The Dark

The group of adventures gathered at the inn, preparing to investigate the paranormal darkness that had begun to fill the town. It emanated from an old educational building that had fallen into disrepair after a local cult had begun to use the structure for their own purposes. Granted, the local populace hadn’t found this acceptable and had since chased the cultists out of their sanctuary, but had failed to apprehend them all. They had also failed to truly understand what the cult members had been trying to do. Violence rarely makes for strong avenues of communication, although neither does abduction, which is what the cultists had been doing. They had been using their abductees for some odd blood sacrifice, which, if it had been consensual wouldn’t have been so much of a problem, but since it wasn’t the mob was roused and the problem solved, or so it was believed at the time.

Yet, as this group of adventurers could attest, the abductions had not stopped. The most horrific clue to this fact was the scrambled note of madness. This wonderful tidbit of information was found on a man who had died in the inn, of apparent fright. The mayor quickly found this to be tedious to deal with, and instead held a party to feed the unfortunate. This was upsetting to most of the group, especially the battlemage in the group who had not had the best of weeks. She had been made aware of certain information that had unpacked long forgotten mental baggage, the worst kind of luggage. A party just didn’t seem in the cards for her. SO she excused herself early, only later to be found missing by her friends.

A bolt of lightning broke the sky, flashing blue in the absolute darkness, its many fingers branching in criss-crossed lines from the earth. The adventurers knew their ally was in need. They managed to regroup with her after she had already freed herself from whatever had tried to abscond with her. Finally, the mayor had informed the adventurers about the cult, to which the party convinced him that they were here to help, and to let them help.

Now they stood outside the inn, armor donned and weapons keen. Suddenly, the world around them seemed to fall apart to the darkness. Not all of it, but in spots as though some powerful entity was erasing patches of creation. People, plants, stone, and walls could not hold this menacing power at bay. Civilians were taken in bone chilling screams, to vanish into the infinite blackness.

“Light, we need light!” the astute wizard called out. “You can see that it struggles with light! Look there at the fires, see how long the torches resist before being snuffed out?”

“I can do light!” the bard exclaimed, never quick for battle but not one to abandon her friends. “I have this ring. It can produce magical light.”

“Should I still light torches if you two can just produce light magically?” the crusader inquired, having already removed several from his pack.

The muscular brute of a warrior finished adjusting his helmet, mostly ignoring his comrades’ conversation. With a mighty roar he charged past them, crashing out into the growing night. “I AM NOT SCARED OF THE DARK!” was his battle cry, and his allies were forced to quickly follow, torches be damned.