"I wish I hadn't woken up; that was the best night's sleep I think I've ever had! And that's with sleeping on a stone floor!"
"Well unfortunately we have work to do. On the bright side, it sounds like the rain has eased up. However, from what I can remember from the map, we're going to have to find a place to settle for the night tonight. We're crossing over an area that is covered with snow, so camping on the surface is definitely not an option..."
"As long as it's warm and safe, I don't really care. Anyway, hadn't we better get going?"
Packing away all of the stuff we had taken from our bags, we set up to get going again. UOPETA kicked the fire out, scattering the ashes and embers around, before taking the nearby torch and tapping it out against the wall. We followed THEROS out the way we had come, removing the torches from the walls as we went, finally seeing the light of a new day creep around the next corner. UOPETA was right, the rain had eased off completely, but it was still sodden underfoot, but that wasn't an issue. THEROS stopped at the entrance however, and looked down.
"Erm... Did we leave footprints in the mud when we got her last night...?"
"Of course we did. It was raining so we couldn't really avoid it. Why? Is that such an issue?"
"Not really... I'm just curious as to who's footprints those are..."
Moving aside but careful not to tread in the mud, me and UOPETA managed to see past him and see what he meant. Before the small entrance to the passage was a patch of mud with a clear set of footprints leading into the chamber. I didn't think there was anything to this as it had been muddy the night before, so it would have been impossible to not make prints leading in. Then, a number of points hit me that made me realise what THEROS was trying to say. It had been raining when we entered into the passage, and would likely have continued for some time afterwards, so our tracks would have been washed away, and not visible at all in the morning. Even if that wasn't the case, and our tracks were still there, why were only one set visible leading in? I highly doubt we each stepped onto each others footprints on the way in... UOPETA had come to the same conclusion it seemed.
"It seems that someone has been into this chamber since last night... See, the mud leads onto the stone a little before stopping... We had a visitor last night..."
A chill ran down my spine! A visitor? My mind raced with different images that could apply to this word; Creepers, the undead, guards... The Elite... Any and all of those were essentially our enemy, so it was hard to understand how that was the case and that we were still alive. Also, surely we would have heard the noise of them coming down the steps. We had tried to be quiet on the way in initially and it was virtually impossible because of the way the chamber echoed your sounds.
"I don't want any speculations about who or what could have been here last night. We have a job to do, and we should just be lucky that we're still alive. Needless to say we won't be using this place as as a shelter again!"
It seemed UOPETA wanted to brush the whole thing under the carpet; it had happened in a single location we were never likely to see again, and we were to leave it there... All I could hope was, who or whatever had been here remained here as well...
After the slightly unnerving start to the day, we managed to pick up some pace, and head off to the North East towards the small isolated snowy area. As the fog had lifted from yesterday, we were able to see a lot further, and the snowy area came into view in the distance. It seemed odd to have a an isolated patch of snow in the middle of a large, open field, but then again, we had seen a lot of "odd" things recently...
"Is was raining yesterday. Let's just hope it doesn't start snowing this time..."
"Well if it does, let's hope that we find somewhere to shelter before it gets too heavy... Don't want to get frostbite. Surprised we avoided hypothermia at all yesterday, considering how wet we got yesterday."
We stepped onto the snow and began to look around, noticing that, despite the mass amount of snow in this localised area, there was no drop in temperature at all. It was a wonder that the snow had settled for so long. Judging from the map, the portal was located within the snowy area, and as we could easily see the boundaries of the snowy area, it meant we could easily determine where not to look.
"Try to look for any entrances underground. From the looks of it, that's where it'll be."
That definitely seemed to be the case, and within a few minutes of mentioning that, I found a likely place to begin searching.
Calling THEROS and UOPETA to where I was, we began to head into the cave. As usual, THEROS led the way, putting torches up as he went. Multiple times we came to a junction the split off into different paths. Instead of splitting up, we decided that it would be better to stay together. So every time we came to one of these multiple paths, we had to take every option to ensure we maximised our chances of finding the portal. Every time we managed to pick the route that led nowhere. Or at least to nowhere...
"We have to bear in mind that the portal may be partially destroyed. Then again, there is another way to find out."
THEROS took the glowing stone from the bag; it was glowing a bright orange, throwing light around us.
"Nope, it's active... And close by judging by the stone..."
Taking another corner, we found a sharp drop leading down, with a crumbling ledge. UOPETA took the lead this time, finding a safe passage down; it took us a while, but after ten minutes or so, we reached the bottom. Looking back up, it seemed a little disbelieving to have made our way down that, but then again UOPETA was good. After following the passage through, we came to another split, but after looking at the start of each one, it didn't take a genius to work out where it was. From the end of the passage, we could make out the portal at the far end, although it was odd; only the rift part of it was visible.
Heading down into the passage, THEROS placed the stone onto the base of the portal, whilst me and UOPETA remained back at the junction. From where we were, we could see the portal change state, before collapsing in on itself. After a few minutes, THEROS returned to us.
"Right then. Lead the way UOPETA. On to the next one..."
Syeonyx signing off
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