In your Dreamz 1

The chamber was massive in size, nothing but pillars holding up the intricate paint-work and stained glass artistry that showed off the monstrous rise of The King Of Nightmares. He had prepared for me- his whole castle was one elaborate trap after another, each one meant to isolate and horrify my party members.

Whatever The King Of Nightmares could do, he had certainly gotten the scouting report on my party.

It was before we had even gotten into the castle that he had taken our techy out of commission. The whole moat was an anti-magic zone, where Lucy's helmet enchantments that kept her cerebral palsy in check would be removed, keeping her from being able to enter the castle. It was awful, true, but she had given us some magic items that she'd specifically made for us that would reactivate upon our entrance to the castle. "Plus," she said. "I can stand out here to keep anyone else from getting in and out! That would be helpful, wouldn't ya think?" It was obvious that she was trying not to cry- she'd been with us since the beginning, and she'd wanted to help find a way to minimize her own diagnosis. Supposedly, the King of Nightmares had a massive library, and she'd been hoping to use it once we killed him to possibly find some medical textbooks.

"Soon," we said. "We'll be back for you."

The next one to get removed from the party was Jake, our resident Big Man, and the party healer. It was an odd trap, all things considered, that got him, but we all hated how personal it was. It was well known to all of us that Jake really didn't get romance. He understood what it was, definitely, he was the type of guy that didn't exactly feel like he wanted it, even though all the girls fawned over him. Still, his mother had been taken by The King Of Nightmares, stolen from him when he was little. It would be his sole goal to get her back, so he could have a mother again. Not the woman who technically "raised" him. We had only just gotten into the central lair of the massive, terrifying keep when something had gotten into the air. Rasha, Lou, Yorrick, and I all seemed to be fine, if, well, a little happy in the pants, but Jake completely changed. He almost looked around as if he specifically wanted to go down on something, and that's when he went down. Literally. We didn't even get to reach for Jake as he stepped on a fake stone in the ground, was pulled down into an abyss, and we specifically saw some sultry-looking demonesses and demons smile at us. As that happened, the walls immediately collapsed in on us, and we were forced to flee, without our healer.

"Soon," we said. "We'll be back for you."

It was Lou who went next. We had been running through the keep now as quickly as possible. As I led the party, it became obvious that the halls were getting smaller, the lights, further apart, and the life, less abundant. At least, we couldn't see much of anything.

As we turned a corner, Yorrick, Rasha and I looked on at the close-to-pitch-dark hallway, and immediately knew that it would be a problem for Lou.

"Hey Lou, you good?" At this point, I thought it good to take him from the back of the party and made sure he was alright.

"Yeah man, no worries." he smiled wearily. "Don't worry, just tired is all."

Yorrick looked down at the hallway. "You know we can-"

"No, no, I'm gonna do it. I'm sure. I got this." Lou said, clenching his staff. "Just, here, let me-"

Crack

The sound of something cracking deep in the hallway, reverberating over and over, became the lone sound that anyone was paying attention to. Lou's tired confident focus on the light spell he was about to cast became a sudden shift to nervousness.

"What was that?"

"Lou, don't worry about it, let's just cast the spell and-"

Crack

"Alright, nope, nope nope nope, we're not doing this." Lou's eyes were suddenly hazy, as suddenly all of his magic energy was being removed from the staff, and back into himself.

"Lou, just remember, breathe, and-"

The lights flickered on.

In front of us was not a bug. Nor was it a mammal, a reptile, or an amphibian.

Calling a 6'6 tall insectoid with steel plating for skin anything but a monster would be a crime.

As Lou immediately went into a panic attack, clutching onto the wood of his staff so hard it started to snap, the sound of snapping attracted even more bugs. Smaller than the big one, but still big for bugs, at least a couple of inches.

"Lou! Wrong time, bud!" Rasha yelled back at him, as she pulled her hammer from her back.

Lou did nothing but whimper.

More and more of them appeared behind us, and as they did, a trapdoor opened, almost as if it was someone beckoning.

Immediately, Yorrick looked to grab Lou, but it was too late.

"Tell me when you get these things out!" he yelled, hopping right into the most obvious trap there was.

I shivered. I wasn't a fan of bugs myself, but I wasn't Lou. I was strong. I knew I was. Rasha came up to my side and smiled. "We got this."

From there, it was all offense. Whatever came at us, Rasha smashed with her hammer, I bashed with my shield, all the while Yorrick the half-elf littered the corridor with fire arrows. To call it a slaughter would be an understatement. We'd turned the grey corridor green with insectoid blood by the time we'd finished, and we looked more like a Kasey, the goblin who ran the inn where I and Rasha first met, and where I'd promised to take her to the world's edge.

As Rasha and I came out of a furious bloodlust, it was Yorrick, the only truly calm one left in our now party of three, who came to the obvious conclusion we should have noticed before.

"Hey guys, the trapdoor is gone."

*****

TO BE CONTINUED