One more to go

     Off to the West we headed, along the sand towards the next secondary portal. Not many to go now before we can check on our progress at the conducting tower... Well, conducting tower, lightning tower. It all meant the same thing... The issue was what is beneath it, and what these past weeks, months have been about! Provided we can destroy the secondary portals at the same rate, and provided they are unable to continue their research into secondary portal replication, we should hopefully win this! Well I say "win" but if we're successful, HoN Co. will be hunting us, baying for our blood! They'll stop at nothing to find us... I just hope our base remains hidden until then so we can hide most of it out... If we survive that long. HoN Co. may be stepping up their security, and making use of the undead, so we're definitely going to have our wits about us the entire time!

The journey to the sixth portal wasn't as long as expected. Unfortunately it was still on the sand which we had been walking on for the past half hour or so, and it was also partially buried, but active. That made our job easier I suppose, but I was still worrying about the sand giving way... I'm just glad that the next one is actually on solid ground... If we get to the next one. From the looks of the map, it's on stone... Either that or under it... It could be gravel I suppose. I wonder if there is any more security? I've noticed a few trends, which could just be coincidences, but they still attracted my attention. Active portals are often in underground chambers with mossy stone surrounding it. The portals on the surface are usually not guarded, except for that one an hour or so ago. I did initially think there could be a link to portals and water, but spending the last hour in dry sand and dirt, I doubt that.

     We destroyed the portal with no unexpected or unforeseen occurrences. I kept guard with UOPETA whilst THEROS positioned the Solus stone. Since we had started finding the portals on the surface, I had begun to think that the Solus stone might not work on some of them. That maybe some of the portals had been activated using lightning... But with each one being destroyed quite easily using the stone, I had set aside that fear, although it cropped up every time THEROS got it out. What would we do if that was the case? The portal was indestructible when active, and literally indestructible if activating with lightning... It'd be permanent! Let's just hope that HoN Co. don't extend their research into that area... After THEROS recovered the stone, he took out the map and crossed out the portals we had managed to destroy so far. There was only two left before heading back, or off to the tower. I really hoped it was the former. I could do with some rest. THEROS had taken to carrying the Solus stone around in his hand since I suggested the possibility of other portals nearby. It would certainly pick up any if they had been activated using thermal energy, but so far we had found nothing additional to what we already knew about.

     From where we were, we headed off to the South West, more towards the green area. There was still a considerable lack of trees around which made UOPETA's job a lot harder trying to keep us safe. Luckily though, by this time, it had begun to grow dark. The sun had slipped into the lower portion of the sky, and was beginning to dip into the horizon. Enough light to see by, but not to see people from a distance. It worked in and against our favour in a way, but thankfully UOPETA is skilled at what he does. We arrived at the stone area about half an hour later after setting off. I was thankful to be away from the sand, but looking at the map, the next portal location could hold something a little more dangerous. It was odd; the portal seemed to be located in the middle of a large pool, with no way to get to it... I think we may be getting wet before the night is done. Finding the current portal was easy enough as the stone staircase leading down to it gave it away... As ever, we were overly cautious about what we might find, but it appeared to be just an active secondary portal. Unlike the others though, this was within a small chamber, but not embedded into the wall... I didn't know if this held any significance until after it was destroyed. But at the time we just wanted it gone! THEROS did the honours, and after it was gone, we put up a few torches.

After destroying the portal, we found that there was a passage that continued behind where it had stood. We looked at each other, apprehension written on all of our faces. Was there anything up there? We ventured forward; I opted for the bow this time. After the previous incident with the skeletons, I wasn't taking any chances of being caught offguard! UOPETA led the way, holding a torch ahead of him to get a better view, but after a few metres, the passage stopped abruptly... Maybe it was just a small natural cavern... It didn't matter. At least we hadn't found an Affinitas cage or any skeletons at the end. Although to be honest, I get the feeling they would've attacked us when we were busy with the portal. We didn't know at the time the passage was there, and we would have been ambushed easily! I think in future, we need to be more careful. THEROS crossed the latest portal from the map, and we left the chamber. It was night now; the moon hung low in the Eastern sky indicating early night. We began the journey due South to the next one, wondering what it held in store for us. With it essentially being situated on an island, it didn't look good...

Syeonyx signing off