![[IMG]](https://image.ibb.co/dSOhpx/rising_darkness2.png)
Cycle 1
Amid your slumber, or half-slumber, you felt the early morning air latching onto your lungs with its cold grip, eliciting a contraction from your body. Although your natural instinct was to snuggle deeper into your blanket, a message popped up on your UI. When you rubbed off the sleep from your eyes and opened the panel, you saw a message from none other than Jawn, one of the tinkerers from the Lion's Pride.
Mail
Rise and shine, adventurers! We’re moving out in 15 minutes, so pack up and get ready to hit the road.
@Jawn
When you finished preparing for the big raid and went outside. In the cold air, you saw your breath come out in cloudy puffs. Although winter was over at that point, the early mornings were still freezing. Surrounding you was the territory of a duke by the name of @Roland Rutledge who had accommodated your raid party. Once you were done sightseeing, you met up with the traveling party as it began moving out—it was to be long trip to Astorea’s westernmost border.
On your travel, you passed at least half a dozen of abandoned towns and villages. There was something rather… off about them. Upon closer inspection, all of these habitations appeared to be abandoned, and despite the solid architecture, the buildings themselves were blanketed with black slime that had a fuzzy texture similar to mold. From what you have heard, Titanius’ grotesque influence had been quickly spreading in the past couple of weeks—enough that a massive raid party was formed to vanquish it.
Location: Naryu Canyon
You arrived at the Naryu canyon around noon on the 10th day. The entire region appeared to be steeped in thick fog; you couldn't seem to recall how many days had passed by since you last saw the sun. Aside from you, the band of adventurers seemed rather weary and on edge, the long journey had nearly broken group’s morale. After another long trek, excitement began to wash over the party from the front. It appeared that you had finally reached the canyon. If you had approached the rocky edge and stared into the deep abyss, you would not have been able to see anything due to the fog, but you could feel that something sinister was residing in the obscuring veil.
After a brief break, a scouting party, came back with two mounted riders. It was Astor, king of Astorea and D’vangelline de Falder, the Falderen queen. At a quick glance, you could see that they appeared to be in a very bad state. They were covered in blood, cuts, and bruises beneath their tattered armor. D’vangelline could barely hold herself up without leaning on her horse. After Astor dismounted from his horse with the help of the scouts, he let out a pained groan before addressing the group.
Sorry I’m late, but tardiness aside, I have come with bad news. 10 days ago, I met up with Queen D’vangelline and managed to convince her and her elite squad to join our raid party. We were all on horseback so we should have caught up with the rest of the party, but we got ambushed by Titanius on the way.
While we were well on our way, there was this massive rupture that appeared out of nowhere and spewed out these distorted monsters that were so strong that it practically decimated the entire reinforcement team.
It was only thanks to the queen here that I got out in one piece.
I-I can’t believe there was such a monstrosity living so close to our country. I have always thought it was strange that my father… or rather, the late king avoided the west like the plague and everything to do with the Tertorian. So this is the reason why.
One of my mages told me that this vile monster has some kind of root system that reaches as far as Stokbon, Vintergard, and who knows where else. I believe it must have been spreading its control during the conflict between our two nations, right under our noses.
Regardless, we have to get moving now. The scouts said they found a hole that cuts diagonally through the canyon a short walk from here. We are likely able to get to Titanius if we go through it. All of the underground passages originates from it, anyways.
The opening to the descending and windy path that supposedly led to Titanius was eerily welcoming. There appeared to have been some kind of forest in this patch of land. However, all that you could now see was a sea of dead trees that were distorted beyond belief. The trees' roots were planted firmly in the hard soil, but their bodies were curved to the point where they stood horizontal, nearly touching the ground. There wasn't a single tree that was standing up straight. You had to climb over these bent trees to gain access to the entrance.
The inside of the canyon was not any better off. After you descended for a long while down a sloped path, you were bombarded with a completely different world. Unlike the hard surface above ground, the tunnel's flooring felt firm but not completely solid. The walls seemed to be undulating ever so slightly. When you looked up with some kind of light source, you could see pine trees growing from the ceiling.
Location: The Upside-Down Forest
Upon a more attentive look of your surroundings, there appeared to be rock faces and even more trees, and giant mushrooms that were melding into one another. You could have sworn you saw an outline of a house half sticking out from the wall in the yonder. Before you had time to adjust to the distorted realm you had entered, you could hear someone's voice directly above you—it was Jawn.
"Oooooi!" the man shouted and waved at the raid party beneath him. When a mage illuminated the area, you noticed that Jawn was standing upside down within the forest of above as though it was the right way up for him. Many people panicked, though he shouted again, attempting to calm them.
Well, it appears that everyone is standing on the ceiling for me??? I don't really get it, but if y'all walk through the house stuck in the wall, y'all can get up here too.
Considering how open this place is and how many different paths it leads to, we're going to need to do some scouting and exploration or we're going to get absolutely lost in here.
As you prepared to scout your surroundings, you noticed something moving on the ground within your peripheral vision. When you approached it, you saw a pink sac with tiny arms crawling along the ground, leaving behind a light-pinkish liquid. If you got even closer to it, it would turn and spray what felt like wet dust into your face before it crawled away at maximum speed. If you manage to kill one, you would come to the realization that they may be evasive and hard to kill, but they do not fight back. Jawn on the other hand was making a big ruckus in the eerie forest.
WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE GIANT THINGS? ARGH SO NASTY, KILL IT! KILL IT!!!
Either way, it seemed that the party was going to have to do some work to progress.
