The floor of the main corridor in the convention hall trembled, with the Color Guard still forty or fifty feet from the broom closet. “What the hell?” muttered Petals, accompanied by numerous expletives from her companions.

With a rumbling groan, the floor beneath them cracked. A crevice opened beneath their feet, and Petals scrambled to keep from falling in as it widened. She grabbed Tara by her camouflaged shirt collar as the girl teetered on the edge.

Walking abreast of Tara, out of the Pink Wizard’s reach, Cherri lost her footing and tumbled forward. “Stop, Cherri,” the Moon Priestess shouted at herself, and froze in place above the yawning gap. Wrapped around her throat, Ash raised his wigged head in alarm.

The red-headed Psi-Thief, Kat, sprang nimbly forward as the crevice threatened to swallow her. She and Elena, the two in lead, occupied the far side of the fissure. Tara and Greta occupied the same side of it as Petals. Cherri and Ash hung in space over the trench, which continued to widen beneath them inch by crumbling inch as tremors shook the building. Chunks of concrete fell from the ceiling into the chasm.

Still enclosing the eyeball, the illusionary cage remained stationary over the gap, where it had been when the tremor began. Tara had the presence of mind to keep the illusion intact, even if she hadn’t moved it with her. “Bring the eye to us,” Petals said, aiming her staff at the Moon Priestess. “I need to save Cherri and Ash, so your illusion has to hold, Tara.”

Tara nodded. The cage glided gently towards her.

With a screech of tearing metal and mortar, the two sides of the hallway wrenched asunder from floor to ceiling, exposing it to the darkened sky. Electric cables snapped and sparked. The overhead lights in the convention hall flickered, with half of them extinguishing two seconds later.

Cherri and Ash fell, her Stop invocation finished. “Ash and Cherri,” Petals shouted over the uproar before she’d lost complete sight of them, “Move your butts to me.” They floated up over the edge, enough for Cherri to get her feet under her on solid floor.

The Moon Priestess ran for Petals, relief fighting with horror for control of her face. “There’s… something… down….”

As the illusionary cage cleared the edge of the crevice, clouds of smoke and dust billowed up behind it. Two sets of yellowed talons, each one longer than Petals was tall—even when counting the flower garden on her head—slid up from the dark depths, curved outward, as though some gigantic, clawed monster reached overhead to push apart two halves of the convention center.

“Crap,” whispered Ash. “The Unconventional Unnatural Disaster scenario. It would have to start now.”

“You know what this is, cutie?” asked Tara, backing away, still drawing the cage after her. “Tell me it’s an illusion.”

“I wish,” said Ash. “We’re all about to die.”

“Kat, Elena,” shouted Petals to the two on the far side of the chasm, “run for the broom closet. Shut yourselves in. Do it, now.”

“What do we do?” asked Greta.

“Tara take your cage and the eyeball over there.” Petals pointed to the narrowest hallway nearby. “It’s our most defensible position. We can’t lose the eye.”

The teen Illusionist nodded and hurried in the indicated direction, mentally pushing the cage ahead of her. “I can only go so fast.”

“I’m coming with you,” Ash said, springing from Cherri’s neck to land on the floor beside Tara. “If you don’t mind.”

“Please,” she replied. “It would help me keep my mind off whatever that is behind us.”

“Greta, you and Cherri are with me, covering their retreat.” Petals backed up in the direction Tara was headed, but kept her eyes glued on the crevice. Things were about to get weird. She knew this scenario. She’d help Ash program it. That is, Justine and Alfie had programmed it. Intended as an introductory scenario for beginning PCs, it assumed the presence of numerous NPCs in the area would draw some attention away from the PCs. Problem now was the utter absence of NPCs. They’d all fled to another part of the convention hall when attacked by the pirate boys and rifle girls.

The talons shoved the two halves of the hallway even further apart, causing more chunks of concrete to plummet from the ceiling, some rolling across the floor, but most plunging into the crevice. The head of an enormous, unearthly creature thrust up from below. Gigantic ram horns curling up from a dark red forehead jutted through the rent in the ceiling. The head leaned back, ebony eyes staring at the dark sky overhead. Skeletal nostrils snorted. Bony jaws dropped as the monster bellowed.

Hellish screams split the air. Dozens of small red dinosaurs—raptors—each the size of a ten-year-old child, sprang from pockets in the flesh of the head. Dozens more raced in file out of its nostrils or mouth. Swarming across the floor, the raptors gnashed fangs and darted glances. All the raptors this side of the chasm saw only Petals and company. They charged.

Tara still had twenty feet to go. She wasn’t going to make it in time. The Pink Wizard raced around her. “Tara, dear, keep your concentration, but Move yourself magically to this safer situation.”

A raptor erupted into red mist, one of the Green Warrior’s arrows having found its mark as the closest dinos came into range of her bow. “Stop right there, monsters,” Cherri shouted.

Tara twisted in the air, keeping her gaze locked on her cage, moving it straight up as the Pink Wizard’s spell swept her across the floor to the hallway. The Illusionist couldn’t bring the cage to the hallway opening fast enough, but she could still move it out of reach of the raptors.

The Moon Priestess had halted a dozen of so raptors, but others darted around or between them. “Fall back, you two,” Petals shouted. “Cherri, we need your Moon Defense on this hallway.”

Greta switched her bow for her bastard sword, running a step behind the Moon Priestess, constantly glancing back. The raptors moved faster, closing the distance when Cherri was still three feet from Petals. The closest one swiped clawed prehensile fingers at Greta, who took off the creature’s head with a fierceness Petals hadn’t seen from the virtual woman who’d first presented herself as a dancing nurse. A green wooden buckler materialized in the Warrior's left hand, and she bashed aside a swipe from another raptor. A third raptor lunged at Cherri, who slashed its shoulder with her scimitar, dispatching it first.

The raptors weren’t tough to defeat individually. It was their speed and sheer numbers that made them dangerous. Three more raptors pressed the attack, claws slicing air.

“Zap you,” Petals cried, aiming her staff at the one closest to Cherri. When speed was of the essence, a lengthy rhyme was detrimental to the cause. Lightning leapt from her staff, shot past the Moon Priestess, and struck the oncoming predatory dino. It burst into digital bits. “Cherri, Move your butt next to me.”

Claws swiped the space Cherri vacated as the Pink Wizard’s spell pulled her backwards into the hallway. “Stop, you dino freaks,” cried the Moon Priestess.

A wall of raptors froze in front of Greta. Taking advantage of the break, she scuttled backwards into the hallway. As soon as both she and Cherri were within the hall's embrace, Cherri shouted, “Moon Defense,” crossing her arms over her chest. Raptors pelted an invisible wall, squashing their faces and bellies flat against it.

Beyond the wall, the illusionary cage floated high above the massing reptiles, still well outside the safety of the hallway but also out of range of little dinosaur attacks.

“Can we attack through your defense without negating it?” Greta held her bastard sword at the ready, blood staining her forearm where her armor had been ripped.

“Wait for the cool down to expire for my Stop command,” Cherri said, “and we can find out. If your attack does negate my defense, at least I’ll be able to Stop the closest ones from coming in.”

“You’re hurt, Greta,” Ash said. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“Kinda been busy,” replied the Green Warrior.

The frozen raptors unfroze and joined the surge towards the group. “Okay,” said Cherri, “try attacking through my defensive wall. Do it now.”

Greta stabbed a raptor in the chest with her broadsword. It exploded into a cloud of sparks. The other raptors still beat their heads against Cherri’s invisible protective wall. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“Stop, fiends,” Cherri cried. The monsters closest to the protective wall stopped all activity. Other raptors climbed up the statuelike bodies, slamming claws and fangs against the invisible barrier. Greta planted her buckler in the exposed abdomen of one of the climbers and shoved, toppling the pyramid beginning to form.

“Zap you, too.” Lightning from the Pink Wizard sent another dino attacker to pixel hell.

Ash jumped to the floor and slithered over to the wall of force. A scimitar appeared in the grasp of his prehensile tail. He slashed at a frozen raptor, and it died with a pop. An energetic raptor took its place, rushing in as the defensive barrier expired. Its claws ripped into Greta’s armor over her stomach. With a war cry, she kept her ground.

“Moon Defense,” cried Cherri. “Ash, don’t attack the ones I freeze. They’re meant as a shield for the brief moments between the wall expiring and my getting another one up.”

“Sorry,” Ash said. “I was hoping to help decrease their numbers more quickly.” He latched onto Greta’s ankle. “Heal.”

The group fell into a rhythm. Cherri invoked her Moon Defense, followed by her Stop. A half-dozen raptors climbed atop the frozen ones. The Moon Priestess then joined the others in dealing death to the climbers, she using her scimitar, Greta using her bastard sword, and Petals using Zap, for which she didn’t spend much time coming up with silly rhymes. Even a minor hit was enough to dispatch an individual raptor. Besides, the adrenaline pulsing in her veins fueled her spell. She kept her Move spell in reserve in case she needed it for the eyeball, which Tara had moved closer to the ceiling before bringing it closer to the hallway.

Even Ash found a way to help defeat the enemies. He anchored himself among the flowers atop the Pink Wizard’s head and slashed at climbers with his scimitar. “How are you?” he asked the little faces peering out of the blossoms, and they squealed with delight at being involved in casual conversation with a PC. They all chattered in reply.

“I’m great.”

“I’m greater than great.”

“I love watching you fight.”

“I’m good. How kind of you to inquire.”

“Will your defensive wall keep the eyeball out?” the Illusionist asked once her illusionary cage was as close as she could bring it without touching Cherri’s barrier.

“Don’t risk it,” Petals said. She Zapped another raptor. “Listen. As soon as the wall expires next, drop your illusion. I’ll Move the eyeball and get it in here fast. Once the eyeball is in here, put your Moon Defense wall back up, Cherri, and, Tara, throw your illusionary cage around the eye again. Greta, be prepared to take a hit or two. Ash, it's your job to defend me. Everyone got it?”

“Got it,” echoed in quadruplicate off the far end of the hallway.

“Eyeball, Move into the hall,” Petals cried at the arranged time. The fleshy orb passed over the heads of spastic raptors who paid it no mind. Tara reestablished her illusionary cage as soon as the eyeball had entered the defended hallway. Her skirt still adorned the top half of the eyeball like a lampshade.

Greta shoved her buckler at the horde, pushing them back on her side, but two raptors on the Pink Wizard’s side of the hall dropped down from atop their frozen siblings as Cherri cried Moon Defense. The two raptors were inside the defensive perimeter, both of them slashing at Petals. She lurched backwards as one dino went to hell at the tip of Greta’s bastard sword, and the other bit digital dust from a downward slash of Ash’s scimitar, the blade passing right before the Pink Wizard’s eyes. “Oh, Goddess,” she said, exhaling heavily.

And then they were back into their rhythm, occasionally pushed further into the hallway to avoid damage at the claws of raptors that broke through the line of their frozen siblings in the scant moments between Cherri’s defensive wall expiring and her reestablishing it.

The onslaught was endless. The repetition of the Color Guard’s attack pattern took its toll on the Pink Wizard’s Zap spell, due to her lack of finding rhymes for it, and eventually it became ineffective against the horde. She felt numb in body and mind.

“Hidden doors, if any near us be,” Petals intoned after taking a moment to think of a rhyme, “show yourselves and let me See thee.” No secret doors lit up. There weren’t any in this hallway, unless they were hidden by level three magic or higher. Sadly, there weren’t any normal doors along this stretch of hallway either. In Darkentide, some hallways had no other purpose than to provide a defensible position for a small group of defenders, as in this very circumstance.

The fighting continued for what seemed hours.

Stepping back to avoid an attack from another raptor breaking past its frozen friends, Petals bumped into Tara.

The Illusionist apologized. “But I can’t go back any further. We’re at the end of the hallway. What kind of hallway doesn’t have any doors? We’re boxed in.”

“There are still so many of them,” Ash said. “This scenario was intended to spread terror amongst a whole convention hall full of cosplayers, not lay siege to a scraggly band of five.”

“Can I try something?” asked Tara. “I think I can still confine the eyeball and help you against the dinos. But you’ll have to stop attacking through the barrier when I do what I have in mind.”

“After the next Moon Defense,” said Petals. “Mind telling us what you’re planning?”

“Splitting my level three illusion into a level two illusionary cage for the eyeball and a level one illusionary wall for the dinos. If they can’t see us, they might go away.”

“Oh, Goddess, yes,” said Petals. “Please try it. I’ll have my Move ready to grab the eyeball if your level two illusion doesn’t hold it. Everyone else, hold your attacks after the next Moon Defense, but be ready to defend yourselves if the illusion doesn’t trick them. Everyone got it?”

“Got it,” they all said.

“Moon Defense,” cried Cherri at her regularly scheduled time.

The illusionary cage flickered. Tara had dropped it and remade it in a heartbeat. The eyeball didn’t go anywhere. A brick wall materialized between the Color Guard and the raptors, spanning the hallway and reaching from floor to ceiling, blocking the line of sight between the two warring parties.

The frenzied movements on the other side of the wall ceased being so frenzied. Petals pictured raptors jumping down to the floor from atop their frozen buddies to match the thuds emanating from beyond the illusion. Clawed feet scratched the tiled floor as the raptors moved away.

A rifle shot rang out, followed by an inhuman roar. Two more shots fired, and the roaring intensified. The scratching of talons on tile receded towards the crevice.

“I’ll go see what’s happening,” Greta said. “Cherri, come with, please.”

More shots rang out, nearly a half-dozen, as the Green Warrior and the Moon Priestess stepped through the illusionary wall. A level one illusion wasn’t enough to stop either of them. They didn’t come rushing back to Petals immediately, which the Pink Wizard took as a good sign.

After two more rounds of gunshots, accompanied by some twangs from a nearby bow, a final roar cut off at mid-utterance. “It’s all clear,” cried Greta. “You can come out now.”

Tara dropped her illusionary wall and reinforced the eyeball’s cage as a level three illusion. She and Petals trudged to the hallway entrance, bringing the caged eyeball along, Ash still riding in the Pink Wizard’s flower garden.

“Hey, Ash,” said a tiny voice from the garden. “What’s red, white, and blue?”

“The American flag?” guessed the Gray Healer.

“No, silly,” came the reply, “they’re colors.”

“Shut up,” Ash said.

Dozens of tiny voices giggled.

“Hey, Ash,” said another tiny voice, or maybe it was the same one.

“Yeah?”

“Your zipper’s unzipped.”

The serpentine ash golem twisted this way and that.

“Made you look,” said the tiny voice. The dozens of voices giggled again.

They reached the end of the hall.

“Hey, Ash,” said a tiny voice.

Ash didn’t respond.

The convention hallway was back to normal. The raptors and the gigantic ram-horned creature were gone. The floor and ceiling were repaired, looking as though nothing had happened.

Greta and Cherri glanced over their shoulders at Petals. Greta gripped her bow. Beyond the pair, Elena and Kat came running. Beyond them, four pirate boys, three with rifles, strode towards the broom closet.

“They killed Ram-Horns,” Ash said, “and reset the scenario.”

Encounter ended, flashed white text. Congratulations, you are level eight. Petals had jumped right over level seven.