The first group of curious explorers drawn to the dangers of this mysterious cavern delved into it's depths, revealing to themselves a location hidden within the winding caverns. A place of untold horrors. What they learned... have they kept it to themselves, or spread the information? That's up to them to decide... but their presence is one that did not go unseen. They struck back against the protectors of this place, and fled while they had the opportunity...

 

...what awaits the next group forward?

 

[Even though this is just a micro-event I'm going to get into a habit of writing up little bits of summary / acknowledgement of this stuff, and this is for the first group of people who took the plunge. And slowly... we're approaching the time for announcing the main event.]

As an organised group was met with the sight of something grizzly, a rescue was conducted of some of those within the facility inside the caves. Now, with that in mind, all that's left is to take care of the facility itself, and form the group that will clear out the caves of their looming threat.
 
The main event for this will take place on the 23rd of August, at somewhere around 11PM to Midnight BST. If you wish to sign up, I'd recommend doing so through the main server. That way everyone can see how many have signed up and such, and nobody's caught out awkwardly signing up when there's no space.
 
There are 12 slots. Enough for 3 teams, as this is a small facility. Of course, you can come alone but you'll probably have to work with a group at some point so prepare to be partnered up!

Pre-Event: Participants gathered at the base of the mountain range following the subsiding of a recent black beast raid, discovering anomalous weather overhead akin to that seen as an omen for the events that took place in the forest prior. A thunderstorm threatened loud noises and chaotic strikes - the likes of which did in fact strike two of the attendees, though they were luckily spared from any serious impact. Doing their best to avoid any further casualties, once the group had amassed all 12 members and decided who would work best together, the groups headed inside for shelter - and to deal with the facility found hidden in the mountains.

 

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Event: On exploration of the cave system that held the facility, the group would inevitably come across the approach to the place they were looking for. The approach was dark and cold, and all throughout the stench of rotting flesh lingered in the air around them. Closer to the facility they discovered what seemed to be dried blood that had been there since the smaller investigations - nobody was taking the effort to keep this place clean, evidently. Then, pretty quickly after they discovered the facility itself - and found it guarded by arcane constructs. Basically really tough, slow rock golems.

 

These golems did not ambush the group right away, and instead waited on a taunting illusory message from the threat they were dealing with before engaging with the group. There were a large number of them, and they may have been giving the groups a pretty hard time - that is, until a mysterious force seemed to suck away the arcane energy that held them together, leaving them to crumble. The doors opened with that, and the group headed inside.

 

On entry, they came across a large group of live humanoids - probably once just like anyone else, though they'd been experimented on to the point where they seemed to be a haunting, mangled mess of body parts, likely due to some sort of mutation. In the end, the decision was made on the group's part to - unfortunately - put every single one of these creatures out of their misery. After all, there really... was no other choice. These poor, tortured souls accepted their fate without struggle, hopefully seeing the light at the other side.

 

They stumbled next upon a bunch of hostile corpses akin to those found in the forest- though with their own defects. These were not used in the battle because of their flaws, and were luckily locked behind cells, so couldn't do the group harm. However, once again, an ominous force from within the facility seemed to suck them dry of all their... life(?)force. Either way, one by one the group watched the undead die once more as if something were feeding on them. It was becoming pretty clear by now that there was something dangerous in the facility.

 

The group were able to access another door, but were in search of keys in able to get in some of the facility's other rooms. This is where they would find their first key - and with it, another threat in the form of a group of liches who, while probably once dangerous in their own right, seemed to have become nothing more than crazed protectors of this location, lost to insanity. They were a duo of fire and ice, and the groups managed to tackle them with ease compared to the golems outside. This allowed them access to that key, which was used to enter another room...

 

In this other room, the group would find some books likely authored by the necromancer, detailing a whole host of experiments and past events that it was responsible for, alongside sketches of some of it's drawings. No future plans were contained - those were likely taken. They also discovered, in the middle of it, a table containing the phylacteries of the liches they had faced (though not that of the necromancer) - these liches were just protecting their own lives, and were probably forced to do so by someone who had the power to destroy their phylacteries if they rebelled. In the room, there were also a set of more keys...

 

These keys would lead to the final room, but with said final room dawning upon them, the mysterious lifeforce draining from the air seemed to become more potent. Hallucinations and illusions started to appear to those within the facility, showing them untold horrors - and requiring the group to either steel themselves or succumb to insanity to continue forward. Most steeled themselves, at least, though there was at least one case of someone showing insanity. In the end, the groups progressed to the final room, only to be met with... an abomination of a creature.

 

This abomination seemed to be a culmination of the necromancer's craft. A mangled creature of flesh with a base formed from a fleshy golem of some kind, though who knows what was added on top of it to give it forme? It seemed to practically attract corpses to it, had a certain penchant for illusions of horror in it's presence, and was very, very interested in consuming the groups, likely to fuel itself - it was most likely the mysterious force, looking for focus to feed on to keep itself alive as a creature that probably had none of it's own. It was being protected by an artifical barrier, though this seemed to have been in part created to give it's creator an advantage over it - a way to exhaust it and overload it if it was not compliant, or went crazy.

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The groups engaged in a battle with it, with one group whittling it down to the point where part of it's mass fell away, only to pass the torch onto another group when they were forced to retreat from the battlefield. The next group had a close encounter with it's jaws, though managed to rip out it's main eye, only to reveal... a much darker one underneath. The final group faced the hardest challenge as the creature rampaged out of control in attempt to protect itself, and though the fight was close, the creature was inevitably felled. In the third battle, a member of that group - Garrett - was briefly eaten by the creature and left wallowing inside it until eventually spit out. He was admitted to hospital after the events, and treated.

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The group triumphed over this creature, but victory may have been hollow. Some injuries were sustained, and unfortunately enough, beyond illusions, the necromancer had not shown itself at all, leading it to seem like he was never at the facility at the time of their infiltration. Notes seem to suggest that they fled in a cowardly manner, instead, once they knew people were aware of their location - leaving those people to deal with it's creation. Though the threat will likely not go unchallenged in future - it has been supposed that there may be people looking to seek out a trail to follow to the necromancer, in hopes of locating and taking them down.

 

[The story will continue.]