The tracks continue on across a great chasm, with a black abyss beneath it and a dark, thick mist around it. There is an old engine at the start of the chasm, stuck partially in the mist. The tracks are in a full-stop dead zone. Moving through it is like moving through molasses. The engine is left from when someone tried to blast on through to the other side. Peco could pull the engine out with his own, but he leaves it to serve as a warning. and who knows what might come with it?
No one knows what is on the other side. The only things to come out are occasional creatures that die at the edge of town. There may be many ways to get across; here are some options. Peco and Jon know that the other side used to be the Station of the Sun on the road to the City through Phoenix Meadows. But whether it’s still there? No idea.
The bridge is 320 yards across. The mist begins ten yards in front of the bridge, and ends five yards from the other end, so the mist is 325 yards across. Peco and Jon know about the bridge and about the canyon that it crosses. Most people assume that the abyss is also a canyon, though they won’t be sure when questioned about how they know; it’s just something everyone knows.
Walk across
The most obvious means of getting across is to take a leap of faith that there is another side and walk across. Walking across the railroad bridge is dangerous. The dark, thick mist is cold and empty. Each round within the mist, characters will gain 1 injury, and movement is at a third normal because of the thick, molasses-like quality of the mist.
The aqueducts
Where does the brine come from?
Crossing the Abyss: Use magic
A sorceror might be able to research a spell to keep the dark mist at bay.
The more effective option is a seventh level spell to fully negate the effects of the abyss within a bubble. This will create a safe bubble within which the characters will be safe from the mist. The bubble will not keep denizens of the abyss from crawling onto the tracks, however. Someone’s going to need to protect the sorceror from loss of concentration while horrific things try to eat them.
Another option is to create a fifth level spell to negate just the deadly effects of the abyss, but not the slowness.
| Range: | self |
| Formula: | words, gestures, ingredients |
| Ingredients: | ash leaf or oak leaf |
| Duration: | concentration |
| Casting Time: | 1 round |
| Area of Effect: | half-level yards diameter |
| Reaction: | none |
| Schools: | Summoning |
Remember that concentration itself has a movement reduction for the sorceror, and (for the fifth-level option) this is cumulative with the abyss’s movement reduction.
If the caster loses concentration, the bubble will collapse in one round. The caster will have one chance to cast the spell again before possibly taking damage. Anyone around the caster will need to make an Evasion roll or gain an injury point. The subsequent round, the caster is allowed an Evasion roll to avoid gaining an injury point, but everyone else gains injury points as normal for being in the abyss.
Crossing the Abyss: Use ritual
This is not a place of power. But if they have access to one, such as through a specialty, they can try to perform a ritual to part the darkness. Remember that they’ll need to use symbolism in the drawings, in what they sacrifice within the drawings, and in their chanting. It’ll take a serious sacrifice to cut through the abyss.
Use divinity
It will take at least a fourth level spirit manifestation—such as Home Rule—to maintain their world’s laws through the void. This is how Joe Lakono got through if they’re chasing him.
Crossing the Abyss: The road
The road starts rising about twenty yards in: it’s an arched bridge. The road is the safest way to cross, but it has potholes, and tentacles will burst through the potholes and try to grab anyone near them.
There are bodies on the road, of people who have tried to cross. Most are in about twenty to thirty feet of the edge (on either side). On the far side, some of the bodies are ogres and saurians.
Crossing the Abyss: The rails
The rails go straight across. They are a metal rail with a metal frame and wooden slats. Many of the wooden slats are broken, almost torn off. The tentacles have a freer hand on the rails. They can reach through the slats of the railway, and they’ll start doing it about 80 yards in.
Dangers of the Abyss
The children of tumu-ra-i-feuma, the octopus who bound earth and sky, still grasp for the light within the center of the abyss.
Po-tentacles (Fantastic: 6; Moral Code: Chaotic Evil; Survival: 38; Defense: 5; Attack: 2-4; Damage: d8)
The tentacle-creature will send four to eight tentacles up, and every two tentacles get an attack. It will attack the first round, and then try to grab someone the next round. It has a low intelligence and will react intelligently.
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