With Elwood and Gierdon leading, Tom brought up the rear to protect their backs as well as the backs of the rest of the group.

He wasn't saying much of anything unless directly asked as he didn't understand all this magic stuff.

Rodrigo pulled upon the medallion about his neck with his free hand shining it light around so that they can see better. His other hand held his blade in preparation to defend himself.

---

OOC: Activating the Light Portion of my Medallion for all to see in the hope that it cuts through the darkness. And perhaps it reveal anything hidden to me.

Rogrigo's beam of light clearly illuminates the area of the tunnel where the carvings stopped and the towers still stand. It doesn't seem to reveal anything that wasn't already noticed.

It even illuminates the far end of the tunnel where there's none of the blue-glowing moss on the walls and ceiling. It just reveals the raw walls of the lava tunnel... reasonably free of any rocky protrusions but not exactly smooth.

At the extreme end, where the tunnel appears to continue (as opposed to clearly stopping at a dead end), the light hits a wall of blackness. It is not penetrating past that.

Rodrigo stops his light on the wall of blackness "That is troubling."

"Told you the Black Crater was covered in darkness," Umbro said. "No one's figured out what the nature of it is, where it came from, or what to do about it."

"It kind of makes the library that's there rather useless, since you can't find any particular book you are looking for and can't read it if you did. Yeah, sure, you could remove it from the library, but if everyone did that, it'd soon stop being a library. It'd just be a bunch of old dusty shelves."

"It sounds as if those books are more meant to be stored there than to be viewed by passing strangers." Mista remarked.
"Umbro, did everyone get safely through that darkness before? If so, that would make it okay to cross right?"
This message was last edited by the player at 09:50, Mon 02 Aug 2021.

"I don't know if anyone went completely through it," Umbro replies, "but of the three groups that came here, I led two of them back after a few hours of trying to figure out a way around or through the blackness. The other group was never heard from again."

"Normal light sources, such as lamps and lanterns, don't work in the blackness, which is why I don't call it 'darkness', even if it is some sort of spell like that. I've heard of one called Deeper Darkness."

"In any case, normal light spells also didn't work. I think some sort of magic item is needed, such as Rodrigo's medallion or Anneth's magic lantern."

"Hmm well okay that doesn't sound too good." Mista replied. She turned to Anneth, hoping that the dabbler had something in store to fight this sinister blackness. "Anneth, can you determine what kind of spell this is?"

Mort asks, "Can't spells be broken or moved"

"I've been trying to think what can be done," Anneth replies, "but I'm not that advanced in magic yet."

"As far as I know, any of those darkness spells would be evocations. But, I think there are two possibilities. It's either a spell that's been permanenced, or it's some artifact that was activated."

"Umbro, do you know how long the darkness has been here?"

"If it's a permanent spell, it could still wear off eventually. If it's a device, it should end by destroying the device. The problem with that, of course, is that we'd still have to find the item.... through the darkness."

"Let me study the magical aura for a bit... I might be able to tell which one it is. If it's an item, I might then be able to locate it with my crystal ball."

While the others continue to consider options, Anneth goes over to where the darkness starts, sits down on the floor cross-legged, and tries to sense the magic aura.

Intelligence (Spellcraft?) check: 16:21, Today: Mysterion, on behalf of Anneth Mage-Singer, rolled 10 using 1d20+4 ((6)).

That wasn't good. Can she try again? Spend more time concentrating?

"Good idea, Mort!" Elwood compliments the Minotaur. "If it's a magic item, we could move it out of the crater!"

"Of course, if it's a really large item, that might be a problem."

"Whatever darkness it is, presumably this Black Sorcerer can see through it. Our best defense against him will be anything that produces light."

"I've been here for 10 years now, and it was here before me," Umbro replies to Anneth.

"From the tales I heard, I'd say it was here for at least 10 years before that. I think that's about the time tales of the Black Sorcerer began. Maybe that means he created it... or brought it with him."

Anneth can, indeed, try again to use her crystal ball. It just requires more time concentrating on it. Since no one's going anywhere just now, she's got plenty of time.

One of the things she's learned is to not keep doing the same thing if it doesn't produce the results she wants. This time, she focuses on the source of darkness. She figures that if it's any area of effect, she won't get a result since it would be the whole crater. If it's an item... well, it should show up somehow.

Five minutes... ten minutes... she starts to slip into a trance... like she's seen fortunetellers do. And there it is!

She can't actually SEE it through the darkness, but what she can see is the magical aura. That produces its own shape conforming to the item. It appears to be a large diamond... well, a diamond-shaped object in any case.

As near as she can tell, by the nuances of the crystal ball, the item is at the center of the crater. She just can't tell which way that is or how to get there.

Once Anneth tells them what she 'sees', Gierdon has a suggestion.

"I'm pretty good at finding my way through the dark," he tells the others. "Even so, it'd be a good idea if each of us grab a stick from these platforms and use it to tap the floor ahead as we go... not to mention above us so that we don't hit our heads all the time going through doorways or whatever."

"How about that fancy medallion of yours, Rodrigo? Don't it shed light or something?"

 "That's actually a very good idea..." Anneth smiles.  She takes out her bow, which is as good a "stick" as any.  An arrow will act as her "above-stick".  "Certainly better than dowsing."

Rodrigo tries his amulet, getting it to emit a beam of light. He directs it at the darkness, but finds it doesn't penetrate the darkness.

After getting the amulet to change to the other light, he's surprised to find that it seems to cut through the darkness, and quickly realizes that it's only showing what is 'hidden'. In some peculiar twist of magic, the darkness seems to be 'hiding' things from sight. It doesn't reveal colors, if that turns out to matter, but as soon as someone steps into the darkness, he can still see them... in a sort of black-and-whit grayscale way.

"So, are we continuing on?" Anya asks the others.

"We knew the crater was enveloped in darkness when we set out. Is the actual reality now deterring us from going further?"

She steps over to where the darkness begins and sticks her hand into it.

"I think the question is whether this wizard or whatever can see through the darkness. He must, or why would he be considered so dangerous? So, if he can see us but we can't see him... not a good situation if he's hostile."

What about those of us who can't see in the dark?

"In this magical darkness, that's all of us," Gierdon answers.

"I suspect this sorcerer isn't watching the source of the darkness any more, if he ever was, so there's a chance to find the object and smash it. That's only if it's an object."

"I don't think we need to worry about a dangerous route, only about running into the sorcerer himself."

"Most interesting. I can somewhat see. And can lead us forward. But you would need to stay close and follow my commands quickly as I whisper them to you" Rodrigo offers "perhaps a bit of rope between us to not allow us to get too separated?"

"While I think this will severely handicap us if it comes to a fight," Elwood offers as he selects a wooden pole for himself and an extra long one for Mort, "I do not wish to turn back just because it got dark!"

"Yes, the rope is a good idea. I'll be right behind Rodrigo. Who is brave enough to take up the other end of the rope?"

"I guess that would be me," Gierdon answers. "I generally know my way around in the dark. I can often sense the presence of someone... or something... in the dark by the echoes off the walls."

"Speaking of which, Umbro, have you heard of any tales about creatures living in the darkness? I don't expect anyone to have ventured in to have made it out in order to report what he encountered, but mayhap the creature ventures out into the light now and then."

Once everyone is tied to the rope, with Rodrigo in front and Elwood right behind him and Gierdon at the other end of the rope, the group starts slowly moving forward into the darkness.

There's still time for anyone to back out if the utter darkness bothers them.


Three of you have poles that you can tap along the floor in case there are gaps or steps, and also above your heads in case there's a low ceiling or doorway.

 Anneth makes sure that the rope is about her.  "Brilliant idea." While she has no staves or poles, Anneth does have a short bow.  She returns her arrow to its home in her quiver, and uses her short bow to tap at the ground as need be.

Eyeballing things, it seems like 'Nettie's shortbow would be a good enough length to tamp at the ground with... they're generally three to four feet in length.  I'll say hers is about three feet, or a little under a meter.  Combine with her height of 5'4" - or about a meter and a half -, and I think she can manage...!

Aaron picks a position in the rope line somewhere near the middle so that he can go to the aid of anything in front of him or behind him if  the need arises.

Probably like the others, he listened intently, trying to distinguish the various sounds that the group was making, especially their footsteps. He was hoping in that way he'd recognize any strange footsteps that might be approaching.

He also had to separate the tapping of various poles and bows and whatever as they felt their way forward.