Chasm of Forsaken Hearts
The gate-pit to Hollow’s Heart, Abyssal layer 178
The very maw of the pit beneath Shullen-Gat that swallows you whole into Hollow’s Heart, that place is the stuff of nightmares, I’m tellin’ ya. Picture an enormous yawning abyss, a maw in the ground that gapes wide open, eager to swallow anything and anyone daft enough to venture close. It’s not just a hole, it’s like a livin’, breathin’ entity, a beast of shadow that will slurp you up. The edges are ragged and sharp like shattered bones, the very earth there feels like it’s vibrating, pulsating with a sinister heartbeat that echoes in your very soul as ye approach.Â
Now the stench, oh, the stench is something else entirely. It’s like rotten eggs mixed with the sickly sweet smell of decaying flesh, a smell that sticks to your nostrils, a smell that you can taste in the back of your throat, cloying and overpowering. You’d swear you can feel it clinging to your skin, even as you back away. It’s the kind of smell that tells every instinct in yer body to turn around and flee, a primal warning of danger and death.
As for what guards it, well, Baltazo ain’t no fool. He’s got a veritable menagerie of Abyssal horrors to keep watch over that pit. Demonic sentries that could give even the hardiest of planewalkers a run for their jink. We’re talking shadow demons lurking in every nook and cranny, unseen but always watching, always waiting to pounce on anyone trying to use the gate who hasn’t successfully petitioned their master for permission.
Oh, and let’s not forget the nalfeshnees. They’re hulkin’ great brutes that could tear a man in two without breaking into a sweat, patrolling the perimeter with their grotesque forms and pig-like faces, a true sight of horror, I tell ya. They’re the kind of sods who enjoy toying with their food before they devour it, taking delight in the terror they instil as if it’s a seasoning.
Source: Jon Winter-Holt, mimir.net
