The Elucidate
The group that had set out into the newly formed valley had been upbeat and carefree, those that returned were bleeding and grim. Two of them carried a blood stained wrap between the two of them which held the defiled remnants of one of the missing navigators. Some of the other mages who had gone to explore the valley, but hadn't experienced the violence first hand, had gathered and were trying to piece together the story.
"What the hells happened?" asked one.
A woman shook her head, "Monsters. I saw it myself, a whole swarm like locusts. They killed the navigator."
"Locusts don't pin a man to a stake," disagreed another mage, "I saw them pulling him down off a spike, it wasn't monsters that killed him, or at least not any locusts."
"Wait, Faldra is dead? So we're trapped here?" someone gasped in horror.
"No, not Faldra, one of the other ones, you know, one of the Lendalian separatists."
"But what about the other monsters at the ship, there's supposed to be hundreds, are they all coming too?"
The crowd was growing and words were starting to overlap one another as the babbling grew louder and more anxious. Others from the Elucidate had emerged as word was spreading not only of the valley, but of the disastrous encounter within it. From the base of the Elucidate a person could still spy the preternatural gloom that hung over the place where the fight had unfolded. From the tower reemerged the leader of the expedition. Eldereth had proudly watched as they valley had been created, it was the first great step towards their goal to terraform and colonize this world, but he'd returned to work when it was complete and hadn't been amongst those who had gone to explore it. Listening to the chatter now his face darkened.
"This expedition is full of hardship, monsters are just another trial for us to face," Eldereth said to the crowd, "And from what I'm hearing, we met that challenge admirably. When we activate the next World Shard we'll be better prepared for any hostile native lifeforms that may be drawn to the event."
"It doesn't sound like those are native creatures from what I heard," spoke up another mage. This fellow was younger than many of the gray haired compatriots on the expedition. He was well groomed, his hair combed and held a glossy sheen, his robes were of a more stylish cut and his beard was closely cut to his face rather than the long spindly things that many of the older men sported. "I can sense dimensional magic down there, at least I think it is, it's not the sort I've generally worked with, but it's the first trace I've gotten since we arrived here. I was starting to think there was no planar cosmology to this place at all." He shook his head at the notion, "Can you imagine? Just a single world? How claustrophobically dull."
"I'm glad this has given you a breakthrough," Eldereth replied, "Mapping the planar constellation of this new world will be important. We all know how impactful those other planes can be upon Aleteros, it seems that is no different here. I look forward to seeing the maps you create."
"Well hang on now," Taebor protested, "It sounds like cosmological mapping is hardly a safe undertaking, how about lending me a couple of bodies? I'm going to have to go down there where the disturbance came from, and apparently that disturbance brought along a horde of unpleasantness, I'd rather not encounter that on my lonesome."
Nodding in agreement, Eldereth regarded the assembled mages, "Would any of you care to volunteer to accompany Taebor?"
Potential Adventure: Cosmological Mapping - Accompany Taebor as he works to map out the planar forces detected in the valley below.