The path narrowed into a jagged spiral, descending into the throat of Wyrmroot Gorge like a wound carved into the earth. Even the air grew thinner, charged with a metallic tang that clung to Mira 's tongue and made her silver Die twitch in the satchel like a heartbeat under duress.
"This place smells like burnt onions and bad decisions," muttered Reeko, his voice unusually hushed as he adjusted the tuning pegs on his lute. "Both of which I'm intimately familiar with."
Pipla didn't laugh. Neither did Jory. That was a warning sign.
They were far from anything green now—surrounded by slick, pulsing stone that glistened as if breathing. Even light felt reluctant here. No birds. No breeze. Just the sound of boots scraping over rock and the occasional rumble deep below, like a creature turning in its sleep.
"Tell me again," Mira said quietly, "why we're going down instead of up?"
Jory, who had been sharpening a curved dagger with unsettling calm, spoke without turning. "Because the map burned itself after revealing this entrance. Because the Arc-Seer said the shard is guarded by the Sleeper Below. And because your Die pointed this way."
He didn't need to say the rest: Because if we don't stop Velcrath here, we might not get another chance.
Mira adjusted her grip on the staff she'd been gifted by the Elves—an artifact of root-wood and crystal that hummed with latent power, though it never told her what kind. The Die pulsed again in her satchel. She took them out, thumbed their cool, shimmering surface, and whispered, "Roll for foresight."
She cast them onto a flat bit of stone.
8
The Die sparked faintly, then fizzled. Nothing. Not good. Not terrible. Just uncertain. She grimaced.
"Best we're gonna get," she muttered. "Let's keep moving."
As they continued downward, the temperature dropped. Their breath turned to mist. Torchlight flickered oddly, as though bending away from something ahead. The walls began to pulse—slowly at first, then with more urgency. The group halted as a sound echoed up from the depths.
It was music.
Or something like it.
A deep, groaning harmony, like whale song performed on rusted pipes. It seeped into their bones, made their joints ache. Even Pipla looked unnerved.
"Velcrath?" she asked, her voice taut.
Jory shook his head. "No. This is older."
The tunnel widened into a vast chamber, its ceiling lost in darkness. Black spires jutted up like claws. Pools of shimmering ichor bubbled between cracks in the stone, casting strange reflections. In the centre stood a monolith—rough-hewn, engraved with spirals, and surrounded by skeletal remains.
Mira 's heart thudded.
The Die vibrated violently in her hand.
"Something's here," she whispered.
Then the floor beneath them groaned.
Not metaphorically. It literally groaned, a deep, pained noise as the chamber began to shift—stone folding inward like muscle around bone.
"That's not architecture," said Reeko, eyes wide.
"Nope," said Pipla, drawing her warhammer. "That's anatomy."
Part of The ground heaved, and suddenly the chamber tilted. Mira screamed as the floor became a slope, and the monolith split apart—revealing rows of teeth. Enormous, stone-fused, glistening teeth.
The chamber was the mouth of something ancient.
"The Sleeper Below! The Maw!" Jory shouted. "It's waking!"
Mira fumbled her Die. "Roll for—roll for escape route!"
She cast them in panic.
17
A crevice opened near the left side of the Maw. A tunnel. It shimmered with faint symbols—runes of warding.
"There!" she cried. "Follow me!"
The Halflings sprinted after her, leaping over bones and dodging snapping stone teeth. Reeko flung his lute like a javelin into the closing jaws of the Maw behind them—it lodged just enough to wedge its mouth open for two precious seconds.
"Sacrificed for the greater good," he whispered, saluting it
They dove into the side tunnel just as the chamber sealed shut with a thunderous crunch behind them.
Silence.
They lay panting in the dark.
Mira fumbled for her torchstone and struck it. The tunnel was narrow, slick, and veined with bioluminescent moss. The light revealed them—muddy, scratched, but alive.
All except—
"Wait," said Pipla, her voice going tight. "Where's Jory?"
They turned.
No Jory.
Mira gasped, spinning to look back the way they'd come.
"Jory was right behind me!" she said. "He—he must have…"
Reeko stared at the sealed wall of stone and tooth. "He didn't make it."
"No," Pipla muttered. "No way. That slimy little shadow-rat doesn't die like that. He survives. Always."
But there was no sign. No dagger. No whisper. Nothing.
Mira pressed a hand against the stone. The Die in her hand felt still. As if in mourning.
"We… we have to keep going," she said, choking back tears. "If we stop now, he'll have died for nothing."
Pipla growled something fierce under her breath, punching the wall once before turning and marching deeper into the tunnel.
Reeko followed, silent.
Mira lingered a moment longer.
Jory was gone.
She turned to follow, but something at the back of her mind whispered otherwise.
No body. No blood. Just absence.
The Die remained quiet in her palm.
And somewhere, deeper in the dark… something laughed.
The air had grown thick with tension as the Halflings marched onward, their journey becoming progressively more perilous with each step. It wasn't just the looming presence of Velcrath's influence that weighed on them, but the haunting idea that something—someone—was out there, waiting. And that something was growing stronger.
Mira felt it too, the pulse in her Die growing erratic. It vibrated in her satchel like a heartbeat gone wild, as if the very world itself were holding its breath. As they pressed forward, the shadow of the massive, swirling storm-clouds in the distance seemed to grow darker, heavier. Reeko strummed his lute nervously, though his fingers fumbled over the strings more than usual.
"Can you not? I can barely think with that racket," Pipla snapped, turning her head and glaring at him.
"Sorry, it's just—something feels off, you know?" Reeko muttered, trailing behind them. His tunic flapped in the wind, and his wide eyes kept darting to the ever-darkening horizon. "I'm just trying to keep my spirits up."
Mira 's own nerves were stretched thin. She reached into her satchel for the Die, feeling their reassuring weight. She still wasn't entirely used to this world, but one thing she had learned: the Die, however mysterious they were, had always been a guide of sorts. Even if they didn't always give her clear answers, she trusted them in ways she didn't trust anything else.
As the group trudged onward through the murk and mire, a faint shriek sliced through the air, followed by a deep, guttural growl. It was a noise unlike anything Mira had heard before, a mix between a predatory roar and the screams of someone—or something—tormented.
"What was that?" Reeko asked, his lute forgotten for the moment, eyes wide.
"I don't know, but I don't like it," Pipla said, her grip tightening around her warhammer.
Mira 's heart began to race. Her first instinct was to reach for her Die, but she hesitated. She had grown used to using them for specific actions—fights, obstacles, challenges—but this… this felt different. The atmosphere itself felt charged, as if the entire world was about to explode.
A flash of movement caught her eye. At the edge of the trees, a shadow moved quickly—too quickly. It was not human, not by any stretch of the imagination.
"Stay close," Mira said, her voice low, the weight of authority in it that she hadn't expected. Perhaps it was the Die or perhaps it was the mounting pressure of the journey, but she had started to feel like the leader of this motley group, whether she liked it or not.
The Halflings did not argue. Pipla adjusted her stance, and Reeko, who had not so much as drawn a weapon yet, now had a grim expression on his face.
They had no time to prepare. From the shadows, a figure lunged—a massive, hulking creature with a mouth that looked far too wide for its face. Its body was covered in thick scales, glistening black in the gloom, and it moved with terrifying speed. Its eyes gleamed with hunger, and as it snarled, saliva dripped from its fangs, hissing in anticipation.
The Die pulsed sharply in Mira 's satchel, the familiar sensation urging her to act.
She didn't hesitate. "I'm going to roll," she announced, her voice steady despite the rising terror in her chest.
"You have no idea what it is!" Reeko said, his voice shaking.
Mira closed her eyes for a brief moment, gathering her focus. She needed to make this count. A flicker of doubt threatened to creep in, but she pushed it away. She had the Die—she had to trust them, even if they had only been her guide for a short time. They had never steered her wrong before.
The world around her slowed for a brief second, the danger momentarily frozen in place. She reached into her satchel and grasped the Die. It felt like electricity surged through her fingers, their power merging with her own.
"I roll for strength," Mira muttered, speaking the words aloud as if it could help focus her mind. The Die glittered in her palm, their surface shifting in the growing dimness, the runes etched along their edges glowing faintly.
She tossed them onto the ground.
The Die spun, flipped, and finally landed with a soft thud, their outcome visible only for a heartbeat before they dissolved into mist, as if the world itself rejected their finality. The runes flickered briefly.
13
A moderate success.
The air around her thickened with the weight of decision. The Die were telling her that strength alone would not be enough—she had to be smarter about this.
Her heart raced, but she didn't have time to second-guess herself. "Everyone, get ready!" she shouted. "We have to outsmart it!"
In an instant, Pipla moved with fluidity, advancing toward the creature from different sides, her weapon raised. The creature hissed and swung its massive claws, knocking the ground beneath them, but Mira could see it was struggling. The Die, however brief the roll, had given her the edge.
Reeko was strumming as if he still had his lute and somhow music filling the air around him. Each note pulsed with energy, building a rhythm that kept the creature distracted. Whether it was a magic of his own or something else entirely, Mira couldn't say, but it worked. The creature growled, disoriented.
Without thinking, Mira leapt forward. She hadn't quite figured out how to summon any real magic of her own yet, but the Die had given her a measure of power, and with it, she felt an odd sense of courage. She grabbed a rock from the ground, hurling it toward the creature's face. The rock struck true, causing it to stumble back.
This was enough.
Pipla charged forward, her warhammer raised high. With one swing, she connected solidly with the creature's side. It shrieked in pain, a sound that echoed through the trees.
But the creature wasn't finished yet. It roared again, its eyes locking onto Mira . She felt a chill ripple up her spine as it advanced on her, claws outstretched.
The Die had given her strength, but she needed more.
She reached into the satchel again, hands trembling. "Not this time," she muttered, rolling the Die once more.
1
Her heart sank. The Die had failed her.
But before the creature could strike, Pipla, in a sudden burst of speed, hurled herself at the beast, her hammer gleaming in the moonlight. The creature shrieked as he embedded the hammer into its neck, sinking it deep, breaking it with a mighty snap!
It collapsed.
Mira breathed a sigh of relief, her legs nearly giving way beneath her as the adrenaline drained from her body.
The Halflings gathered around the fallen beast, inspecting it warily.
"That was too close," Pipla said, wiping sweat from her brow. "You did good, Mira . But that was too close."
"I… I didn't roll well," Mira admitted, still trying to calm her racing heart.
Mira held the Die in her hand, the soft glow still lingering from the failed roll. She wasn't sure what it meant yet, but she was beginning to understand: the Die were unpredictable, and they were no guarantee of victory.
And yet… they were the only thing she had.
The storm clouds on the horizon seemed to deepen in response. They were coming, and Mira knew it wasn't over yet.
The wind was picking up now, whipping through the trees and sending dark clouds scuttling across the sky. The unnatural silence following the creature's defeat only made everything feel heavier. Mira stood there, feeling the weight of the Die in her hand, the only certainty she had in a world that seemed to offer no guarantees.
The group moved cautiously forward, but there was no mistaking the unease hanging between them. Even Reeko, who usually bounced from one quip to the next, was unusually quiet.
"What do you think that was?" Mira asked, breaking the silence, her voice low and careful. She glanced back at the fallen beast, her mind struggling to make sense of the encounter.
"Could have been a guardian of some kind," Reeko said picking up the now broken lute, eyes narrowed as he look at how he would be able to repair it. His voice was its usual cryptic self, but Mira couldn't miss the undercurrent of tension. "These forests are full of things that don't like being disturbed."
"Right," Pipla said with a grimace. "And they're usually much more dangerous than they look."
Mira 's brow furrowed as she walked beside them. She didn't want to admit it, but something felt off. The creature hadn't seemed entirely natural, and the way it had reacted to her Die… it was almost as if the Die themselves were connected to the beasts that prowled the land.
"Are we sure we should keep going?" Reeko asked, his voice hesitant as he adjusted his lute once more, his eyes darting around nervously. "I mean, that was—well, that was intense. Maybe we should find some shelter first?"
"Keep moving," Mira said, more firmly than she expected. "We're not far from the mountain pass. Once we get through that, we'll be closer to the next checkpoint. We can't afford to stop now."
The Halflings, though clearly uneasy, nodded. The decision was made, and with it, they resumed their march through the increasingly hostile landscape. As they walked, Mira 's hand stayed firmly on the Die, the cold weight reassuring her even if the Die's exact purpose still eluded her.
Every now and then, she could feel the energy building up within them, almost like a low hum in the back of her mind. It wasn't always present, but whenever she allowed herself to focus, the Die seemed to pulse with power. Her hand would tingle where they rested in her bag, and for a moment, it was as though the world held its breath. She was starting to wonder if that power was tied directly to her survival—and to the survival of her companions.
The trees thinned as they walked, and before long, the dark forest opened into a stark, rocky terrain that sloped upward toward the looming mountains. The path ahead became steeper, the ground more uneven. Every step felt like it cost more energy, and with the storm clouds swirling overhead, it was clear that this was only the beginning of their challenges.
The first sign that something was wrong came when they stumbled upon the first set of tracks. Mira was the first to notice, her sharp eyes catching the indentations in the dirt.
"What is it?" Pipla asked, stopping beside her.
"They're not human," Mira replied. She crouched down, examining the tracks. They were large, clawed, and deep—too deep to be a mere animal's trail. She frowned, her fingers brushing the edge of one of the marks. "These don't look like anything I've seen before."
"They look like they belong to the same creature we just fought," Reeko said, his voice tight. "But… there are more of them."
Mira 's heart dropped. The tracks seemed to spread out in multiple directions, as if the creature had not only been here but had moved in a large group. It didn't make sense—at least not until she remembered the strange sensation she'd felt when she first encountered the beast. A creeping sense of familiarity tugged at her thoughts.
"These tracks don't belong to just one," she said, standing up. "We're being hunted."
"Great," Pipla muttered, the weight of her hammer increasing in her hands. "We need to move fast, then."
But it was too late. The ground shook beneath their feet with a low, rumbling growl. From the shadows of the rocks ahead, a form stepped out. The same beast they had fought before, but this one was larger—much larger—and it was not alone.
Several more of the creatures, their massive bodies hunched and sleek, emerged from behind the boulders. Their eyes glowed with a predatory hunger, and their roars reverberated through the mountains, echoing ominously.
"What the hell are those things?" Reeko yelped.
"Too many to count," Mira said, her voice low but steady. The Die in her bag pulsed once more, as though urging her to act.
"I don't know how we can fight these things," Pipla said, her voice tight with fear but tinged with determination. "We're outnumbered."
Mira was about to respond when a sudden screech broke the air, and a heavy weight slammed into the group. The ground beneath them shook as the largest of the creatures charged forward with terrifying speed, its claws extended, ready to strike.
Before Mira could react, the Die in her satchel glowed brightly, a surge of energy coursing through her body. Her hand instinctively shot toward the bag, and in a swift motion, she pulled out the Die. They were glowing, almost as if they had a life of their own.
"I need to roll!" she shouted, her voice barely audible over the roar of the creatures.
The moment the Die left her hand, time seemed to stretch. The world slowed, and the creatures faltered in their steps as if something had intervened.
Mira focused on the Die, willing them to guide her through this impossible moment. She had to win, for herself and for her companions.
She rolled them, praying the gods of fate would be kind.
The Die tumbled, spun, and finally settled.
The result was a six.
For a brief moment, there was only silence.
Then, everything happened at once.
The ground beneath the creatures seemed to tremble, and in a sudden surge of energy, the very earth began to shift. Massive rocks shot up from the ground like spears, their jagged edges piercing the creatures' thick hides. The beasts howled in fury, but the earth seemed to fight back with a force that was beyond comprehension.
Mira stood frozen, staring in awe at what had just occurred. She didn't know how or why it had worked, but the Die had given her the power to manipulate the very land beneath them. The ground trembled again, and the creatures, now disoriented and injured, hesitated in their pursuit.
"We need to move—NOW!" Mira shouted, snapping her companions out of their stupor.
The Halflings were already moving, their legs pumping furiously as they sprinted toward the mountains, the creatures too stunned to chase after them immediately.
Mira hesitated for a moment, glancing at the creatures, which were starting to recover.
"We've got to get to the pass before they regroup," she said breathlessly And with that, the group fled, hoping the storm would stay at bay—both the literal one that seemed to follow them, and the metaphorical one that threatened to tear them apart.