Flowers from Another World

''Material retrieved from original Zone caches available at http://web.archive.org.

''Original Link (now dead) - http://www.zone.com/asheronscall/ASHEportalflowers.asp



 Flowers from Another World 

Though often haunted by Gromnies and other fearsome beasts, the Vale of Giant Flowers on Dereth is far tamer than it might be, according to the so-called "Misrouted." Claiming to have passed through a harrowing gauntlet of worlds between Ispar and Dereth, the Misrouted belong to all three heritage groups, and their stories agree too closely to be easily dismissed. From Ispar, they generally report having arrived in a world of drudges and Banderlings whose night sky lofted one grotesque, lumpish moon. After fighting their way to another portal miles distant, the adventurers crossed over to an even stranger realm inhabited by the Virindi (purportedly a place of eternal night with gigantic, pale stars imbedded in a rainbow nebula). World after deadly world, they encountered flora, fauna, and sorcerous entities from the catalogue of Dereth's denizens, and in a vale not unlike this one, save for the sickening mauve sky that pulsed above and the carpet of skeletons below, a rain of small, multi-winged butterflies fell from the blooms and devoured those travelers not swift enough to evade them.

Why haven't these insects been found on Dereth? Perhaps the sun lacks some energy needed to sustain them; perhaps Dereth's predators have eliminated them or some host necessary to a phase of their life cycle. In any case, despite the many evil creatures that have migrated to their world, Derethians might well be grateful that at least some horrors have been left behind.