Fordi, day 3 of Autumn, 557

After two recent trips-gone-bad, each worse than the last, we were pretty well ready for any outcome today.

We were not disappointed.

Thankfully, the set-up in Pitch Cave 1 went smoothly as it so often does after so much practice, and we were almost immediately on our way out of that cave and on our way deeper.

Fairly easily, we reached PC5 and set up for teleport.

With only Hepta along to teleport us, we were well aware that we would have our work cut out for us in the PC6 Landing Zone - assuming we all even made it there.

Today, luck was smiling, and the Landing Zone was almost empty of Arachnoids and everyone made it there safely, so we quickly organized our defenses.

After a fierce battle on our terms, PC6 was cleared and we moved on to assail PC7.

Elenis and I were sent in as scouts and zuers. We ran into a two Pitch Arachnoids, but they both targeted Elenis, so I slipped past to probe deeper. Further into the twisty cave, I saw several Crimson Noids, and decided to run them deeper in away from the rest of the group (now entering), and with hopes I might manage to seal off the West pit.

With some dodging, I managed to plant my Kudzu wall to seal the pit, and turned running North to draw all the Noids outside the wall with me.

As I ran North, I got my first look at that elusive path in Pitch Cave 7 since reading Trillbane's Commentaries.

I was stunned to see that it had two sparklies now - meaning I had enough training to open it, with enough luck and staring.

Unfortunately, I was quickly surrounded by the Noids in the North pit and those trailing me, and had no chance to try my luck at openning it.

Would that I had, because this discovery was about to change our trip dramatically.

When the rest of the group managed to clear PC7 and moved up, I was finally raised, but not before other pathfinders started to pop in and out of this path. It was indeed a two-way path leading to another cave.

Quickly, discussions broke out whether we should venture West into the path, or press on toward PC9 and Trillbane's Commentaries. Unfortunately (in my opinion), many in the group flooded West to see this new cave (that we are calling PC10) before we sent in any runners to see if it had any Noids in it. We found that out soon enough, when a wave of Crimson Noids cornered most of the group in a small pocket of PC10 and wiped them out. A few folks managed to survive long enough to find two additional caves connected to this new section, that we are calling PC11 and PC12.

Clearly there is much yet to be conquered and explored in these vast caverns. Now we have not only reached the pathfinder book, but have one instance of an advance based on this new level of pathfinding. Having a new section of caverns to explore will certainly spur us on in our efforts, but we also need to continue to work toward reaching Trillbane's Commentaries. Tthe many other paths that remain unopennable with 139 lessons in pathfinding will remain so until we do.

I so regret no peeking in there first, because if I had and had seen web-slinging Arachnoids in there, I would have argued that we needed to send in one or two scouts only instead of the entire group. That way, we could explore vicariously but still press on as a group to try to reach PC9 and the Book.

In any case, this new discovery will energize our future efforts.

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