The group stumbled upon a patch of semi-dry land amidst the mudflats and wasted no time setting up camp. A modest fire crackled to life, casting flickering warmth as twilight deepened into darkness. Shiv and Shank took the first watch, their eyes scanning the murky horizon while the others settled into uneasy sleep.

Barely twenty minutes passed before Shiv’s ears caught a sound—a skittering, like driftweed scraping over cracked mud. But this was no windblown debris. The sound carried a rhythm too deliberate, too eerie. Alarm prickled down his spine. With a shout to rouse the camp, Shiv charged toward the source of the noise, brandishing his maul.

The weapon pulsed with unnatural force as he unleashed its power—Breaker of Minds—sending out psychic shockwaves that rippled through the night and slammed into the approaching swarm of giant boring beetles. With a roar, Shiv surged forward again, swinging left and right, cracking chitin shells with brutal precision. Three of the monstrous insects collapsed under his blows.

But the fight was far from over. One beetle lunged, sinking its jagged mandibles into Shiv’s leg. Blood darkened the mud. Snarling through the pain, Shiv brought his maul down hard and sent the beast flying twenty feet backward.

Shank was already beside him, axe in hand, eyes blazing. He swung once—splitting a beetle in two—then pivoted, cleaving another before rushing onward to bring down two more with swift, practiced strikes. With the battlefield momentarily clear, he drew his longbow and loosed an arrow into the gloom, striking a beetle crawling toward them.

But the creatures were relentless. One beetle vanished beneath the mud and erupted at Shank’s feet, clamping onto his thigh with sickening force. He howled as blood ran down his leg.

Meanwhile, Marcus roused Zahraan, who bolted upright like a coiled spring. The monk dashed into the fray with preternatural speed, his Step of the Wind closing the gap in a blink before he lashed out with a flurry of strikes.

Cursy, the small coal drake, growled low and took position beside Shank, embers flickering in the corners of its mouth.

Across the camp, Anvar, Safi, and Karnos stirred at the noise—then, seeing the battle under control, promptly rolled over and went back to sleep.

Fazanna, already awake, barely lifted her head. With a flick of her wrist, a Firebolt streaked across the battlefield and immolated a beetle in a flash of flame. Without a word, she lay back down and pulled her cloak over her face.

Zahraan spun, fists like hammers, and finished the last beetle with a rapid series of crushing blows.

Silence returned. Shiv, panting, tore a leg from one of the beetles, its shell still steaming, and began to cook it over the fire. The group settled once more.

But peace was fleeting.

From the darkness beyond, more skittering rose... the second wave had begun.

Through the endless night, the group trudged forward without rest, every footstep a battle against exhaustion. The path ahead wound across bleak, barren mudflats, where the faint outlines of ancient footprints seemed to guide their way—unsettlingly fresh despite the lifeless land. But as they drew closer, the prints began to vanish, devoured by the thickening mire as though the earth itself sought to erase all trace of whoever—or whatever—had passed.

Then came the tremor.

The ground quaked beneath their feet as a low, guttural rumble echoed across the flats. From the black depths of a still pool ahead, something vast stirred. A mountainous, shifting mass of fused corpses rose from the mire, dragging the remains of the dead in its wake. The stench of rot filled the air as the Bogborn Colossus emerged, its form shifting with every motion, its grotesque body comprised of hundreds of writhing, rotting limbs. The earth groaned beneath its weight. Forgotten voices whispered and screamed in a maddening chorus.

Anvar wasted no time—he whipped out his wand of haste and empowered Fazanna. Then, the colossus opened its massive maw and unleashed a roar unlike anything the living should ever hear, a chorus of a thousand lost souls screaming in unison.

Trenbull, Marcus, Karnos, and Zahraan froze where they stood, paralyzed by pure, soul-deep terror. Shank, too, faltered—until the Veil of the Shadows cloak flared around him and banished the fear from his mind.

The creature glided forward, more like a landslide than a beast, dragging its mass over the mudflats. With a gesture, it reached for Karnos and drained him with necrotic force, wracking his body with pain. Gritting his teeth, Karnos retaliated with a burst of psychic power, accelerating Shiv, Shank, Zahraan, and Safi. Then, despite the agony, he stepped forward and fired his blasting crystal—only for it to splash harmlessly against the colossus’s shifting mass.

The creature retaliated, its Voice of the Consumed striking fear into Fazanna, who stumbled back, pale and trembling. But Shank charged with fury in his heart, his great axe blazing. He struck true, triggering a brilliant display of pyrotechnics, followed by a critical blow that unleashed both his fire essence and elemental flux. The strike shook the air—but the colossus barely flinched. Shank struck again—another devastating hit—but still, the creature endured.

With unnatural speed, the colossus lashed out with an appendage of corpses, seizing Shank and lifting him high, crushing him in its grotesque grasp. Shiv rushed to save his brother, activating Fury of the Arena as he swung his maul in a relentless flurry. Blow after blow landed with punishing force—but like before, the colossus remained unshaken. It seized Shiv in turn, hoisting him skyward.

Safi sprinted forward, casting Guiding Bolt, but the radiant spell fizzled as it touched the creature's hide. Undeterred, he activated his Halo, casting divine light around him as Shank cried out, being slowly pulled into the shifting mass of the dead.

Then Fazanna, seemingly entranced, stepped forward, holding out the mysterious idol she had uncovered days before. Her eyes glazed, she shadowstepped toward the colossus, arms outstretched, as if offering it the artifact. Anvar, sensing something was deeply wrong, cancelled the haste on her, snapping her from the trance.

Zahraan shifted his focus, turning from Wooded Earth to Giant’s Might, and used his strength to hurl Anvar closer to the artifact and the oncoming monster. Gritting his teeth, Anvar called upon his Courageous Recall, banishing the fear within and wrested the idol from Fazanna’s grip.

The colossus reacted with fury, slamming its fist into the mud, sending a necrotic shockwave and a geyser of muck toward Safi and Anvar. Safi narrowly escaped thanks to his Beloved Performer ability.

Karnos, still pale and shaken, fired two blasts from his crystal but missed both. Shank, still in the clutches of the dead, screamed as his life was siphoned, his body failing against the crushing pressure. Zahraan, frozen in fear, remained motionless.

Shiv managed to break free, falling into the mud with a wet splat, gasping for air. But before he could rise, another corpse-laden limb lashed out and grabbed him, hoisting him aloft once more. He tried to activate Flicker of Faith, but it failed—and again he was caught in the monstrous embrace.

Trenbull and Marcus, now gripped by survival instinct, turned and fled into the dark.

Safi, desperate, summoned the full force of his divine power and cast Heal on Shiv, restoring his strength just as death loomed. Then he stepped through space, blinking closer to help.

Karnos, shaking off the last vestiges of fear, triggered his Nomadic Step, teleporting Shiv, Shank, Zahraan, Anvar, Marcus, and Trenbull three miles away from the colossus. Safi, still in the grip of the monster, screamed in pain as his life was drained, death nearly taking him.

Fazanna, still half under the creature’s sway, cast Dimension Door—twice—attempting to retrieve the idol again. Only after her second teleport did clarity return.

Back at the colossus, Safi clung to life as its tendrils squeezed tighter—until Karnos returned, appearing in a flash beside him. With a final act of will, Karnos used his nomadic power once more to escape with Safi.

Moments later, Fazanna joined them, breath ragged and eyes haunted. They fled into the darkness, casting fearful glances over their shoulders. Somewhere behind them, just beyond sight, they could still feel it—the Bogborn Colossus—hunting.

Marcus, breathless but steady, moved among the group, using what strength he had left to tend to wounds. The night was far from over.

The heat bore down relentlessly on the mudflats, the air thick with the oppressive weight of the desert sun. The brambles here had grown thick and tangled, their sharp thorns clawing at anyone who dared to pass. Tiny insects buzzed relentlessly around their faces, their tiny bodies a constant nuisance. Without the silter tied tightly across their noses and mouths, they would have suffocated from the swarming creatures that clogged their airways.

Then, suddenly, a hissing sound sliced through the stifling silence, sharp and hot like steel being plunged into water. Shank, always quick to act, surged forward, his eyes narrowing as he sought the source of the disturbance. He found it—a nest of wyverns, three of the massive creatures guarding their precious eggs in the shade of the brambles, wisely avoiding the brutal heat of midday.

In a blur of motion, Shank struck. His weapon cleaved through the air with brutal efficiency, slaying one of the wyverns before it could react. The other two, sensing the danger, shrieked in panic and fled into the sweltering distance, their wings beating furiously against the oppressive heat.

With the immediate threat gone, the group gathered around the nest, contemplating their next move. The eggs—fragile, iridescent, and pulsing with life—sat ominously in the brush. A debate quickly ensued over whether they should take them. Safi and Marcus, voices of reason, convinced the group to leave the eggs untouched, their advice swaying the others. The decision made, they moved on, the harsh winds kicking up around them as they continued their journey, the memory of the wyverns lingering in the air like the scent of burning earth.