Nightmare Tales...

[Aaron Ramsby]

This is the area where people are to tell the tales of beta testing and give others information that they have found from exploring these wonderful and deadly depths.

[Aaron Ramsby]

My first steps into Nightmare Dawning was a difficult and dangerous one...

At the time there was a fighter and a rogue traveling together. In a very short time, they were asked to figure out what was causing a disease in some of the wild boars who were seen attacking the fences at the edges of this ranch. The rogue gladly accepted this simple task because her want for knowledge tended to out match her fear of the unknown. The simple task was laid out in front of them, but little did they know what stalked the forest.

The two companions quickly tracked down the boars tracks, as it seemed to destroy everything in it's path. This did little to stop the rogue from quickly traveling down the path, but the warrior felt something was wrong. Their little walk soon led them to a dead deer that looked sickly, with black spots on it's belly. Finding that caution out weighed the need for knowledge, the fighter sliced open the belly of the deer. A rotten stench like no other either had ever smelled in their short lives assaulted their senses. This would be the first of many times the small rogue would loose her stomach at the sights she witnessed in her short life. The insides of the deer were completely black and decayed, and the little blood they had found was thick like tar.

Not wanting this diseased thing to pollute the ground, the fighter looped some rope around its legs and pulled it up into a tree. This would keep it from harms way and allow them to take it back to the small ranch to burn it at dusk. Moving away from the stench, the two companions soon smelled something almost as rotten but in a different way. The combination of burnt flesh, tar and brimstone slowly wafted through the light breeze. This ungodly stench led the two to a large pond covered in black tar as easily as the tracks would have.

Everything around this shallow pond was a deep gray as if the life was sucked out of it. The pond lilies did not rot in the water, even though their sickly appearance and dead stench could be smelled in the air. The thick, black substance sat there openly in the sunshine like some open sore.

In the center of the black, sucking wound, was a bobbing black barrel the size of a small casket. Strange ruins were carved into the sides of it, as a possible warning but neither of them knew the language. Deep in his heart the fighter had a bad feeling about this whole thing, but he knew that the canister in the middle of the pond had something to do with this whole thing.

Slowly wading out into the cold water, the fighter advanced on the black ooze as the rogue stood on the shore readying her short bow. Underneath the ooze, something started to move toward the fighter and caused ripples large enough to cancel out the fighters movements in the water. In an explosion of black tar, an eroding zombie burst from the ooze and quickly traversed the distance between the fighter and its self. The fighter readied two scimitars and stood waiting for the attack.

The zombie slowed its advance as the fighter slowly backed up with his swords held defensively in front of him. He had no real idea what this creature was, but instinct told him it was deadly. It was dissolving right in front of his eyes, but it still relentlessly pursued him with open arms. A sharp swing of a scimitar and the creature stopped as it's shoulder exploded in blood, bone and ooze. The ooze made a wet sound, hitting the fighter in the chest as the rogue stood on the shore afraid to shoot at this thing fighting her companion.

Fire raced its way through the fighters veins with a promise of illicit pain. His chest turned fiery red and blood vessels pumped hard and fast as the sensations spread quickly through his body. A red haze started to descend on his vision as new life and strength flooded his arms as they drove the scimitars up to their hilt in the liquefied zombie.

The rogue stood at the shore, with the color quickly draining from her face as her companion mutilated the corpse now floating in the water. Splashes of water and ooze were flying every where as the fighter was in a rage of destruction. Sunlight glinted off the ooze as it landed with a healthy dose of water and covered the small rogue. Her small little frame shook as if possessed as her mouth foamed over.

In a hazed and crazed state, the rogue started to slash at any living or non living things on the shore as the fighter tossed in the water. Using the momentum of his strongly built legs, the fighter pounded out of the water and tackled the hanging deer to the ground. Using his fists, teeth and any other instrument of human destruction, he tore apart the deer bare handed.

Soon the blood fueled rage abated and the fighter found him self in the middle of the rotting carcass and the rogue found her self in a small hole she had dug in her rage. She turned to look at the fighter and found her stomach once again turning over, if it was full it would have emptied its self once again. Both of them sat there stunned to silence.

They cleaned them selves up with the freshest water they could, but could not stand to look at each other for the longest time. The two barely looked at each other as the rogue slowly drew her short bow once again. They nodded to each other and she let the arrow fly. The container in the center of the black ooze made a resounding crack as the arrow struck its side. Air was released and then the black ooze was suctioned up into the container in seconds, leaving the two stunned at the suddenness. The container could be seen changing shape as it fell below the surface of the water...

The rogue and the fighter looked at the new clean pond with disbelief, but once again the rogue's want for information and her incessant need for items caused her to start wading into the water. The Fighter just rolled his eyes as he watched his little friend jump into the water and start to doggy paddle to the middle of the pond and start diving to see what happened just moment before. Under the water the small rogue found the half buried piece of metal that was once the canister.

Diving down, she tried to pull it toward the shore but only risked getting stuck in the shallow mud. Several attempts were tried by the gnome before she decided to get some help from the fighter. This task was far harder then her previous one though. The fighter was curious about what happened but was cautious since his last encounter. After getting his ear chewed off, he grabbed some rope and dove into the water. The fighter quickly used the rope to tie it onto the piece of metal and left enough slack so they could get some distance away and slowly pull the thing out of the water.

This small little task took a lot less time then either of them believed, they pulled the piece of metal out of the water with ease considering the size of it. Once the black metal was with in wading distance for the gnome, she quickly ran to it to inspect her prize. The black metal was a broken piece of metal that seemed a small part of something larger. There were runes on two sides of it, and it was slightly curved like it was part of some large circle.

This only spurned the gnome to greater depths of wonder and tried to pick it up despite its size. What she found shocked both of them with the ease she picked it up, it was almost as light as a feather. It only took a few moments to figure out that there was no way she could carry it with her, but then her smile grew large and some would have said evil. The rogue looked up at the fighter and batted her eyes as he just rolled his. There was no need for verbally communicating here, the fighter had a good idea what she had wanted. He was later rewarded by her squeal of delight as he threw the piece of metal onto his back and started the trek back to the ranch to examine their findings and explain what they had seen.

Little did either of them know, this event would change their lives forever... But that is a story for a different time.

* In this situation, these two interacted with War Torn Sludge.

[Aaron Ramsby]

My second trip through Nightmare Dawning had me wondering if I was sane or not...

We had just gotten back to the ranch, and little did I know but the rogue's father was the owner of it. That was the oddest feeling when I saw those two together and the truth hit me like a sack of long swords. It was tough work trying to explain to him what had happened in the forest, most of it was still hazy but he sat and listened with interest. It was a quiet time that helped us all settle our nerves after seeing and experiencing the last couple hours.

I found my mind going back to the black metal we had taken away from that pond. Something about it did not sit well with me, so as the gnome prattled on about little things, I ended up just watching our pack. Little did I know, the gnome was setting us up for even more adventure. Before I blinked, we had riding animals and enough feed and rations to last us at least a week or more. In truth I no longer had time to think about that black item because we both were so weary.

Near the end of the day we came across a small hamlet that rose out of no where. We hand crested a small hill after traveling through some thin forest to find it nestled in between two little hills. It was a sight for sore eyes, and my muscles almost relaxed seeing this sleepy place. As we entered we were waved at and greeted by people passing by. We scouted the hamlet and found that there were no inns, the gnome found this to be no problem because she started to ask people if we could stay with them. I was embarrassed but in the end it got us a place to stay for the night.

A woman who had lost her husband earlier in life took us in, soon we found out that we were not the only ones she had taken in during her life. She had a young son that had one day walked into the hamlet one day with out any friends or family, she took him in and had lived together since. They were a nice little family, and it was easy to see they loved each other dearly. That night we slept like the dead, forgetting all problems for the day.

As we slowly explored the next day, there was nothing wrong and in that sense it felt like something was wrong. Taking several hours we talked to the people who lived here but their replies were polite and much about nothing. Not even the gnome could get anything of real consequence from these people. It was about mid day when we found this depression in the ground leading to an old stone stair case. Surprisingly there were no tell tale signs of cobwebs and the like so it must have been opened for a long time.

Taking a few torches, we descended into the dark depths to find out what was hidden deep in the ground. The path we took surprisingly was not long at all, the staircase spilled into a wide area that the torches brought to life. Large, towering stone giants sat in stone chairs on either side of a small hallway. Each stone giant was at least five times my size and I am not small for being a human. Thick metal bands of metal strapped each giant into their chairs. I was not very convinced that they were just decoration, the giants did not move but they had the look of straining against their bonds. This was by far not the strangest thing we would see this day though.

The short hall way led to an even stranger area, but one that horrified me because I had never seen pictures from before the forgetting. Each picture was elegantly tiled, beautifully depicted, but brought more horror to my soul then I can ever describe. The room its self was massive, and only one object could dominate it. Standing before us was a large, black metal ring roughly standing 3 times my height. My blood turned cold and I could feel the gnome grab my leg as she got behind me.

What stood before us was the broken form of what we had pulled out of the water previously. In the bottom left hand corner, a chunk of the metal was missing. It was the exact shape and size of the piece we were carrying. Something in me, deeper then my soul, warned me to run and forget this place. No matter how much I wanted to do as much, my feet would not move. This did not stop the gnome from slowly slinking up to the ring and placing the metal piece in where it should have gone.

The entire ring turned to a liquid state. Still locked into the form of a ring, it seemed to repair the damage with the broken piece. The metal flowed over it in strange and hideous ways. We could both see strange runes rising to the surface of the metal. I could tell the gnome was scared by the smell in the air and the warm water running past my boot. Every breath we took, the metal surface moved faster.

A shriek filled the air as the metal moved, soon the gnome's stench was over powered by the stink of burning metal. The shriek became deafening as the metal started to glow red, our eyes were watering and I swear our ears were bleeding. That is when all the sound stopped, the metal making up the ring rushed into the center to form a perfect metal disk. This lack of sound was worse then anything, the air throbbed with power and malice.

I can not verify this, but it started to look like hands were trying to push through the metal disk. This in its self was frightening, but the stench of burning flesh filled the air as if it was truly happening. Some pasty white fingers found their way through the metal and were trying to push their way into our area. Behind those fingers was a pool of blood or some other red substance, but it looked tainted and sickly. I never realized how close I was to the disk, one of the hands grabbed my arm and darkness rushed up to over whelm me.

The gnome and I woke up in a tangle of limbs, it could have been a couple of minutes to days since we had opened our eyes last. We knew we had to get out of there, but we needed to know more. I glanced in the metal plates direction, but it was just a metal ring like before. We slowly got up, and that was not an easy affair when a gnome pokes you in the face several times. We lit another torch because one of the ones we brought down with us had gone out while we were unconscious. Then we slowly went over the tiled murals on the walls, what we found still confuses me.

A large black lizard with large wings stood by a representation of the gate we had found, and it watched several people file into it. From the picture, the people looked very lavish and overly dressed. The second section detailed the same lizard sitting on a large nest of eggs and it was pushing one inside the ring. The last picture brought vomit cascading up my throat, there were horrors there that I can not even begin to explain. It looked like torture, mutilation and some things I can not begin to explain. If this is our history, I want no part of it.

Seeing those pictures we both felt the need for fresh air, so the gnome and I acceded the stairs. It was already dark out side, and that gave us a good indication of how long we had been out. We walked out into a fog back, the likes I had never seen before. Indistinct fires were burning in the town, we could hear people screaming and there was blood at our feet. This was a nightmare of vast proportions but I was sure that we were not a sleep with my experience of how combat feels.

Indistinct villagers ran through the fog, and I would like to say monsters followed but they were nothing but smoky wraiths to our eyes. The fog enshrouded everything so thinly that it was hard to tell friends from enemies. I think something rushed at us, to attack us but when I slashed at it with my sword it was gone. I felt like I was chasing ghosts and finding smoke. Even the air did not smell right, it was bitter and heavy with this smoky stench that the few fires should not have created.

It felt like moments as we searched through the fog, we found only towns people dead on the ground. No enemy had been struck down, that I could see, no enemy had even been hit. This felt so wrong in so many ways, but I was in no position to handle it. The gnome cried out, and I turned to her to find the body of the young boy and his mother we had been staying with. My strength rushed from my limbs and I sat down hard.

The fog dissipated after a while, and it was as bad as we had thought at first. It was a blood bath, and the only true sign of where these mysterious attackers came from was a hole the size a large wheel off a wagon. No other signs were present in the gloomy night. We decided to bed down and avenge the people of this fair hamlet in the morning, once we had had time to think things over.

We awoke to children laughing out side, and the normal amount of conversations that go on in normal life. I stood out on the steps of the small house we had stayed in the night before in shock. Everyone we had seen dead earlier showed no sign of being in any danger or even of an attack. I recognized people that I had seen slaughtered last night. There was no fire damage on any of the buildings and even the air was clear, something was wrong with this and I knew it to the depths of my soul. I quickly gathered my belongings and went to the area were we had found that hole the night before.

It was gone, there was no trace of it what so ever. This little fact showed me the proof of why we should leave. I picked up the gnome off her feet and just left the hamlet in the dust. I am not sure why I did this, to this day it makes me wonder. I tended to look back down that road an hour later, and there was no sign of it. As you know, gnomes can not move too fast, and it was a simple and strait path. Yet there was nothing there, just an open spot where the Hamlet was. To this day, I have nightmares about what I lived through there. Later in life I found out places like that are called Shade Haunts. Creepy places, if you know of one, stay well clear of it.

[Aaron Ramsby]

The Date is 148 AFD

I, holy cleric of the true word will attempt to capture all the information our holy warriors will find word for word as they decend into the depths of that unholy place. May Alcorn forgive our blasamy for using unholy magic items. I fear this would not be possible with out them. The noon day sun has just rose and they are about to decend into the crypt.

~ I, brother Mallius am going to lead our holy warriors into the crypte we just found a few days ago. I have not even breached the depths but I can tell this place exudes unholy magic. This arcane disease spreads through this place and even

* Work in progress