The Rectifiers found themselves being ambushed by a group of dark-corrupted spider creatures, a cave goblin shaman also corrupted by darkness, and a strange human man wielding a broken sword. The human’s eyes gave the appearance of corruption by the dark as well, and he wore magical black chains on his wrists. The man was a spellcaster, using his broken blade as a sort of wand.
Once victory had been claimed, the strange man was pulled to his knees by the dark chains. White electric sparks began to appear around Audrea’s hand, so she waved her hand, dispelling the dark magic with her own. The man’s complexion got its color back, his windswept hair returned to its normal, blond shade. He wore an earring in one ear and was garbed in a cloak and a buttoned vest with long coattails. He introduced himself as Dalton, a former refugee who had seen The Rectifiers several times in the shantytown outside Luxen. Dalton had taken The Rectifiers up on their offer to become a sort of adventurer for the city of Amanta, down in The Obsidian Depths. He explained that he and his group of friends he had formed journeyed into the crevice spewing darkness, thinking they could handle it. They could not. Dalton added that all he remembered was dark-haired figures looming over him. The prospect of being allied with the group that had given him a second chance in life, as well as such beautiful women, was too tempting to refuse. The Rectifiers and their newfound ally journeyed deeper into the seemingly ancient stone hall.
They entered a massive hall, the walls long since covered in darkness. Towering pillars lined the expanse. Chattering of teeth and quick footsteps echoed through the hall. The Rectifiers journeyed forward carefully, avoiding the skulking goblins. After some time, they heard a group of them running toward them. They braced themselves, but the goblins ignored them completely, running, or fleeing, in the direction from whence they came. A stomp echoed in the distance. Already dreading what awaited them, The Rectifiers reached a large stone archway leading to a dark chamber. Inside they heard infrequent stomps and heavy breathing. A couple of the group tried tossing some stones in, and they were met with a slam of some large object, shattering the archway and covering the entrance in dust. Seeing no other option, they entered the chamber.
Inside they found several stone slabs with tattered, ancient cloth covering them. Also in the center of the room was a near twenty foot tall creature with pale blue leathery skin. Black pustules covering parts of his body, dripping black ooze as they popped. Its eyes had been gouged out and replaced with orbs of darkness. In his hand was a large club with black shards of metal slammed in, also dripping dark magic. The Rectifiers quickly slew the gargantuan creature, though they suffered some injuries of their own.
While they gathered their winnings from the corrupted troll creature, Amy investigated the wall on which her enchanted spiders from The Red Inquisitor climbed around. She had bottled the spiders again, but one had died on its way back to the bottle. The spiders seemed to have alerted her to this spot in the wall but at a cost. Duma Van took up the dark club the troll had wielded and slammed it into the spot Amy had found. The wall crumbled, revealing a small tunnel leading to a source of light. Having no other path forward, The Rectifiers climbed through toward the light.
When they emerged from the tunnel, the group found themselves in another massive cavern opening. They were on a sort of cliff inside the mountain. In front of them was a walled structure with a small entrance, and on the far side of the mountain chamber was another stone archway leading out. They approached the entrance to the walled structure and found three floating entities above the entrance. One was a spiked orb, one was a smooth orb, and the third was a rotating cylinder. Various testing on the objects revealed that when hit, the spiked orb gave off a red glow. Shortly into the winding paths they found in the structure, the group came across a red magical wall with a similar spiked orb at its center. Gale hit the orb again with her pistol handle. It glowed, then shattered the magic wall, revealing more winding paths ahead…