“No sign of the other cultists,” Gary said, “and one of the wagons was gone. I’m guessing they came back, saw their high priest splattered on the ground and decided to make a run for it.”

Quest: [The Blood Feast]

Objective complete: Avoid being sacrificed 1/1.

Reward: [Blood Essence]

Optional objective complete: Save the other designated sacrifices 3/3.

Reward: [Awakening Stone of Adventure]

Quest complete.

100 [Bronze Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

1000 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

Jason's eyes lit up at the sight of another essence, but it wasn’t the time to start going over his loot and he closed the window.

“I know what they were doing here,” Farrah told Gary and Rufus.

“I’d assume some kind of summoning ritual,” Rufus said.

“More like trying to create something,” Farrah said. “It’s called a sanguine horror; an artificial creature made from alchemy, blood and things best left unmentioned.”

“Sounds friendly,” Gary said.

“It’s an apocalypse beast,” Farrah said. “A world ender. A hive mind made up of carrion leeches that rot your flesh as they drain you dry. It feeds on blood to multiply itself, growing in mass and power until there’s nothing strong enough to stop it. Then it spreads and spreads until there’s nothing left to consume.”

“Why would anyone create something like that?” Jason asked.

“They presumably had some way to control it,” Rufus said. “Use it as a weapon.”

“That’s a big gamble with an apocalypse beast,” Farrah said. “Maybe that’s possible before it gets too powerful. Until it feeds enough to grow strong it remains vulnerable.”

“Still seems like way too high a chance of going wrong,” Jason said.

“Speaking of which,” Rufus said, “have you noticed it’s getting hotter in here?”

“No,” Farrah said.

“Yes,” Jason said at the same time.

“It’s more noticeable closer to the pool,” Rufus said.

“The smell is stronger down there too,” Gary said.

“They should probably be tossing us into the blood pit by now,” Rufus said. “Is something going wrong because we interrupted them?”

“I think we’re overlooking something,” Jason said.

“What’s that?” Farrah asked.

“Are we sure we interrupted them? They were going to throw the four of us into the pit, right?”

“Right,” Rufus said.

“Well,” Jason said, “how many people did we throw in?”

Farrah’s pretty brown eyes went wide.

“Oh no,” she said, turning back to the altar and started madly flipping through pages of the book.

As the others waited, a screen appeared in front of Jason.

New Quest: [The Sanguine Horror]

Destroy the sanguine horror before it becomes too grave a threat.

Objective: Destroy the [Sanguine Horror] 0/1.

Reward: Essence.

“Oh crap,” Jason said.

Farrah snapped the book shut. It was a hefty tome and she tucked it under one arm.

“I’m pretty sure we just finished their job for them,” Farrah said.