c02s04e05 - Cyran Khyber Base Day 86 After the long rest, the team mobilizes and heads south of the Gulg forest towards the tangible darkness. THe team is aware that if they use lights, they'll be causing the substance to respond with hostility. Checking in with Kiva, she recommends not disrupting the darkness while passing throgh it... THX has no nightvision so he's left sitting blindly, concentrating on a magic circle of protection as the two rangers navigate the ship at 10 miles per hour... ... until they nearly slam into a massive floatstone covered in dormant black ooze. Veering off to avoid collision, the team hears clack-clack-clack under the ship and spider-like orbs the size of trashcans skitter over the edge chirping excitedly when they catch sight of Rogar. they poke frustratedly at the magic circle-- Dhraksis picks up their angelic origins, but they don't care that the team has ins with Beyonce. THX preaches about AllSpark to the machanical duo as they begin applying a radiant laser to the magic circle border while providing documentation for Rgoar's reclamation. THX argues that Nero's body is his responsibility since his magic hd kept the body alive whle Rogar came to inhabit it.. but the persistent robotic speheres continue their effort, providing additional feedback that nero was of no importance, that Rogar's soul was the primary objective. this is when the magic circle collapses under the cutting laser's focus. Grppling claw latches onto nero immediately, attempting to pull Rogar's soul from Hero's body. While fighting off the claw effects, Rogar is partially shunted into the spirit world where his sense can open up to the cavern with an expanded visual spectrum.. many flloating stones in the dar, plus he can see the enormity of the cavern ahead.. they were getting close to the abandonded navy shipyard. They destroy the two celestial constructs and proceed further on, climbing in altitude to avoid too much random encounters when they find themselves in a stalagtite forest where black ooze has dripped from the ceiling to a massive floagstone.. slowly fusing into each other. They wreck the ship by ramming headling right into a black ooze stalagmite pillar. the team takes some impact damage and THX gets to work on repairing the ship when inky shadow creatures attack, turning to sticky tar, threatening to fuze the ship to the black mass and stalagtite forest. The team burn their way through this with radiant damage and proceed further into the caver along the northern wall until the coordinates are reached. In the wall is a perfectly round hole carved 1000 foot diameter ringed with warmek heavy turrets sludged over by black ooze that's crystalized and hardened, rendering the turrets innert. Further into the carved opening, the entire interior is coated with the same innert black ooze. Like lavaflow, the material evidently spewed from further within the carved passage, issuing out into the cavern beyond at incredible pressure and volume... the wentire area is coated in the stuff. THX lights a torch and pokesat the crysalized material which immediately drops from the ceiling like a mudslide, nearly burying the ship in rolling darkness. the sludgy darkness takes form of a feral beast, 300 feet tall. Swatting the skiff to the ground, the team begin fighting for their lives while trying to get the ship to backpedal and get distance from the critter. Between the rangers' gunfire, they are able to whittle the creature down, but the weapons themselves cause the darkness to coalesce around them, grabbing at the muzzle fire as they release bolts of radiant and force damage from their rifles. The beat his like a truck. 60 - 100 damage per hit, the team takes turns dropping to zero HP and healing each other back to combat condition repeatedly until they are able to make some distance out of the tunnel and away for a long rest and come up with a strategy. day 87 The team figures if they didn't get ambushed, keep their distance and use the warmek turrets to whittle down the massive beast. Silently gliding down the tunnel, they find the massive tar-beast already retuning to an inert status, sinking into the floor like a puddle. 1000 feet deep into the tunnel, the team find a huge etched disk of highly polished material that is trapped with protection glyphs. Once THX bypasses the glyphs, they understand that this is an armada-sized portal that opens gates into the spirit world. No sign of the teleportation circle, or controls for the gate.. presumably it's buried under crystalized tar. Biggest problem is THX and Frank having to operate in complete darkness to prevent disturbing the darkness. They all decide to head back topside to tend to Bartertown when the Geas ends so there's as little backlash as possible in following the current social directives for the community. <<end of session>> Team is now level 13 Loot acquired ============= Bartertown common-tier magic lab online.