Loss Aversion, Part 1

“How did I get here?  Why am I doing this?”  These and other thoughts race through Azkadelia’s mind as she and her friends slide down the limb disposal hole.  Wet and gooey from innumerable chunks of excess flesh, the sluice takes the team farther and farther below ground.  The channels split, and Horace and Azkadelia are ferried away to parts unknown.  Finally, the pipe ends, and the party lands on solid ground.  They find themselves in a dark and quiet cave.  Off in the distance, they hear the flame cultist that was kicked into the hole first.  They hear him running and panting, but something catches up to him in the darkness; the sounds of his feet are cut short with a sudden crunch, followed by the sounds of cracking, ripping, and disemboweling. 

Nyridius, Lim’Dul, Optimus, and Little Rock survey their surrounds and see evidence that they’re not alone in the dark; gnawed bones indicate that something hungry lurks nearby.  They are approached by two multi-armed pit monsters.  The monsters don’t seem violent, but they are… handsy.  And chatty; they gab incessantly.  Lim’Dul and Nyridius get thoroughly groped and felt up as they try to walk past.  Unfortunately, Optimus trips and accidentally kicks one in the face.  This turns their interaction sour, and the monsters begin lashing out at the group.

Horace and Azkadelia, however, are in worse shape.  Horace finds himself surrounded by two “shadows,” which are people that aren’t properly synched with this dimension, and phase in and out of it.  Horace is grabbed by one, and slowly begins changing.  In an adjacent room, Azkadelia is tackled by a zombie, who begins gnawing on her.  Both are in mortal danger.

The main group rushes to assist them, but see that they may already be too late to help Horace.  Although he is still alive, he is slowly fading away from this dimension.  Everyone is badly hurt, and they begin scrambling to find an exit.  A spider ensnares Little Rock, but Nyridius crams a disruptor pike up its ass and blows it to pieces.  Near the exit, the party is confronted by a fearsome shadow standing on an archaic rune.  Although Lim’Dul believes the rune to be a swimming pool and tries to jump in, Horace sees an opportunity to save his friends.  Horace knows that he is permanently altered and will be unable to leave the cave, ever.  He engages the shadow in an attempt to buy his friends enough time to escape.  They all manage to make it out, leaving Horace behind.

 Over the next weeks, Horace finds that, in his new semi-corporeal form, he remains bound to the rune in the cave.  So there he remains, resigned to his fate.