Gradi, day 40 of Autumn, 553

26 exiles headed toward the Foothills just after Midnight, with 2 Mystics (and one teleport stone) and 2 Bloodbladers.

We reached the Pitch caves in well under an hour, and were in PC5 in just over an hour and a half. An impressive effort, especially since PC3 in particular seemed much worse than usual.

In PC5, we sorted into subgroups, but Hepta had some difficulties getting her Strange Stone to work. After many attempts with smaller and smaller groups, she had a breakthrough in understanding the use of the Stone, and we all huddled in once again.

At last we were off, and the group entered PC6 (except for CJ, who was left behind due to an apparent share malfunction).

In PC6, things were quickly set up. The landing zone was quite empty to start with, compared to other trips, and the Zu walls were set in the North tunnel and controlled the entry of additional Arachnoids.

Unfortunately, while things were going quite well from the fighter perspective, the healer rod was not working so well, for reasons I cannot say.

In any case, we lost a number of healers, and eventually the call went out to abandon the landing zone and run to the the Northwest pit and seal it behind us. The pit itself had a number of Crimson and other Noids, and it didn't seem safe to fight, so several of us quickly pressed on into PC7.

At first glance, PC7 seemed safe enough. It presented as a narrow tunnel that turned sharply to the East after just a few steps.

In moments, however, some Crimson Arachnoids followed us across to the North, but with insufficient fighter or healer strength or much room to stand and fight, we all ran on to the unknown East.

Further in, the cave widened, and we ran into more and more Noids. After running quite a way East then North and then West again, Natas and I were finally mired amidst dozens of Arachnoids, and we both fell. I think we made it further than any others, and given how many Noids we ran into, it's hard to see how anyone could have gone much further!

Soon everyone who entered PC7 was fallen, and we all departed.

As a scouting trip, we did great. We failed to control PC6, but it seemed we were awfully close to that. The healers will have to argue about what went wrong with the rod, and how to fix it. The fighting was a good as we have ever managed here, though.

Finally we get a look at PC7, which is clearly no walk in the park. I saw several dozen Crimson, Malachite and Olive Arachnoids there. Thankfully, they were pretty spread out in a long winding cave, so by advancing slowly and luring it should be possible to thin it out. It will not be easy. It is tight enough that there is little option of bypassing the Arachnoids instead of defeating them. We have our work cut out for us, unless there is a path or shortcut that I missed in my ruch (and scanning only 1 wall).

My view of running from PC6 into PC7 is here.

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