Landing Site
Fate
Of all things, this is what you expected the least. The portal led you to a dark hallway, extending to beyond your reach in the dark. The walls are made of a dark stone cold to the touch, assembled from a set of irregular bricks. As you get closer to them, you notice some senseless carvings. Here and there, words like "Union", "Eternity", "League". English? Others are written in the same characters, though you fail to get their meaning. But most are drawings, ideograms or plain gibberish.
You look for expedition equipment. The first task of a discovery expedition is to set up a base camp, if only to prepare for the following people and have a place to regroup. But you can see nothing like that in the narrow hallway, as if you were the first one to set foot in this dark underground. You look behind you, eager to find the slightest clue to your situation, but the walls are unresponsive to your plea.
Now, that is unconventional.
The cavernous voice came from both sides at once, bouncing off the walls until it hits you head-on. You stagger, struggling to find your footing after this surprise. You barely understood the words, though they are in your language. The tone is rough, with a strong accent you fail to identify, and so low it's closer to a rumble of stone.
You should come here too soon. Leave, you'll come back when the time is right.
As the guttural voice pronounces the end of its sentence, it feels like a suffocating presence is lifted from the place, and you notice you haven't been breathing since the beginning. You take a few deep breaths before deciding on a direction.
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