Mark showed up to eat breakfast just after dawn. His day yesterday had been interesting; he had only partially explored the marshlands, but from Tom and Dale’s excitement, he already knew they could be a great resource. The plan for today was to go back to the cave again. Cora was going to be exploring the marsh, so he wanted to see if he could get a fourth person for the group.
Turning to Tom and Dale, Mark said, “The plan is the cave today. Cora is out surveying the marshlands. Would one of you like to come with us?”
Tom spoke first. “I went yesterday; today the plan is to work more on some simple armor for you guys.”
Dale responded, “I would like to go. Just to see what you guys have been doing, but I don’t want to fight, so I will let you do all the heavy lifting.”
Mark replied, “That works great. Once breakfast is over, grab any gear you want, and we will walk over to the cave together.”
When the group was ready, they headed over to the cave. The walk was quick and uneventful. On the way over, the group talked about their new awareness of safe routes and the areas they sensed should be avoided.
They lit their torches and followed Lena into the cave.
[Adaptive Zone Detected]
Growth Cycle Active
Threat Level: Low
Primary Focus: Resource Gathering
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Mark stopped and focused on the message he received. Growth cycle, focus of gathering. “Hey, everyone got a new zone message today; it says growth cycle active. Primary focus: resource gathering. Not sure what it means, but it’s new.”
They scanned the first chamber, but the cave was quieter than on previous visits. There were no sounds of movement or dragging roots, only the occasional drip of water. Lena searched one side while Ava and Bramble checked the other. They found nothing to fight.
Mark pulled up the zone message and re-read it. Threat low? Okay. “Um, the message also read threat low? Not sure what that means. I guess we search this chamber and then move to the next one.”
Dale did not have to be told twice and started to search the room; the rest seemed to follow his lead. Mark hung back and pulled up his map to see if there was anything on it. It listed the zone name, or rather description, cave, but it was all grayed out with no details. There was a new tab, though, that said Adjacent Zone, so he clicked that.
That returned his normal zone map. He was about to close it when he noticed it update. The north section of the marsh was slowly having its fog removed. As he watched, he realized that must be Cora exploring. Well, not enough time for that now, so he closed the map to turn and see that everyone else was looking at him. Apparently, they had said something to him, and he had not noticed.
Mark said, “Sorry, I was looking at the map, and I could see the area Cora was exploring being revealed on the map.”
Dale said, “Check this out.” He walked over and pointed at a sticky pool. “That resin is not solidified; it is still sticky.” He then walked over and showed where he had found insects trapped in the pool. “Oh, watch your step though, or you might get stuck on the floor.”
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Mark said, “So you’re saying this is good stuff?”
Dale said, “Yes, gather as much as you can; there are lots of uses for the resin. The more solid resin chunks are easier to gather, so start there.”
They gathered the resin and other materials Dale identified, then followed Lena cautiously into the next chamber.
The next chamber they entered was different. It had fiber growths going in all directions. Bramble went forward and got stuck on the nearest fiber bundle. When he turned around, the fibers wrapped around him. By the time he was done jerking back and forth, he was all tied up.
Ava ran over and said, “Silly Bramble, if you get stuck to something, don’t spin in a circle; it makes it worse.” She then pulled out her knife and started pulling the sticky fiber growths off of him.
Dale went over and took some of the fibers she had cut off Bramble and stretched them. They were strong and pulled but did not break. They were also just a little sticky and wanted to stick to his fingers. He then said, “Oh, this would be great in so many projects that Tom has been working on. Make sure you gather it all up.”
It turned out that there were edible fungi in this room along with the various fiber strands. They spent quite a lot of time going through and cutting fibers to make it possible to cross the room. Like the last chamber, there was nothing to fight but lots of crafting materials.
While they were searching and gathering items, Mark opened his map again. He could see that Cora had crossed the marsh a couple of times, north and south, while heading in an eastward direction. There were now safe trails marked and a couple of hazardous locations. This would be pretty valuable going forward; he would need her to travel to other locations that are still not identified to fill out his map completely.
Once Dale had everything he wanted in this chamber, they moved to the next chamber. This one had huge salt deposits covering every corner of the room. If Dale seemed happy in the previous two rooms, he was over the moon for this one.
This room was wet and slippery; more than one of them slipped and fell in the water. Dale had them gather the huge salt formations that he was happily breaking off in various locations. To Mark, some of it did not look like salt; it was the wrong color, but Dale insisted on gathering as much as they could.
Dale let them know about all the things he could dry and preserve. He was so excited about it, but Mark finally had to tune him out because he was acting like a child in a candy shop.
They finally moved to the last chamber. Mark was almost disappointed at this point. Nothing to fight; he had almost looked forward to that today. Dale was happy, though, so all was good.
The center of this chamber, like previous runs of the cave, had a heart. It was not something alive but something solid and difficult to obtain. There were gas pockets that kept puffing out and sheets of resin that, when touched, shattered to the floor. More than one of them ended up with cuts from the sharp sheet shattering too close to them.
The footing was also unstable; sometimes taking a step caused their feet to fall in a hole, so they had to move carefully. Working as a group, they were finally able to get to and remove the core. They each received XP for this, and Mark received a resin core as his loot.
They gathered the remaining items Dale had pointed out and then headed out of the cave.
[Adaptive Zone Cleared]
Cave Control Increased: +3%Current Cave Control: 10%
◈ ◈ ◈
Mark looked over that information. He was now at 10% control. He could not wait to find out what would happen when it got higher.
[Cave Familiarity Increased]
Environmental Variations LoggedCycle Recognition Improved
◈ ◈ ◈
The cave was changing faster than he understood it. They would need to prepare each time for something new, as anything could be found there. The group continued home to camp, and Dale showed off all the things they had found and bragged that he did not have to fight or defend himself from anything. Tom was quite pleased with all their gains, and the two of them spent the next hours planning out which things they planned to make next.
Mark spent the remainder of his evening watching the map. It was fascinating to see the shaded areas go away and the trails and paths appear. He was interested when the ruined boat showed up as a POI. Who made a boat? Mark watched Cora’s revealed path reach the eastern border of the zone and then disappear. Where had she gone?
Wherever it was, it was out of his control zone. A little while later, he saw her path begin revealing itself again as she returned, but then it stopped. He continued watching, but she did not move again. Finally, he decided he would have to go to bed and see if she returned in the morning.