The entrance to the Pits is a bit of a way out of town, along about two kilometers of hard packed road, which eventually starts having tiles and cobbles studding the inside of the road as it goes further. Crazy tiles, really, with them of many different colours. Smooth and deeply worn, well rounded, and the colours are darkened with age. Uncle is with you. He could stay behind, but he's been in high-level dungeons before, albeit not alone, but he won't be alone today either.
The main passage down into the pits cuts away from the road at one point, with a very intimidating sign on it, with two skull and crossbones flanking the word 'Pits' above "Top level entrance" "Pits" and "Borlia Dungeon/Cave Complex." There is no receptionist or classification marker like in the last cultivated dungeon you went to, but there is a closed compartment labeled "Pits Information, read before entry", followed by another "This means you."
You can't see far down the path. It goes downhill, and then it takes a steep left turn. Sessha grabs one, and sits the five of you down on a bench, obviously here for this exact purpose.
"The Pits of Borlia is an extremely dangerous high-level dungeon complex on the Eastern Continent, with varying conditions, varying levels of monsters and traps, and an extremely confusing fog-riddled layout."
"Still, there is some structure to it. The whole complex is separated into a series of loose 'levels', with passages leading 'up' to higher levels and 'down' to deeper levels. These take many different forms, such as ramps, tunnels, constructed stairs, and ladders. Other variations may apply.
Unlike most dungeons, the layout is highly variable during the course of a stay. Most methods of mapping or laying breadcrumbs should not be relied upon to work. There are only three or four methods of getting up and down.
First, random wandering. If you see a yellow light illuminating the fog in a certain direction, there is a set of stairs within one room of that room which lead upwards. If you see a red light, there is a set of stairs that leads downwards one room from the other. An orange light indicates both are true.
A party may daisy-chain rooms by leaving members behind. Turning around and returning to the previous room will lead you back, but do not count on two connections remaining the same. The exception is if you leave a member behind. You may daisy-chain party members to maintain a chain of room connections, by leaving one member behind in each room in the path. This can guarantee you a safe path of retreat.
The vast majority of encounters on the first and second levels will be upon entering rooms. There is a wide variations on opponents and combat condition, some of which are to be considered quite dangerous and strange. Some examples are: Blocked healing, blocked damage types, (including physical), enhanced damage types (including physical), damage returned to opposing team, damage returned to originator, constant damage dealt to one or the other side, constant healing dealt to one or both sides.. combinations..
"..I think i could poison them for that reflected damage. That should get around that problem. If not, we can run."
This goes on for a good while, but the remaining salient points is to be careful, tread lightly before knowing what the effects of a particular room is, and only camp in rooms that seem to have benign effects. And monsters get much more dangerous as you go down, but there are low odds of getting 'out of depth' monsters which are much more difficult than standard ones.
Floors are decorated with statues and themed artwork. First floor are plants. Second floor is weapons. Third floor is mammals. Fourth floor are squids and tentacles and sea monsters. Fifth floor uses sun and solar themes. Sixth floor is humans, cities, and farms. Seventh floor is geometric patterns. Eighth floor is reptiles and fish. Ninth floor and lower are unknown.
Recommended levels for monsters are 1-4 on floor 1, 3-8 on floor 2, 5-9 on floor 3, and 'to expect enemies of tenth-level or higher on floor 4 and below, with power ratings not standardized below that.'
Interesting.
"How do you think they got down to the eighth level, then? For the list?"
"Big groups, and maybe some scrying spells? There's probably some way to magically see what the next rooms down are, then. And if they get a few close staircases, they could probe, retreat, probe, retreat, until they get a downstairs close to the upstairs, and then just punch their way through an encounter or two, leaving a few people behind to keep the path in place. Still.. I don't think we should go down nearly that far.
You follow the main path along to the elevator. It's a flat and round platform, made of metal, but the controls are the white trisamorian material, under a retrofitted wooden rooftop. There's another one of those danger signs, mentioning this as the 'Elevator Entrance to the Second Floor', and having another box full of the information packets. There is also two very long walls, with a fairly large number of notes and scraps of paper on them, names of people who failed to return to retrieve their notes. The five of you take your own slips, write your names on them, and post them up.
Willis then casts Battle aura, and the party uses their magic to fill the elevator's power orbs, as they slowly come to life. Before you're all out, the elevator hums to life, and Willis drinks a mana potion to top you all off, as the elevator ticks softly on its way down into the fog.
After a minute of travelling, it reaches the bottom, an open clearing of barren earth, with a number of pieces of random trash and debris. There are three entrances into the fog, none of which have lights visible through the gray mist.
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Topic: Extinction (Read 289906 times)