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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Funeris" data-source="post: 2679082" data-attributes="member: 22792">Chapter 4: From Here to ThereVISITORS - Part ICassock awoke to the pounding of rain amidst the dense foliage of the forest.  He shuddered, cold gripping his bones as he rolled to a sitting position.  The house or building—Cassock couldn’t distinguish for sure—had been abandoned for some number of years.  Age had crumpled most of the roof, devouring supports and braces, causing the roof to collapse into the two levels below it.  The vengeful timber had driven downward, pulling the lower floors down to the earth between the foundation walls.   It was between those solid, stone walls that the company now slept, a fitful and fevered rest brought on by not just the fatal battle they had encountered, but the unseasonable weather which now wrapped its tendrils tightly around their throats; draining the heat and life from their bodies.  A slight portion of the roof had survived the assault of age, a thin border that trapped a gaping view into the foliage and beyond, into the stars.  Beneath the edges of roof, they slept.  The fire in the center had not survived the battle with the downpour and later with the snow that now rested quietly upon the foundation.  The snow itself was succumbing to the fresh downpour battering the ground.  Quickly, the white was vanishing into a puddle spreading through the debris along the floor.  Soon, they would all be sleeping in a pool of hypothermic death.“Unless I wake them,” Cassock stated to no one in particular.  Aramil was leaning against the far edge of the foundation, with a clear view through a hole into the surrounding wood.  But the rogue had fallen asleep, whether it occurred before his shift ended or after the mourning half-elf had decided to watch alone all night, Cassock could not be sure.  From the obviously distraught mental state of the rogue, probably the latter, he decided.  Cautiously, the priest moved around to wake the rogue first.  When the priest glanced through the large hole, he noted a land of white and gray dancing between the mottled brown of wood and the still unchanged green of the leaves.  It was an extraordinarily crisp and pristine view.  He reached for the rogue’s shoulder when a large shadow stretched across his body.Cassock spun, a massive form negating the hole completely.  It was a sickly green-brown in hue, larger than four men strapped together and had a wicked under-bite.  The teeth—giant fangs—lacerated the lips they were held taught against.  A dim intelligence pierced the deep brown of its eyes and it opened its maw.  “FOOD!!!” the beast bellowed, lifting the half of a falling tree it used as a club.  From behind the head of the beast, Cassock saw more—gigantic—shapes looming.Ogre! the priest’s mind shrieked.  He fell onto his back, scrambling away to draw his mace.  “Attack!” he screamed, hoping to wake the others.</blockquote>

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