Terrdi, day 36 of Summer, 557

Coming off the great success of the last trip, a big crowd turned up today and everyone was very pumped up and ready to rumble.

Unfortunately, big success often breeds big disaster of some sort or other.

I was ready to read yet another chapter of Trillbane's Commentaries already, since I had been hunting like mad whenever possible after the last trip. None of the other pathfinders managed this, unfortunately.

Curiously, finishing Chapter 1 seemed to take me only 9 lessons instead of the expected 10. But, Ankrus was very insistent in expecting me to study with Trillbane's Commentaries yet again (as he had with Giayl's Guide after chapters 1 and 2), so we knew that there was indeed a second chapter waiting for me, at the very least.

With 2 Mystics today, the big crowd didn't seem like a problem, and we set forth with high hopes.

We marched steadily onward to Pitch Cave 5 in good time.

In PC5, we sorted into our various groups, and I got put on the initial teleport team to try to do some Kudzu wall planting before the main team even arrived. I was skeptical, but went along with it anyway.

Drablak teleported the set-up group nicely to PC6, and the Landing Zone was fairly clear. I did get my Kudzu planted, but had a crowd of Arachnoids on as the main group was still arriving, so I ran these into the North pit and sacrificed myself.

What I couldn't see, was serious trouble.

The main group was being teleported by Rincewind.

On a signal from the set-up group runners that the Landing Zone was clear and ready, they teleported.

Something went terribly awry with the teleport, and two of the five subgroups was left behind in PC5, for a loss of 10 exiles.

Despite a very clean landing, the group that arrived in PC6 was too small to survive long under the barrage of webs that soon targeted them, as well as fight the returning Noids and chain and raise those of us in the initial teleport group.

Quite soon, everyone in PC6 was either fallen, or wisely decided to evacuate through Ethereal Portals.

Things went thoroughly wrong with the teleport, but Rincewind claimed that all the shares seemed correct to him. The one odd thing he noted that his Strange Stone appeared to be flaking off bits of dust during its use, although he claims to have seen this before during teleports that worked correctly. Clearly teleports of this magnitude put great stress on the Stone, but it doesn't make it any easier to accept our defeat at the hands of gremlin forces we appear to be unable to control.

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