I can tell Tiny feels it as well. He’s been restless and smacking monsters with even more force than usual.
[“Crinis, Vibrant, are you picking up on this feeling?”]
“Yup-yup.” The usually energetic Vibrant seems a little subdued under this pressure.
[I can, Master.] Crinis too is feeling it.
[“We need to proceed with extra caution, team,”] I inform my crew. [“It’s possible something really nasty is nearby that we can’t necessarily defeat. I want everyone, including you, Tiny, to be prepared to run away if we get into trouble. We’ll flee back to the shortcut and make our escape from there.”]
It goes to show how this mounting creepy feeling is weighing on us, that even Tiny seems inclined to agree. Just to be sure, I order him directly.
[Tiny, if I tell you to run, you’ll flee to the shortcut entrance. Got it?]
He reluctantly nods, his bat face pinched with a combination of distaste and unease. He doesn’t have to like it, he just has to do it. No way I’m going to allow him to die charging headlong into some unwinnable fight. When we get right down to it, he cannot deny a direct order from me, so I’m satisfied he’ll be ok.
The others are still riding on my back so they’ll probably end up where I do. I have to be careful not to leave Crinis behind, she has a very limited capacity to navigate her way around. Perhaps I should advise her to take Tunnel Sense and Tunnel Map? That’ll give her a solid idea where to go without having to see…
We continue to advance down, the monsters growing tougher with every step. More shadow monsters and the larger, more difficult beast types are becoming common. We even run into a few nasty plant types that are clearly evolved versions of the others we’ve seen and some others who are from a superior base species.
A particularly nasty plant appears as a young tree, the first tree-looking plant monster I’ve seen. It attacks by swinging its branches, but also seems capable of using earth magic. I didn’t get a good look before Tiny crunched it to nothing with a two-handed slam.
Something odd seems to be going on with the monsters we come across though. For starters, there are far less of them. Ever since that formless pressure began to weigh on us, the number of monsters we’ve seen active in the tunnels has gone way down. Secondly, there are quite a few monsters moving away from us and down the tunnels. Every now and again we catch glimpses of newly spawned creatures shifting along the walls and vanishing down the tunnels.
Where are they going? Is there some sort of party we aren’t invited to? I’d love to chase after these shadows but with the invisible weight pressing down on me, I simply don’t have the confidence to be blindly rushing around corners. For the first time in a while, I’m starting to feel real, actual fear.
If this is a monster causing this pressure, when I can’t even see it… just how powerful would that creature need to be? Is it Garralosh itself! I thought that croc was meant to be over in Liria. That’s like a week away over the surface… What would it be doing here?
To be honest, if I actually thought the parent of all these croc monsters was kicking around down here, I’d rush straight back up to the surface. I don’t see any reason for Garralosh to be around here so I’m prepared to proceed. Cautiously.
We creep forward very slowly. The tunnel continues to wind its way deeper into the ground. The tunnel grows wider. Other branching tunnels are coming together here. It feels as if we’re getting close to something. We make better progress than I expected, considering our careful pace due to the lack of monsters in our path. It’s almost unnerving to see the tunnels this deserted during the wave.
I know the monsters are still being formed in the walls. I can sense them. They’re just rushing off somewhere the moment they come out.
I estimate about ten kilometres down, judging by my Tunnel Map, that the passage opens up and a strange light illuminates the rocks ahead of us. Is it an Expanse?
The pressure is crushing now. As if death waits for us after every step. Vibrant is extremely nervous, clinging fiercely to my head and shivering in place. As we step forward the tunnel walls slowly drop away and a vast, open underground space appears before us. Dark swampland stretches as far as my eyes can see. Mist-covered marshes studded with drooping trees, and vibrant, vine shrouded flowers.
And crocs. So many crocs.
77. The Marsh Expanse
Are there gods in Pangera? Scholarship in this area has been largely suppressed since the Church of the Path rose to predominance. Their inquisitors have been most active in their pursuit of those willing to explore this scholastic line of inquiry. Despite their effort through the centuries, there has been a small but industrious cadre of truth-seekers who are keen to bring the light of truth to our own history.
Records do indeed suggest there were numerous religions in the time before the Descent, when the System changed our very understanding of the world. In many lands and across many races, there was a wide variety of ways in which people practiced faith-based organisations. Whether those divinities were real or imagined is hard to determine now since only a smattering of writings from that time remain. No doubt these religious organisations were shattered during the Cataclysm and then purged by the surging Church of the Path.
There have been curious reports from those who have pressed deep into the World Below. That they have at times felt the presence of an otherworldly spirit, a powerful feeling of reverence. Other writings which the church attempted to suppress have been unearthed, detailing the experiences of those who claim to have actually met divine beings within the Dungeon, come face to face with them, even spoken to them.
Whether such tales can be taken seriously or not is difficult to say. At depths such as these, where the Mana saturation is at suffocating levels, the mind has been known to play tricks. It can also be speculated that such creatures may well have been highly intelligent and powerful monsters. Though some would argue there is little difference between a supremely powerful monster and a god, that way lies the true heresy. Those mortals who fell into the worship of the beasts who ravaged this world during the Rending were exorcised from society at its conclusion, and their monster worship ended with them.
Throughout the marshes and on the humps of land that rise up out of the murky waters, there are croca-beasts at various stages of evolution almost everywhere. Including a number of varieties I haven’t seen before. Some of them are freakin’ massive, hulking brutes of creatures that look like they seriously mean business.
What really hits me—the most intimidating thing—is that the invisible pressure has skyrocketed the moment we laid eyes on this Expanse. It’s like something has a knife at my neck, except that I don’t have a neck! I can’t see anything that might be the cause of this feeling, but I’m certain. Somewhere in this Expanse there is a truly frightening monster.
There are other tunnel entrances nearby. Periodically a monster will emerge and head deeper into the Expanse. The crocs don’t attack them, and curiously the plants don’t seem to either. It’s as if this entire ecosystem of monsters is being suppressed by something, not obeying their own monstrous instincts to hunt and fight in the endless pursuit of prey. It can only be whatever is creating this oppressive aura. I personally don’t feel any desire to rush into the Expanse and high five the beast creating this pressure. Quite the opposite. Except it’s clearly having some effect on the other monsters here.