There is a small problem in the quaint village of Foxwillow. A large, part metal demonic-bird type problem. In the world of “The Crooked Moon” this foe or “Harvest Terror” is currently terrorizing Foxwillow, setting fire to the thatched houses and destroying all crop supply.

The “Horrific Anti-Heroes” or rather the players in Neukomm’s campaign, have been asked to save the village. Now, the group is in the notoriously dangerous corn maze from “The Crooked Moon.” Here, the Harvest Terror and Corovodaemon demons are awaiting.

After a rough previous session, Hollenbeck 8th grader Caleb Jedlicka and his character, Oleander, are out of health. He can either roll three dice rolls to confirm or reject his death, or remain as a spectator. Sophomore Jade Taylor’s character, Anton, however, has officially died.

After the battle, the group will say their final goodbyes to Anton and welcome Taylor’s new character, Bartholomew or Bart- a seven foot tall human that can shape shift into a horse.

Back in the current session, junior Biscuit Jedlicka has just rolled his dice for his character Kip to attack the Harvest Terror and misses.

Senior Olivia Bowlig-Greenly’s debates how her character, Lumaren Golden Flower– a seven foot tall orc– will escape two approaching Corvodaemons so that he can heal Caleb’s character. Lou’s best option is protective ashes he obtained.

“What if I make a path… for my escape?” Bowlig-Greenly asks Neukomm.

“You can,” Nuekomm says.

Only, as Neukomm notes, that would require a plentiful amount of dice rolls for the path to be successful.

Bowlig-Greenly decides to pocket-sand the demons with ashes. Neukomm lets her roll a 20-sided die for the turn.

The die falls on the table, 20 side up. Neukomm sits in her chair, shocked.

Lou is able to flawlessly escape from the demons-“…Leaving a cloud of ash in my wake,” Bowlig-Greenly says. With this, Lou heals Oleander, and Caleb is back in the game.

Though, the fight is not over. While Bowlig-Greenly escapes the demons, the Harvest Terror is still alive, and Bowlig-Greenly has to roll to keep demons away from Lou.

It is now Caleb’s turn. Caleb decides to have Oleander heal Lou, giving him almost full health and ends his turn by attacking the Harvest Terror. While he only manages to damage the demon by 4, it screeches in fury, knocking Lou down with 10 damage. Haunted corn stalks begin wriggling their way around the players, forcing all living players to roll dice in order to flee.

Lou is the only one to make it out.

A Corvodaemon approaches Biscuit’s character, Kip. Biscuit puts his hands over his face, contemplating. He rolls. Minimal damage is done to the demon.

It’s back to Bowlig-Greenly, who escaped the maze and arrived at The Harvest Terror. Using a “Divine Smite” spell, she hopes Lou will have a clean attack

“Would it be greedy to hope for another 20?” she says.

She rattles the dice in her hand and throws it onto the table. After taking a peak, Bowling-Greenly looks at the ceiling, laughing in disbelief.

“Look at it,” she whispers.

Another 20.

The team shouts in excitement.

Bowlig-Greenly begins scrawling numbers on her sheet.

“I gave you one turn,” Neukomm laughs.

Bowlig-Greenly and Neukomm begin excitedly describing the events.

With this roll, in one motion Lou throws a barrier of ashes for protection and thrusts his sword into the demon. Neukomm imitates The Harvest Terror by screeching a caw!”  Its body sizzles and crackles from the 70 damage attack, withering in agony. Ash settles onto the ground, the battle won. The Anti-Heroes clap in celebration.

While the victory is met with bittersweet ends with the loss of Anton, the Horrific Anti-Heroes can begin to move onward in their journey with a successful end to the battle with the Harvest Terror.