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[Devastator]

The Black Pit is back up the slab chimney, all the way at the top, and safely far away from the ooze.  Upon turning back down, after scrabbling through the garnet-rich passage, you proceed to climb up the black pit.

The reason why it's so black isn't that it's huge.  It's big, certainly, perhaps fifty or so feet across and more-or less vertical, but it's black more because the wall of the chamber is composed of very dark material, which reflects back little of the glowstone light.  As you go higher, it narrows.  Not quickly, but you can tell it gets narrower as you get up.

Long before this becomes a problem, a vague uneasiness washes over Trence.  This doesn't feel like the best place for him.

Is it possible for a monster to possess or control some kind of mundane(ish) substance? Like, if you had a ghost that was possessing a spooky doll, would the doll remain once you had slain the ghost?

(The problem is that having a creature with a body that doesn't disappear is far enough out of the norm that you're essentially throwing darts at a wall;  You can't assume anything is correct, and it's easy to fall into argument for argument's sake.  Need more hard info at this point.)

Spoiler: Fissure Maze (click to show/hide)

Base Camp, where everyone fell down to.  Two exits, north and south.

North of base camp:  Empty fissure -> Giant Stairs -> Alcove Camp
South of base camp:  Dancing Darkness -> Long Defile -> Mica Cave

Mica Cave -> Spring Cavern / Blackness Base.
Mica Cave -> Spiral Climb -> Gossamer Gallery -> Multiple Branches
Mica Cave -> Columns. Dead End.

Alcove Camp.  Northwest crawl -> Crystal Room -> Narrow Squeeze -> Stardust Room.
Alcove Camp.  East crawl -> Bendy Tunnel -> Jacathium Pit

Jacathium Pit -> Slab chimney -> Garnet Passage -> Black Pit
Slab Chimney Down -> Glowstone Gallery -> Copper Cliff (Oozed) -> Copper Cliff Up? -> THING THAT SHOULD NOT BE
Slab Chimney Down -> ??? (Further Down)

Current location:  Alcove Camp.
Current camp:  Alcove Camp.

[NJW2000]

Uneasy like the soap room was, or in a more creeping dread sort of way?

[Devastator]

Uneasy like the soap room was, or in a more creeping dread sort of way?

"A bit like soap, yeah."

[NJW2000]

Continue! Sessha first.

[IronyOwl]

Continue! Sessha first.

+1

Might be the ever-hungering Void, might be a great way to get stains out of fabric.

[King Zultan]

Continue! Sessha first.

+1

Might be the ever-hungering Void, might be a great way to get stains out of fabric.

+1

[Devastator]

As you get further up, the passage narrows further.  It's narrows slowly, so it's still passable, but you must be careful.  Particularly when the rock starts getting somewhat harder.  The three of you must put in your pitons carefully, lest one accidently slips.

There are also side passages.  Very narrow, but still made of the same dark stone.  These give you the occasional ledge or hand or foothold.  At one of them, Sessha examines a bit of particularly hard stone that broke off.

"These are onyx, Trence.  Not amazingly valuable, but certainly worth something.  We could gather some today.. I don't think the passage goes much further up."

It's pretty much gather-and-stop.  You'll be breaking away the stone you need to hammer into, and creating a large unstable area, very unsafe to press further.  Onyx is moderately valuable.  Do you want to gather some and block off this passage?

[IronyOwl]

No. We need exploration more than moderate shinies.

[NJW2000]

No. We need exploration more than moderate shinies.

+1

Continue up carefully!

[Devastator]

No. We need exploration more than moderate shinies.

You climb past, sending a few chunks of too-hard stone down the dark shaft while you carefully set up for a further ascent.  This is tricky, and you do indeed mess up the walls, breaking through the relatively thin layer of onyx/dark stone revealing striated, grayish stone below.

But eventually you're past, to reveal..

..more narrowing, and more thin branches above.  Some are just holes in the dark material, others have narrow bits of it going into the distance.  Fairly swiftly, it gets too narrow to climb higher, although you can still see the narrow path continue upwards for some distance.

Stymied, you go down and collect some onyx as a parting gift, finding four good chunks of gem-like onyx bits.  A couple more were probably broken, but you still collected some good ones.

[King Zultan]

Go down until we find a side passage we can get into and see where it leads.

[NJW2000]

Go down until we find a side passage we can get into and see where it leads.

+1

If no other passages are visible, try going further down the slab chimney if that can be done while avoiding ooze.

[Devastator]

There aren't any passages down from the Black Pit.  It's just hard, flat basement rock.  Nothing further down.

Further down the slab chimney, however..

It's a long way down.  You use up most all of your remaining pitons (more will be dropped tomorrow), to climb well down, onto a cracked gray stone floor, at the edge of a large medium chamber.

It's also warm and there's a scent of sulfur.

"That's Demon Smell", says Sessha.

As a reminder, Willis is currently out of mana.

Spoiler: Fissure Maze (click to show/hide)

Base Camp, where everyone fell down to.  Two exits, north and south.

North of base camp:  Empty fissure -> Giant Stairs -> Alcove Camp
South of base camp:  Dancing Darkness -> Long Defile -> Mica Cave

Mica Cave -> Spring Cavern / Blackness Base.
Mica Cave -> Spiral Climb -> Gossamer Gallery -> Multiple Branches
Mica Cave -> Columns. Dead End.

Alcove Camp.  Northwest crawl -> Crystal Room -> Narrow Squeeze -> Stardust Room.
Alcove Camp.  East crawl -> Bendy Tunnel -> Jacathium Pit

Jacathium Pit -> Slab chimney -> Garnet Passage -> Black Pit
Slab Chimney Down -> Glowstone Gallery -> Copper Cliff (Oozed)
Copper Cliff (Oozed) -> Copper Cliff Up?
Copper Cliff (Oozed) ->THING THAT SHOULD NOT BE

Slab Chimney Down -> Lower Slab Chimney -> Warm Room.

Black Pit -> Narrow Pit (Up) -> Pit Crown (Dead End)

Current location:  Alcove Camp.
Current camp:  Alcove Camp.

[King Zultan]

Lets look around the warm room.

[NJW2000]

Lets look around the warm room.

+1