Chapter VI: Nightmare

Shadows encroached upon an ancient city. A city lost to time, to reality. Untouched and vacant, save one.

Selene ran through decrepit streets, worn away by aeons uncounted. Shattered remains scattered about. The dead entombed by hallowed halls. She could not stop, lest she join them.

There was no time to think, to comprehend. There was no time to hide, only to flee. Something chased her through this empty place.

Black as pitch, it moved in shadows with terrifying speed, defying reason itself. It had no form. Like a viscous fluid in a bowl, it filled the spaces in darkness, consuming them.

The sole light left in this forgotten place dwindled, and the shadows grew. It was only a matter of time before there was no light left. Selene turned around a corner and realized she was already out of luck. The road seemed to end at a cliff's edge, with a dark abyss below. Looking back, the shadow already blocked the exit.

There was no escape.

Selene, out of options, huddled in the small pool of light remaining, eyes closed and waiting for the end.

It never came.

She looked up and the shadows were empty now. Confused, she stood up. The rocks began to rumble as an ocean rose from the black pit below. A massive wave of water could be seen on the horizon. The water rose above.

High into the sky, over the last shreds of light.

Briefly, light reflected through the wave, something moved within. Finally, the world was brought into complete blackness. The wave crashed into the city and flooded the streets.

Selene was frozen to the spot. Water rushed over her, but she remained unmoved.

The water was colder than ice, and salt stung her eyes. A great presence filled the space above, greater than the city itself. An eye opened above her, emitting an ambient orange glow. It was massive, enough to blot out the sky as far as Selene could see. The eye shifted, staring down at her.

She screamed as her lungs filled with water.

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Selene awoke gasping for air, cold sweat stained her brow. Selene took a deep breath, calming herself.

The pungent smell of incense filled the room; the others began to stir as well.

"Everyone, get up. We need to move. NOW." Argent ordered, standing before the barricade. A sickly green-black fluid dripped down the edges of his drawn blades.

An animalistic roar rang out as something massive slammed against the barricade. A crack appeared on the icy surface, but it held.

For the time being.

A purple tendril tried to slip through, only to be met by Argent's sword as it pulled itself into the room.

"What's happening?" Selene said, her and the others still trying to get their bearings.

"I don't know, but we're not safe here. Get up now and grab what you can, everyone, and get your spells and weapons ready," Argent commanded.

The next few minutes were a mad scramble. Everyone broke down what little camp was set up and prepared to depart.

"How are we getting out of here?" Selene asked, standing beside Argent, daggers drawn.

Another bellow rang out as the creature slammed against the barricade, causing another crack.

"Argent and I discuss this. I break wall and we leap across to building beside," Hamish hesitated, worry creasing his brow, "But there is problem."

The defenses weakened. More of the purple tendrilled squids tried slipping through. Selene, without hesitation, thrust her dagger through the creature and slashed it open. Argent did the same to another.

"What is it?" Argent said exasperated, smashing another tentacled creature as it tried to wriggle through with his pommel.

Nearby, a strange scuttling sound came from outside, then a large crash came through the outer wall of the building.

"Something is out there on wall. Is very big and appears to know we are here." Hamish explained.

Jezran listened closely, then groaned, "That sounds like a Baresch."

"Can we handle it?" Argent asked.

"I do not know, but I expect it will not allow us to cross safely," Jezran explained, scratching his peculiar beard.

"I can freeze the wall, trapping it for a moment," Ari offered as she stood with her ear against the outer wall, "Hamish, do you think you could break that part of the wall and cause it to crash to the ground? That might be enough to stun it, at least."

Hamish grinned, "Clever scheme, friend. Yes, I am sure! You freeze, I break."

"Okay, let's do this," Ari took a deep breath, then whispered something in a strange tongue.

Taking a deep breath, she exhaled visibly as her eyes turned from a deep brown to an icy blue.

Her incantation complete, she placed both hands firmly against the wall. In an instant, the wall froze. The beast outside cried out in pain and shock.

"NOW HAMISH!" She cried.

Hamish broke into a full sprint and slammed his shoulder into the wall. The frozen wall shattered, and the Baresch outside, some hideous mix of crab and eel, fell into the alley below.

"Great, now how do we get inside the other building," Selene asked, staring at the gaping hole in the wall.

"Allow me," Jezran stepped forward, gripping his focus. Quickly, he cast the same spell used to open a hole in the wall in their race to the tower. A hole, large enough for a person to pass through, appeared on the other building.

"Good. Now everyone, get going!" Argent cried.

Ari didn't hesitate, she leapt across in a single bound, landing inside. She was soon followed by Jezran and Hamish.

"This is crazy, how are we going to survive out there?" Selene asked, catching one of the tentacled creatures on her dagger right before it leapt from the wall toward her.

"Don't know, but we're all dead if we stay here," Argent said, slashing another one as it crawled through the doorway, "Now jump! I'll be right behind you."

Selene nodded, and rushed for the exit. She leapt the distance between the buildings with the practiced ease of a thief and landed in a roll. Argent soon followed.

The rest of the party were making short work of a Drowned,shambling around the room.

"Jezran, can you shut this hole?" Argent asked as he came through.

"Oh, sure." Jezran said, snapping his fingers. The hole shut in a blink.

"Good, that should buy us some time," Argent said, wiping the blood off his swords on his sleeve, "We'll need to keep moving, to keep them from finding us again. Probably until dawn."

"Finding?" Hamish asked, "Are we hunted?"

"It would seem so," Jezran said, "My spell should have hid our presence. No beast would be able to detect our presence there."

"Exactly," Argent said, "I'm guessing we have those little creatures to thank, but we can talk more later. Let's move."

Heading out of the room, they found this place was not empty. Crawling from the walls and ceilings were crabs the size of a halfling, scuttling about like spiders.

"Stick together and fight only long enough to make an escape," Argent said, "We need to find our way downstairs. Go!"

Noticing the party's presence in their nest, the spider crabs rushed them from all sides. One leapt for Hamish, but was caught in his palm and crushed. Another rushed at Ari, only to be frozen solid.

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The party kept their pace, slashing and breaking any spider crabs that stood in their way. Finally they found their way to the first floor.

As they made it to the bottom step, a loud crash was heard in the rooms above. Heavy steps of some behemoth followed by others, spreading out and searching each room. The hunters had broken through the barricade.

They were in the building.

Quickly the party made for the exit. Only a few Drowned and spider crabs stood in their way, but every second delayed brought the hunters a step closer.

They ran out onto the street, only to find themselves trapped. Umbralivants swam overhead, hunting for food. On the ground, large holes stretched across empty streets, leaving no room to escape by alleyway. In their center, a strange luminescence hovered, drawing in poor souls to be swallowed by whatever lay below. In between, roving Drowned alongside another Baresch ambled the road.

The Baresch was far more fearsome a sight than Selene realized, standing a head above the tallest Drowned, its body was covered in a hard shell-like armor. A human shaped torso protruded from a crab like abdomen, with two large claws where the hands should be and a fish head with thousands of sharp teeth as its head.

Argent's eyes darted around, looking for an escape, but there was none. He sighed as he came to the only conclusion available.

"We have to run across. We need to make it to that building there." Argent said as he pointed across the road to an oddly shaped building.

No time to lose, they raced forward. Unfortunately, such an overt action was easily noticed by the nearby beasts. Drowned began ambling toward them and the Baresch scuttled far faster than one would think. The Drowned fell to ice and blades quick enough, but the Baresch would require far more effort and time.

Time they did not have.

They came to a standstill near the center of the road, weighing their options.

Selene had a thought as they were running, she yelled to her nearby companion, "Hey Hamish, you think you can pick up that Baresch thing?"

"Probably." Hamish said without thinking, "You have idea?"

"Yeah, you think you can throw it into that hole there?" She said pointing to the pit to their right.

"Not a bad idea," Argent said, a smile touching his lips, "Hamish, I'll keep the teeth off you."

Hamish nodded, "Thank you my friend!"

Argent yelled back, "The rest of you clear a path to the building!"

Jezran, Ari, and Selene nodded, rushing forward toward the approaching Drowned.

"ARCUS MAXIM," Jezran cried out as large bolts of lightning shot from his fingertips, cooking the first few Drowned.

Selene rushed forward. She slipped past Jezran's group towards the next, striking the soft tissue holding up arms and legs. It was gross, but it left them far more vulnerable as Ari mopped them up with quick freezing spells behind her.

Soon following, Hamish and Argent clashed with the Baresch. Argent, with ethereal alacrity leapt toward the beast. The beast's head, shaped like an eel, shot toward the elf with knife sized fangs ready to rip and tear.

Fang caught steel.

Argent blocked with his short swords, forcing the beast back with his momentum, landing on the upper torso.

Meanwhile, Hamish rushed towards the hardened carapace, but was caught in one of the beast's claws. He cried out in pain as it tried to lift him up.

Hamish reacted quickly, jumping as the claw lifted. His feet reached out and found purchase on the carapace as Hamish grabbed the claw with both hands.

He let out a guttural yell as he pulled against the claw and feet pushed against the carapace. Muscle and sinew tore as the Baresch cried out in pain.

Argent took this opportunity. He pulled his swords free from the creature's bite and stabbed through soft flesh connecting torso to carapace.

Hamish, no longer trapped, broke the claw holding him and tossed it into the nearby pit. He slammed open palms into the beast, then pushed with all his might.

Argent took this cue to retreat. He used the beast as a springboard and leapt to safety.

The beast, wounded and struggling to fight back, was unable to steady itself against Hamish's shove and hurtled into the pit.

The beast's cries were quickly muffled by a sickening crunch and gnashing teeth.

Both take a moment to catch their breath and share a knowing look between them at their achievement. No time to celebrate, however, they quickly rejoin the party, passing cooked and frozen pieces of Drowned.

As the party stands on the doorstep of the building, a loud crash is heard behind them. The hunters crashed through the walls and doorway of the other building, barrelling out onto the street.

All was silent, and no one dared to break it.

The group hunting them were surprisingly few, but they appeared far more imposing than anything the party had faced thus far. Three were towering humanoids, their skin pale and massive tentacles sprouted from their torsos instead of legs. Another three appeared to be some kind of humanoid shark.

Then there was one, the leader at the center. It appeared human, walked human, and wore extravagant robes, but its head appeared some horrible fusion of human and squid, with purple tendrils sprouting from the mouth. Its bloodshot eyes bore down on the party, filled with contempt.

The leader turned his head, looking at the Umbralivants circling above. They had not yet taken notice of the party.

The leader's eyes began to glow as it cried out in an inhuman language toward the Umbralivants. The large beasts above stopped, then made a similar sound. The leader then pointed at the party.

Selene gulped. Not good.

"Inside, NOW." Argent bellowed as the bodies of the Umbralivants began to glow.

The door was slammed open as they all scurried inside. They barely shut the door in time before a blinding light struck the now vacant doorstep.

The party grabbed whatever they could find nearby and propped it against the door. Then they waited, ready to fight the moment the hunters broke through.

No response came.

Feeling relatively secure, they turned to survey the room. They now saw why this building appeared so strange.

They were inside a massive chamber, with high vaulted ceilings. The room stretched so far and the ceiling rose so high, even Selene's dark vision failed to see the whole room. A few feet away, rows upon rows of seats pointed toward a strange altar at the center.

It reminded Selene of the grand temple back in Izan'Larai, if it were ever empty.

"I don't like this," Argent muttered, looking around. He then called out, "Everyone look for an exit, but don't stray too far. We might not be alone in here."

Everyone nodded, and began looking around.

Selene found herself heading towards the center, towards the altar. It all seemed strangely familiar, though she knew not why. As she approached, she realized the altar was set behind a downward staircase, disguised to match the flooring.

From the top of the stair, she could also make out a great stonework against the far wall that was previously hidden by the encumbering shadows. It depicted some kind of horrible monstrosity of mouths and tentacles. Upon the altar, there was a single word scrawled in grand lettering across it: IGRYSS.

Then the floors and walls shook.

"What's happening?" Selene asked, steadying herself as she looked around.

"I think our friends outside are getting restless," Jezran called back.

Something heavy slammed into the ceiling above them, causing dust to fall and cracks to form on the ceiling.

"More like they want to bury us alive," Argent yelled.

"Great, anyone found a way out?" Ari said, leaning against the nearby wall in an attempt to steady herself as another heavy slam hit the building.

"I...found a stairwell in the center of the room, looks like it might lead down somewhere." Selene said.

"A stairway down? That might just leave us trapped." Jezran said.

"Better trapped, then crushed, my friend." Hamish said.

Another hit shook the building, causing debris and rubble to crash into the floor below

"No choice either way," Argent cried, "Down the stairs!"

In a flurry as more and more rubble came down upon them, they made their way down the staircase.

Above them, the building's ceiling began to give way completely. The party didn't stop. Down the stairs they went, spurred on by the collapse behind and above them. They were only forced to stop as the world shook. It was nearly enough to knock them off their feet.

There were no railings, so everyone simply crouched and hugged the walls, hoping the building falling on their heads was not enough to collapse the tunnel as well. Jezran, near the back, was muttering some kind of spell as he placed his hand against the wall.

After several agonizing moments, the shaking finally stopped. They were still alive. For now.

As the dust settled, two things became quite clear. One, for the time being, they had successfully escaped the monsters of Lendrigol. Two, they were trapped.

Buried in rubble, and the only path forward was down.

Jezran, whose vision was not as attuned to the pitch black, lit a torch to better inspect the rubble piled up behind them.

"Hmm, looks like my barrier held," he muttered, "At least enough to stop the rocks rolling down the stairs and crushing us. Bet it would crumble if we so much as touched it, though."

"Can you get us out, you know with that one spell?" Selene asked.

Jezran was initially confused, but quickly caught on, "Oh, you mean my Passage spell? No, I can only make the hole so deep and it's beyond me to just tunnel a way out with it."

"Not to mention we would still have to fight our way out once we made it outside, no?" Hamish added.

"Yeah," Ari said, "We should probably wait to find a way out until they leave...right?"

Behind them, Argent was deep in thought. He examined the blocked stairwell above and then down the single passage leading downwards. He let out a breath, massaging his temples for a moment before slamming his fist into the nearby wall.

"Damn!" He cursed under his breath.

Everyone fell silent, turning to face the elf.

"W-what's wrong," Selene stuttered. In the short time she had known the elf, he was not one for curses.

"This was their plan all along." Argent said quietly, "They lured us here."

Selene's heart sank.

"M-maybe they just wanted to crush us under the rubble," she reasoned, "If Jezran hadn't created a barrier, we probably would be."

Argent shrugged, "Perhaps, but we are now trapped with only a single path forward. It's possible they sought to bury us, but I suspect they'll have more in store. We should prepare for the worst, especially as we head further down."

"...Is there nothing we can do?" Ari asked, slight panic in her voice.

"Sorry, Ari. We have no choice," Argent said, defeated, "Our best bet is to move quickly, and hope we can stay a step ahead of whatever's down here."

With that, there were no arguments.

They would brave the deep, and face whatever lurked beneath the ancient city.