Enter from the mysterious gray door

[Author's note: All the creatures and their descriptions are credited to Hematoma, from various chapters in The Shining Stone.]

You remember that the mother of one of your old friends once told you: 'It is not wrong to worry about what you do not know, but only fools and lovers are afraid of the unknown itself.' So you decide to enter from the unmarked gray door. Reaching for the iron, rusted handle, you tell yourself hopefully, 'What could go wrong?'

A lot of things. You can almost hear the smarter side of yourself facepalming, but you have already entered the darkened room. As your eyes adjust to the dim candlelight, you can make out a number of shapes materializing in the gloom.

Your eyes widen with each passing second. and you have to suppress the urge to scream hysterically.

First and most 'normal', is an orc sitting on a stool directly across from you. He is certainly the hugest orc you've ever seen, with two huge, yellowed tusks poking up from his lower lips and hands big enough to pick you up your head one-handed.

Leaning against a wall to your right, is a more manlike, but also much more inhuman-looking, creature draped in a long cloak from his shoulders to his feet. His reddish skin and glowing red eyes are as sure a sign as the horns curling from his head that what you are looking at is a demon lord.

Standing quite still in the far back is some monstrosity that escapes common description. Up to the shoulders, it has the same form as a human. It is wearing purple robes and from the way the fabric hangs off its bones, the creature appears very scrawny. But from the shoulders up to the head, nothing seems right. While the rest of its body is the perfect model of stillness, its octopus-like head is a wriggling mass of tentacles that never stops for even a moment.

And there, slouched in the darkest corner, is roughly the shape of a hunched man, but as it is shifts its position, it slides into a shape more like a mound of pudding - a slime, of all things!

"So...another customer comes for a taste of the palace." The octopus-man says. Or at least, you think he says. You're not sure where on its head the sound is coming from.

"But....a hu-man woman?" The massive orc speaks in a low voice after getting a good look at you. The way his horns curve when he smiles in that sinister way worries you. "Maybe, you are taste? Maybe appetizer?"

Trying to think fast you say, "I'm here, for the same reasons you are." And bluff boldly, giving a level stare to everybody in the room. "Do you have a problem with my tastes?"

The room is silent and tense, with all four pairs of eyes locked on your form. Boring into your skull and possibly stripping you naked with their eyes. Horrifying images of each of the creatures taking turns **** you start to fill your head. You become seriously aware how unprepared and **** you are.

Of all the creatures, it is the demon who speaks up. "There is a faint magic lingering on the girl. I can feel it. She is not what she appears to be...""

Although you cannot see any irises in his glowing red eyes, you can feel his eyes fall upon you and it gives your skin goosebumps. You start to think that your lie has been seen through, but the demon gives no indication of it. As a matter of fact, it just seems to be looking at you curiously. And silently.

"So you're a shapeshifter! Harrmmph!" The orc says, his eyes lowering into slits at you.

"I might be just a sentient slime," the gelatinous blob says right on the heels of the orc, "but even I'm not THAT sick. It's just wrong to take pleasure in tricking the humans into thinking you're one of them. And a female, no less!"

The rest of the room appears to feel the same way. Suspicion slowly transforming into derision and contempt. You silently thank the gods for creating shapeshifters....whatever they are. Although you make a smaller side-prayer, hoping that you never run into one of them.

Your response to the others in the room is interrupted when the gray door you just came from swings wide open again with a metallic groan. All eyes in the room, including yours, turn to see who this next newcomer is.