Moonglum Farms was owned and operated by Don Moonglum and it had been in his family for generations. There was the farmhouse where his family lived. He had a wife and a trio of stitchildren, two young girls and an older boy who all helped run the family business.

There were the stables and animal pens, a green house, an orchard and then the fields for the animals and various crops. All of the livestock were of the sturdy Stitchdale variety, species that were fine with the harsh cold, they just needed a little extra feed.

Usually, on such farms, there would be the noise of animal activity. Chickens and roosters. The squeal and grunting of pigs. The occasional mooing and snorting of cows. The bleating of goats.

There was no such sound or activity as Nay and Quincy approached the farm. Not even wind. It was unnaturally still save for the soft snowfall. The branches of the various fruit and nut trees in the orchards didn’t stir.

Nay consulted her mini-map and saw a mass of dots, all in the barn. She stopped Juniper and stared at the image on her interface. There was a red dot in there, signifying some kind of threat presence.

“What is it?” Quincy said, keeping his voice low.

“They’re all in the barn,” Nay said, whispering. “There’s something in there with them.”

“Do you know what it is?”

Nay shook her head.

“Do you know if they’re alive?”

“I think so, otherwise I don’t think I’d see them marked on the map.”

Quincy studied the farm, observing the stables. He pulled out his spyglass, extended it and took a look. He scanned the buildings and then grunted, slamming the spyglass closed. “I see dead animals.”

“What’s the play?” Nay said.

“We scout out the stables,” Quincy said. “Slowly. Stay by me and keep your eyes peeled.”

He nudged Al forward, but the fauglir let out a whine, not wanting to go in that direction.

Nay noticed that Juniper didn’t want to get any closer to the farm either. The fauglir looked up at her and whined.

“This isn’t good,” Quincy said. He lowered his mouth to Al’s ear. “What is it boy? What do you sense on that farm?”

Al licked Quincy’s face and then looked at the farm, letting out a growl.

Quincy picked up his crossbow and kept it in his hand, finger near the trigger. “It’s alright, boy. Be brave now, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

He nudged the fauglir forward and Al obeyed, cautiously stalking closer to the property, hackles half raised.

Nay leaned down and spoke to Juniper. “Stay close to ‘em girl. Don’t worry now, you’re safe with us.” Her words seemed to embolden Juniper and the fauglir followed their companions.

/////////

There were feathers and blood in the snow between the farmhouse and barn. Something had gotten to the chickens. The roost entrance was smeared with blood. There was a disembodied chicken talon poking out of the snow near the entrance.

Quincy, who had gotten off Al, took a peak in. “Whatever did this didn’t do it because it was hungry.”

Nay climbed off Juniper and joined him at the entrance. The roost was littered with the torn and shredded bodies of chickens. “It did so to kill.”

Quincy’s looked at the stables. “We need to get in there and hope it’s not too late for the Moonglum’s.”

He headed for the stables and Nay followed, but a noise caught her attention. Quincy stopped and he listened. He heard it, too.

There was a strange tearing sound coming from the stables.

Nay, compelled, walked over. She noticed that a nearby trough was full of blood. It looked like there were teeth floating in it. “Quincy…”

He looked at the trough and his face hardened.

Nay reached the stables. It was an A-frame building with open pens. At first, she didn’t understand what she was looking at.

There was a sow pig, laid out on the ground. Its head was jerking as if it was nodding in conversation with someone. There was darkness in front of it, like there was a tear in reality, as if there was a void covering the length of its body. Then she noticed motion and Nay flinched, stepping back. There were white teeth stained red hanging in the air.

They belonged to the darkness.

A snarl came out of the mouth and Nay realized it was some type of four-legged creature made of the nether dark. It released the pig, revealing the torn abdomen on the sow. The nether creature charged at her, scampering across the ground on all fours like a reptile made out of the night.

Thorn and ice scythe appeared in her hands, the Dire Knife weapon imbues flaring to life around the blades. There was an explosion of snow and motion as it leapt at her.

Suddenly, a crossbow bolt hit the creature, impaling it to the earth. It squealed, gnashing its white teeth, tendrils of nether dark floating off it like ink. Quincy wielded his crossbow, Samuel. He gritted his teeth in disgust. “Netherlings.”

Nay remembered something. She pulled two items out of her inventory and held one out to Quincy. “Take it and eat it!”

Quincy took the item. It was a pastry. “What is it?”

Nay took a bite out of hers and chewed quickly, forcing herself to swallow the savory pasty and steak filling. “It’s a Pastie of Nether Being Slaying.”

Quincy immediately took a bite, wolfing it down. “How long does it last?”

“An hour.”

That’s when they both noticed a dark shadow moving underneath the snow. Nay thought it was some type of oil spill racing across the ground. The shadow exploded out of the snow, taking a tangible, corporeal form, its materializing mass throwing Quincy into the air.

The larger nether beast shot into the sky like a giant reptile scrambling out of the earth. It was about the size of a van. It reached its apex above the barn and then crashed back onto the ground. The ground shook when it landed.

Nay got a prompt on her interface.

---

[Quest Detected]

[Quest: Slay the Nether Spawn Mother]

[Reward: Loot is involved!]

[Accept Quest Y/N?]

---

“You really don’t give me much of a choice with this one, do you?” Nay said. She accepted the quest.

Mid-air, Quincy pointed Samuel at the large Nether Spawn Mother and pulled the trigger, unleashing a burst of flechettes that exploded upon contact with the nether monster, sending flames up and down its body.

Quincy landed on his back in the snow and immediately went to reloading the crossbow.

The small netherling next to Nay had its two hands on the back off its head, gripping the bolt that it impaled it to the ground. It was trying to rip it out of the earth. Nay decapitated it with ice scythe. The body collapsed but the hands were still holding onto the bolt. Black and violet smoke poured out of the neck stump.

“So, that’s how shadows bleed,” Nay said. These thing were from the Nether Realm. She wondered if that meant the Nether Sister was here.

She spun around and her eyes widened.

More netherlings were coming out of the stables, a tide of darkness spreading towards her.

She turned to run and Juniper was there. Nay jumped on the fauglir’s back, mounting her. The closest netherling swiped at her, its shadow talons raking through the air.

Quincy threw his axe, Gertrude.

Two noxious spirit axes formed on either side of the battle-axe. The trio of blades spun through the air, crashing into the tide of netherlings. Gertrude bit into the netherling reaching for her, splitting its corporeal skull. The spirit axes crashed into the tide of netherlings behind it, releasing an unholy poison into their targets.

The big Nether Spawn, the brood mother, charged Quincy, who was now on his feet.

Juniper, frightened to get away from the outpouring of netherlings, was running for her life. Straight towards Quincy and the Nether Spawn Mother.

Nay lowered ice scythe to the side as the Nether Spawn Mother grew closer. She swung, the elemental bone and blade piercing a back haunch of the beast. The scythe ripped through its strange flesh, releasing black and violet smoke.

She racked up a Kinetic Point on the creature.

The Nether Spawn Mother roared and spun towards Nay but Juniper was too fast.

Quincy shot it with another round of flechettes. It flinched and flames licked at its flesh. Behind it, Quincy’s magical poison was spreading through the wave of netherlings. Black boils were bursting into explosions of nether smoke. They were on their sides, screaming, their limbs thrashing at the snow.

The Nether Spawn Mother collided into Quincy, grabbing him with his hands and lifting him into the sky. At that moment, Gertrude reappeared in Quincy’s hand. With both hands he raised it over his head and swung the axe into the Nether Spawn Mother’s face. It turned its head and the axe embedded into the side of its head.

Noxious green smoke began pouring out off the wound and it snarled, throwing Quincy. He hit a tree, his crash shaking all the snow off its limbs.

The monster put a hand to the axe wound in its face, at the black boils forming there. It ground its teeth and strained all its muscles. Green smoke and venom poured out of the wound. It was pushing the poison out of its body.

The cut scabbed over with its fast coagulating blood, a clump of keratin forming over the wound like extra armor. It spun towards Quincy, hate burning in its violet nether eyes.

Suddenly, there was a commotion coming from the barn. Frightened screams came from within. Presumably they were the cries of the Moonglum family. The double doors burst open and there was an animalistic roar.

Nay didn’t understand what she was seeing at first. There was a white mass of claws, teeth and fur turning in circles and wrestling with a clutch of netherlings.

Is that a fucking polar bear?

It was.

It was indeed a polar bear, standing on its hind legs, ripping the netherlings from itself and tossing them to and fro, snarling. Nay noticed an odd detail. The bear had what looked like a leather belt around its waist and it was wearing the remnants of a tattered loin cloth. There was a cluster of slivermoon trout hanging by their tails off the belt.

What the hell?

The polar bear ripped the head off a netherling with its teeth. Black and violet smoke sprayed into its face and the bear coughed, throwing both halves of the netherling to the ground. The polar bear grabbed another one off its back and slammed it repeatedly against one of the barn doors until it went limp in its hands.

Meanwhile, Quincy was dodging swipes from the Nether Spawn Mother. He slashed it across the stomach with Gertrude. More of that smoke spilled out as the two opponents circled each other.

The polar bear saw the Nether Spawn Mother fighting Quincy and roared. It fell onto all fours and loped across the ground, barreling towards them.

“Quincy!” Nay shouted.

He looked up to see the new contender approaching.

She moved to unleash Salvo of Knives on the polar bear but hesitated. It had been fighting the netherlings with them. Was it really going to attack Quincy?

The bear smacked into the Nether Spawn Mother from behind with a loud smack. They rolled across the snow in a massive ball. Both creatures bellowed as they scratched and bit at each other.

Quincy pointed Samuel at the wrestling beasts. He took aim. He didn’t seem to care if he hit both of them.

A voice surprised both him and Nay.

“Don’t shoot the bear!”

Don Moonglum was poking his head out of the barn. “It’s on our side!”