Ashton Horror #12

Before his first week at Ashton Regional High is over, Dennis meets Jan, the prettiest girl in town, and Adrian, the strangest person he has ever known. Despite warnings, Dennis accepts Adrian's invitation to join his fantasy game club. The group's latest quest is to free the fabled creature called Mogar from the depths of its imprisonment. In a desolate area, they perform an eerie sacrifice to the serpent god---and suddenly, with Jan's life at stake, Dennis realizes it's more than make-believe.

Where the corruption of children & the induction of Lovecraftian ideals into modern society lies, this truly stands out as one of the more insinuous (relatively speaking, & in retrospect of my childhood).Back before I even knew who It was or had even heard of the Mighty priest Cthulhu, the Dark Forces series had already worked its way into my reading cirriculum, tainting my virgin mind. (So much so, in fact, that for that brief period of time when I "found God," I cast aside all my collection in a frightened attempt to become "pure." Ah, the foolishness of the young...)Still, while not the best or the goriest there is out there for children, The Ashton Horror was my first read in this series & it got me hooked. Good luck trying to find any now. (Which of course is what makes hunting fun!)

I remember reading the Dark Forces series long ago. What a chill they gave me. This one especially. What with all of the D & D madness just beginning to come about, this book seemed to fit in ideally. It made me question just how sane my "gaming" friends were. Don't go spelunking after reading this!