Adventure of Red 1

The Guard Captain drives his blade point into the cracked seam, trying to pin the violet surge. The rune circle answers with a wet hiss, then tears wider, bleeding shadow across the stone.

A spectral hound hauls itself free, all too many limbs striking the plaza in a blur. It ignores the guards and snaps its glowing gaze onto Red.

Guard One stumbles back, raising his spear too late. Guard Two shifts sideways, trying to keep the thing between them and the breach, but his feet slide on the shining stone.

The hound lunges past the guards, shadow trailing from its jaws, and Red feels the pressure of its attention like a hook in her ribs. Her grimoire hangs ready at her side while the plaza reels around the widening rift.

Red snaps her grimoire open, violet light skimming the pages as she catches the hound's charge in a tight arc of words.

The spectral hound hits an invisible wall, its limbs jerking wide as sigils lash around its neck and ribs.

Guard One plants his spear and stares, the tip wavering as the beast twists in place instead of reaching Red.

The rift still spits shadow, but the hound's lunge breaks, trapped on the brink while the plaza waits on Red's next word.