The Carnival at Moonbright

1:20 AM

Looking around, Rhokhishi saw Gisela standing next to her. She rushed through the portal on the roof, then managed to still be in the Astral Sea on a platform over a mile above. She heard them first but had her hammer ready and swung.

The shades, darklings, were here. Gisela and Rhokhishi split and started their offensive maneuvers. Rhokhishi could see Gisela grow larger, attacking one as Leaf appeared and cast an elemental ice spell at it. Lifting her hammer, she brought it down with conviction and smashed it into the platform.

“Quick! Into the portal.” Leaf yelled out, holding a door connected to a frame and nothing else, with darkness inside.

Rhokhishi rushed forward through the doorway.

1:22 AM

CRASH

Rhokhishi found herself lying on the ground as an explosion of wood covered her in splinters and pieces.

“What in the unholy hells are you doing, making that kind of racket?” Mr. Muffins yelled, brushing dust off clothes and fur.

“We just met with Leaf!” Gisela answered.

“It seems that the doors and stairs don’t always take you where you’re supposed to go as part of the defense,” Rhokhishi replied, picking herself up off the ground and pushing wooden pieces away.

Mr. Muffins walked over to them, holding the paper in his hands.

“Can either of you read this?”

“I can!” Gisela said as she took the paper from him. “Why are you handing me a random list?”

“A list?”

“Yeah. Six antidotes, five potions of climbing, one that lets you fly, and one that lets you swim faster. Then, there’s a bunch of random stuff here at the bottom. Something about combining some of these.”

“Well, this’ll help,” Rhokhishi said, pulling a large bowl from the shattered crate.

Mr. Muffins took the bowl and moved over to the desk.

“There seems to be a vial missing. One of these color-changing ones.”

“We’ll look around.” Gisela immediately started investigating.

Rhokhishi took a moment to breathe, wiping off the other wooden pieces on her clothing and checking to see if anything else was in the broken crate.

“I found something, but it’s very small!”

“Good job, Gisela!” Rhokhishi replied. She saw Gisela pointing at a small hole in the wall.

Not really sure how that’ll help, but okay...

Rhokhishi looked over at Mr. Muffins, standing over the desk. Potions of different types sat there as he focused. Taking some of the vials, he poured them in one by one, watching as it fizzled, bubbled, and started to smell horrible. Once all of the potions were in, he looked up at them.

“One of us is going to have to take this.” He said, lifting it to his mouth before she could react.

A terrifying scream echoed through the room as Mr. Muffins set the bowl down.

“It sounds like it’s below us,” Rhokhishi said, looking at the stone around the stairwell.

“Well, we have to do something!” Gisela exclaimed, taking her sword and hitting the ground with it.

Rhokhishi pulled out her warhammer, and the two of them took turns hitting the ground, watching it crack, then fully splinter, then crumble. Gisela reached down, pulled a slate of stone out of the way, and listened closely. It was dark, and she couldn’t see anything below, but she could hear noises that sounded like fighting. Rhokhishi looked up to tell Mr. Muffins they had found a way, though, but could only stare in disbelief. Where Mr. Muffins was, she saw a small, fox-like creature with wings. It squeaked a few times as if trying to say something, but Rhokhishi had no clue what it could be saying.

Rhokhishi turned towards Gisela, then back at the fox, shrugged, then jumped into the open space below.

1:25 AM

“Ow!” Lyla cried out.

“Sorry! Didn’t know you were there!” Gisela yelled back.

“Gisela! Myla’s here, and there are shades everywhere in this place!”

Rhokhishi tried not to move. She could hear the others around her, but the darkness was

too thick to see through. She held her warhammer in her hands, ready for anything.

Before she could get a swing in, the darkness slowly faded, revealing her friends and nothing else in the void of the Astral Sea.

As Leaf took a step forward, the fox-like creature flew through the air, plummeting to the platform with a solid thump before growing into the feline form of Mr. Muffins.

“That… was terrible.” He gasped.

Leaf walked over to Rhokhishi.

“Can you help me get these off?” He asked, holding the amber stone in his hand, covered in blood and skin.

“My gods, yes,” she replied, holding her hands over his. Quietly, Rhokhishi prayed, and the incantation glowed in her hands as it slowly healed Leaf’s arm, then removed the amber stone.

“These are cursed items. I don’t have much magic left in me today. Tomorrow, we can try to take more off.”

“If we get through to tomorrow.” Lyla’s sarcasm pierced the air.

“This is the platform under the third floor. We should be close.” Leaf said, looking around at the others.

“The stairway is open already to the floor beneath. That’s where I ended up.” Myla stated, her calm expression barely hiding the worry.

“We need to rest first. I know we’re in a hurry, but we need to check our resources.” Leaf stated, sitting and trying not to move.

“We have potions. I found some.” Myla replied, handing them to the group.

“We rest, then we move,” Rhokhishi stated. She sat down and looked at the group. Even with the potions and her limited healing abilities, they would still be disadvantaged if something larger attacked them. They’ll have to be careful.

2:30 AM

Rested enough, the party gathered their things and descended the stairwell to the second floor. They felt the ground beneath them give as their combined weight pushed down a plate, and the opening for the stairs led them to what they hoped was the last platform of the Astral Sea. Inside Rhokhishi’s mind, she could hear a voice she didn’t recognize. Though the voice was telepathic, it still sounded rough, wheezed, and strained.

“I guess I underestimated you all. Since they’ve been hiding under your noses this entire time, I assumed that you were fools… No matter, I’ll kill you, then I’ll finish off the Archmage…”

Rhokhishi looked at her friends and could tell by their expressions that they heard it, too. Ahead of them, a doorway appeared and opened, leading to a stairwell that went down.