The Ruined Monastery


Near a village in the west of the kingdom of Daria lies an abandoned monastery that is said to have been overrun by wererats years ago. No one truly knows. None have returned intact. Some were found outside the doors of the monastery torn limb from limb or completely insane from terror. Now four adventurers who have lived and trained in the village go on a campaign into the monastery. These new adventurers are: Jonathan the human paladin, Aramil the half elf-druid, Bob the halfling fighter, and Grul-Nargh the half orc-barbarian


Chapter 1: The Adventure Begins

The adventurers, after walking a short way on the path to the monastery, came to the old crumbling building that was the monastery and walked inside. The seats were broken and scattered about the hall. Skeletons were heaped in piles around the area. Tattered remains of clothing hung on their frames. The group shuddered. Steeling themselves, the adventurers walked further into the building making note of a hole in the ground near the corner of the room.

Searching the building from bottom to top, they didn’t find anything except for a few piles of droppings and pieces of coinage long forgotten. “We should check that hole. It seems something lives in there now.” Jonathan said. “Y-Yeah…” Bob stammered. Staring down the gaping maw of the hole, they could see nothing but darkness inside. Aramil picked up a piece of rubble and waved his hand over it causing it to emit a bright glow. “Let’s go!” bellowed Grul-Nargh , and they stepped into the hole.

Chapter 2: the Swarm


If not for Aramil’s light spell, the adventurers wouldn’t be able to see five feet in front of them in the gloomy darkness of the hole. They were on a long downward slant and had been walking for about an hour. They walked down a narrow stone hallway, eventually coming upon a large cavern. Before they could take one step forward, a shrill cry broke the silence and a low rumbling began, growing louder with each passing second. The adventurers readied their weapons and braced themselves for battle.


A vast swarm of rats the size of wolves were madly charging at the adventurers. Some carried human-like wererats on their backs. The two sides clashed. Aramil stayed behind the others and threw off his vest. Underneath was a small swarm of bats sleeping peacefully. Aramil shouted a command and the bat’s eyes immediately shot open, their wings spread and they flew over Jonathan, Bob, and Sissy, who rushed with swords at the swarm of rats. Grul-Nargh shouting a battle cry slashed at a rat, hurling it into the walls at the far side of the cavern, and stood ready to attack again.


Bob smashed a rat on its head with his shield, picked the rat up by its tail, and started swinging it at the other rats. Jonathan used a magical attack focused into his sword to slash the horde with a wave of energy. Suddenly, Jonathan shuddered as a rat sunk his teeth into his arm. The rat never saw two seconds more as a swarm of black swirled around it and crushed it like a bug. Aramil’s bats had helped him.


Seeing the injured state of his companion, Aramil decided to finish things. He raised his arms in an upward motion uttering a single elvish word and vines burst out of the ground under the rats crushing them and their riders against the ceiling. Just before it was crushed into a pulp, one of the riders yelled, “You will die against the lord’s power! Nothing can stand against him!”

Chapter 3: The Temple of Naught


The adventurers had entered a passage in the cavern and were following a strange path of rubble, as if something big had gone by. Jonathan’s arm was dressed in bandages and cloth. “I think I see a light,” he said. Looking up, the adventurers saw a small point of light getting bigger with every step they took.

As they emerged into a second cavern they froze with horror. They had come upon 2,000 impaled humans planted in the ground like grotesque trees and in the middle of this forest of bodies, the biggest wererat they had ever seen was crushed to a pillar, slashed in two. Near the end of this horrible cavern, they saw it, a gargantuan creature with bat wings, a night black body and a giant axe, red with blood. Its eyes shined a deep scarlet and it stared at them with bitter hate. It stepped out of the circle of spikes that surrounded it and walked towards the adventurers, who stood there, frozen with fear. “I guess something could stand against that wererat’s lord.” Jonathan joked grimly.

Then they saw what was giving off the light. An immense crystal floated in a shrine at the very end of the cavern, shining brightly. Then the creature reached them. They held up their weapons in a futile attempt to ward off the attack. It struck like a hurricane, wielding its axe like a great hammer, smashing the adventurers off their feet and into the far off wall. Grul-Nargh was the first to get to his feet. He hoisted up his companions and they began to run away from the creature, knowing the little hope they had of facing it head on. They got to the crystal and rushed into the shrine hoping that it might provide some sort of protection from the beast.

Aramil heatedly began to decipher the characters on the table while the others turned to protect him until he was finished. It was only seconds before they realized that the creature wasn’t in sight. They looked franticly for it, but it couldn’t be found. Suddenly the wall close by them exploded in a wave of dust and rock, revealing the beast. It swung its red axe at Jonathan. But before the axe could reach him, a surge of light broke from behind them, emanating from the crystal in a wave of pure power.

The creature looked horrified. It attempted to flee, but before it took a single step, a beam of light shot from the crystal piercing its chest. It stood there for what seemed like an eternity, and then fell with a bone crunching thump. Once it landed the crystal shattered into a million pieces pouring glass over the weary adventurers. Their adventure was over. They had no idea what had happened, but the creature was dead. They were left to carry on for another day and to tell the tale of the ruined monastery.

The End

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