It is the darkness between the stars; it is everywhere and nowhere; it is within and without; it has never been and shall always be. -Foreword of The Twilight Librum

The first time the PCs encounter one of the holes, it should be a thoroughly bizarre experience. A black sphere hangs suspended in the air like a melanoma on the fabric of space. It is firm to the touch, slick but not oily, as if your fingertips simply do not want to gain purchase on it.

Unliving matter, such as rocks, sticks and weapons, pass through the surface of the hole without resistance and are unharmed. If a living person tries to pass through, the surface of the sphere stands firm at first, but eventually yields to the pressure and swallows the proffered limb into its inky darkness. As it passes through, the person loses all feeling in the limb past the surface of the sphere. If they withdraw it, they experience intense pain, like a foot falling asleep and then waking up but magnified a thousand times.

Upon fully passing through, one experiences intense guilt and depression. It’s as if you’d just told a man with a sword, “No, kill my mother instead; I want to live! I don’t care about her anyways!*” The inside of the sphere is an entire world unto itself; dark and gloomy, yet you are able to see with more clarity than ever you have. At once you feel singularly alone and as if every fiber of your body was being scrutinized, and you are deemed unworthy.

Encounters with Innerspace

After tracking down some cultists, the PCs catch them fleeing into a hole and must enter to stop them once and for all.

In but a few seconds, a major city is swallowed up by a hole many miles in diameter. Within the hole, eventually the PCs find a shining crystal sphere containing the city and surrounding area. Within the sphere, all color has been washed away and everything is in shades of gray. The moment when the city was swallowed up is frozen in time; those near the epicenter are blissfully unaware, while those farther away have looks of horror as they attempt to flee from the tide of darkness.

*: This line is blatantly stolen paraphrased from book 3 of Richard Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, the Amber Spyglass

Inspiration for this post came from Super Smash Brothers Brawl