist fail to find purchase in the flesh of the Figure.
From deep within the mist, the goblin's voice echoes the message on the wall.
"ME....MMMEEEE...Me...Me..."
The Figure's body elongates, and the remaining three find themselves face-to-face with a twisted version of the woman in green and white.
Zhao's own voice, no, the voice belonging to the twisted reflection of her, whispers in the back of the woman's mind.
Noo goodss. Noot in my doomain.
As quickly as the caricature of the woman forms it melts back into the shape of the Figure. The monster smiles and rakes Zhao's torso with its claws again.
The woman falls and her entrails spill out, landing as if to spell "UP." Her curved blade melts through the ground and her body is swallowed.
The smells strengthen. Below you a pinpoint of light begins to form.
You are falling. The darkness extends forever in all directions. Your own, personal abyss. A new voice. One similar to your own. But older, more maternal speaks from nowhere and everywhere.
"There is no shame in madness, and so I do not make madness shameful by imposing it on my enemies as a punishment. Though darkness and attacks on the mind are tools I may use to vanquish the unjust, my actions will never force lasting insanity upon my foes."
Maria tucks into a small ball and does her best to direct herself towards the light.
Merius moves to the half-metal dwarf and raises his club to help.
"We're no match for this thing!" the dwarf shouts, "Fall back, find another way!"
He takes one last swing at the Figure to give the other a chance to duck out, following when he can.
The Figure bats away the dwarf's attack like a fly from a rotting carcass.
Tendrils of yellow haze reach for the remaining two as the mist closes in around them. The woman in green and white's voice joins the goblin's in a haunting round from the mists.
"...ME....UP....MMMEEEE....UUUUP...MME....UPP...."
The Figure turns its attention to the samsaran. Though the creature's eyes are hidden, it is undoubtedly watching the man. Lips twitch into a sadistic smile and the war razor shoots out for the dwarf followed by the bloody claw.
The Figure never turns from Merius as it steps back into the mist, leaving the dwarf on the brink of collapsing.
"Come..." a ragged voice whispers over the two voices, "...sssave hhhim."
"It's taunting us now? How did we end up here?" Merius curses as he tries to keep the dwarf up, laying hands on him.
Taking the dwarf's advice, Merius starts to fall back. "Fall back!"
Rogar drags the samsaran along as he runs back down the path as fast as his stout legs can carry him.
Laughter like breaking glass echoes throughout the alleyway as the two race back down the path.
"Essscape iss impoosible..."
The mist creeps in from all sides now. The two are fully enclosed withing the sickly fog. It licks the skin of both Rogar and then Merius. The mist itself seems to quiver as it passes over the samsaran. The yellow fog retracts from the blue man and begins to swirl around the dwarf.
A snarling reflection of Rogar bursts from the mist, a crude hammer in its hand.
It slams the hammer into the dwarven man's back. The dwarf crumples like a blood soaked rag.
The samsaran nearly trips over the body but manages to keep moving. Before the dwarf's body vanishes into the mist his jaw snaps open and an unfamiliar voice echoes forth joining the others.
"WAKE...wake...Wake..."
".....UP.....UP.....UP..."
".......SAVE...SAVE..SAVE..."
The Figure's voice comes from the haze. However, the other voices seem to be drowning out the raspy voice.
"Yoursss...your mind will be...so...delicioussss..."
The pain of the hammer blow sends you into a deep darkness. You are falling. The darkness extends forever in all directions. Your own, personal abyss. An imperious voice shouts from the darkness.
"What are you doing in here?! You have your orders! DO NOT TOUCH THAT!"
Below you a bright light tears away at the darkness. The woman in green and white falls toward it and, in the distance, so does teh goblin.
The light grows brighter. It burns away at the darkness.
Below you bright light bursts into existence. You see the goblin clutching herself as she too falls toward the light.
Merius sees that running seems pointless, trying to adopt the best defense he can.
The mists settle around Merius. The Figure appears from the haze and lifts the samsaran from the ground with both hands. The smile finally fades as it sees Merius has resigned himself.
"You are no FUN."
Unceremoniously, the Figure twists Merius' body in opposing directions then lets the corpse fall.
The unfamiliar voices screams in everyone's mind.
"WAKE UP! SAVE ME!"
You all awake in dark prison cells. You retain full memory of the hellish nightmare but still nothing of your lives before. Save for trickles of blood from your noses, you all seem to be in perfect health. Much to your unease, you all have been stripped of all equipment.
“Wake up, damn it!” the man on the table screams, his panic
cutting through the claustrophobic near dark.
Bars separate you all from the stranger on the table but, more importantly, the separate you from the eerily thin woman in the doctor's coat. She circles the table, periodically stopping to scrutinize one of the many wounds and lacerations on the man's flesh. The man struggles against the ropes that bind him to the table and many fresh wounds still weep blood.
The doctor does not appear to have noticed you all rousing from your sleep. Instead, she selects one half of a broken pair of gardening shears from the second, smaller table and drags the edge across the man's exposed thigh. His wailing echoes throughout the small room.
A single lantern swings overhead providing minimal light in the room.
Zhao jolts awake and instinctively reaches to check on her wounds from the alley, oddly familiar words echoing in her head.
It felt so real
She experiences a moment of relief before she catches sight of a goblin next to her and recoils in involuntary revulsion. Moments later though the reality of her situation settles in, and she remembers the goblin from the alley, the first to fall to that thing. She reaches out to them and whispers.
"Are you OK?"
Merius looks around the dingy chamber hearing the pleas for help. He's pulled back into reality, trying to shunt the nightmare he just had... but now the dwarf from his dreams is here. Do I know him? I can't remember anyone, how would I know if I know him? The question of the dream is far from the most pressing issue right now, though. Looking at the cage, Merius imagines the dwarf would likely have a better chance breaking the two of them out.
Merius felt around for a holy symbol, but could not find one. Cursing under his breath, he realized just how true his assessment was. Even if he were to get out, he would be unable to help the profusely bleeding man.
"Do you think we can break out? We can't let that woman keep harming that poor soul."
Rogar shakes his head to clear away the fuzziness. So the the mist and the terrible figure were all a dream as well. Or perhaps he was still dreaming? Time would tell. The bars he woke up leaning against felt real enough.
"I'll see what I can do." He replies to the man in the cell with him. He approaches the cell door, looking for any weakness in the design that he can make out with his darkvision.
"Allright, here goes. This may be loud, so be ready for anything." He warns the samsaran. Whoever his captors may be, they forgot to take the strange armor from his right arm, and now he hoped it would help him to not injure himself. He makes a fist, settles into a stable stance, and punches the lock with all the force he can muster.
Shockingly, he feels no pain at all.
After dealing with...whatever that nightmare was, Rogar wastes little time and steps forward. His mind still a little groggy, he struggles to identify any weak points in the wrought iron bars or the built in lock. Regardless, the dwarf drives his fist into the lock of the cell door. And surprisingly, the bars around the lock bend ever so slightly.
The doctor wheels on Rogar, “Pipe down. You’ll have your turn soon enough.”
She then goes about her business, agonizing over where to make her next incision on her patient.
Maria starts to cry out as she awakens but notices the scene around her just in time to clap a hand over her own mouth and block the utterance. Her eyes are wide as she frantically looks around the cell.
She is startled as the woman next to her speaks and instinctively she backs into the darkest corner she can find, avoiding notice
Her hand crawls to her throat where it was so vividly slashed what seems like moments ago.
She turns towards the strange woman and whispers "I.. I think I am okay. I am cold" She pauses for a moment staring down a bit dazed "I know you, you were in my dream... That dream was horrible, did you see the rag man too? And the darkness... I fell so far"
Maria looks around for any possible way out of the cell
As she looks around she continues speaking quietly to the woman "Where are we? I want to get out of here, I dont like this place"
Maria points at the keys at the horrible woman's waist and addresses the other lady in her cell in a whisper.
"The keys there, do you think those might open our cell? Do you have anyway to get them?
The dwarf pauses in his assault of the prison bars to glare at his captor, whereupon he notices the ring of keys at her belt. If only she were a bit closer, I could reach out and...
He reflexively acts out the motion, and with a sudden metallic BANG, his hand launches off his wrist, trailing a length of chain as it flies towards the keys!
He jumps back from the bars swearing, and the chain immediately retracts, reeling in his hand with a clatter. His hand is left dangling from his wrist by a short length of chain.
"WHAT IN THE SCREAMING ABYSS?!"
Merius is taken aback by the arm launching. "That's... new... but then again, maybe it's not." Merius whispers to the dwarf. "If we keep pounding, maybe she'll come closer?"
"I, I don't think so."
Zhao tenderly grasps the bars, feeling around for a mechanism or lock, gives them a test push, before putting her back into it to try to force them open