03/05/2017
--incoming transmission--

Hey everyone!
It's me, Darksbane, and I've decided to do something I've been debating about for a few days, not only to share with you all, but as a bit of self motivation.
(Cause, I'm gonna be posting more, so it'll force me to have stuff to write )
I am going to log my experiences, or at the very least what I do, whether it's interesting or not, exploring the Abyss.

What's the abyss you may ask? It's a, location on the astral plane, which I'm told is ever shifting, on the outskirts of all the astral places you usually know of, sort of like a dark bubble surrounding the glowy bubble that is most of the astral we all know of.

I was inspired by AuroraMagick, to take this endeavour, and see how it leads!

So with my trusty map (oh wait you can't map it out, hmmm) and my companions to help me along the way, let's see what cool shenanigans I can get up to, eh?

--end of transmission--

sounds interesting looking forward to the next installment

I'm quite interested by what you may find Darksbane . I love true adventures !

--incoming transmission--

Greetings!

I have finally made my first journey into the Abyss, and it's very interesting!
I went with a group of 5 others in my keep, one being Veo, whom is an abyssal wraith, and is required to make these journeys, as I'm told the only way to access the abyss, is via an abyssal being taking you there, which he seems to agree with.

He ripped open a sort of, portal, more of a fold in the astral plane he tells me, and we stepped through.

My first impression of the abyss? It's very grey. I expected spacey-kinda places, and I got 50 different shades of greys and blacks colouring the world.

We arrived on a very green area, or, plant life anyways, it was a sort of plane, with grass and trees, also all grey tones. Maybe it's my sight, but Veo says they they were mostly grey yes.

We apparently were on a cliff, as nary 30 feet away was this looooooong drop, all the way down to a gigantic valley, which as I leaned over this hillock that bordered the cliff, I saw houses, down in the valley. Maybe more like huts, but they appeared to be made out of a solid material. Some of them had lights on inside, glowing out of the single windows or open doorways, along with several unattended fireplaces, most of them were dark, but a few were lit.
So either the place got suddenly abandoned, the residents were invisible/cloaked, or they decided to leave fireplaces around on fire. Beats me.

To my left the cliff extended all the way to this foresty area, which went down a long incline to the valley below, and there were several water streams from this large lake behind me, draining into small waterfalls that poured in very small streams to the valley below, possibly into pools. Weird way for water to behave, falling in small streams, it was likely no wider than two people, for such a long distance, but hey, since when did logic apply eh?

(Illustration)
The pond/lake behind me was being fed water by another stream which led up a large hill and vanished from my sight, sort of on the edge of a grey border where I had difficulty getting my focus farther than that.

To our right was this thickly forested area, which I wandered over to, where Aaru and Zeth were already inspecting the area.
There appeared to be an entrance, sort of, in the forested area, where the trees weren't so thick, and formed almost a path.
I decided to scout, and took out my wings, (don't ask, I developed my own. And yes that is possible astrally) and flapped up to the top of the trees, where it appeared to be a greenish grey sea of leaftops.

Hopped back down, and the others rejoined us from the clifftop. Veo figured that the forest would go down into the valley; so that's the way we went.

As went went, he gave me this energy spell, to cloak myself with in case I had to suddenly leave due to earthen plane mundane stuff. (Like unknowing parents)

I also created a mental notepad that would jot down as I noticed things, so I could recall it easier when writing down my journal entry.

As we walked along I found a leaf on the ground.

(Illustration)
Very different yet similar to an earthen plane leaf.
It was very spiky along the edges, and despite my bad art, I think I captured the style okay. It was a greyish green too, which now that I think about it, is a bit odd as it was a dead leaf.
I actually still have it on my person, I suppose an unintentional souvenir of the first area I went to.
Veo confirms it's safe to keep around, so that's good.

Continuing along, we come to an actual path, not paved, but it was matted down dirt, and definitely somewhat traveled. No discernible footprints, but I'm no Ranger.

The path suddenly sloped down, and curved, to the left. Continuing down, it led to what appeared to me as a staircase, in the hillside underneath the trees. It was still the path, it was just formed as stairs, in the ground. Unusual.

At the bottom of the long staircase we could see the fires of the village like place glowing, and so Veo said it may be best to avoid contact until I get used to exploring. Especially since it was nighttime, so may not be the best time to make an approach.

So we returned back, and on our way back up the smooth slope, I saw a pure white rabbit, with wide ears, sitting at the top. As we got near the top, it took off, into the trees.
Where it was sitting was a weird depression in the ground, which didn't appear to be it's feet.

(Illustration)

The spiky bit was likely it's back legs, kicking up dirt from taking off, creating claw marks into the ground. The square bit being the main area of it sitting/front legs.
The thing is, the ground was soft around where it was. Yet it was dusty and dry when we were there.
Weird.
I stuck my hand to the ground and it sunk in a bit, to which Lazuli, (water bending slimequeen) washed the mud off my hands.

I wonder what caused the ground to become wet. It wasn't raining.

And the dampness wasn't just around it, it was a good radius around, so it wouldn't be like it was, uhm, doing business.

Got back to the top of the cliff, and we walked back to the portal opening, (in future journeys, we are gonna close the original when we depart, and open a new one, that way it doesn't need to be guarded) and I noticed a, wooden machine partially buried in the ground

(Illustration)
It appeared to be a trolley of some kind, or a board on wheels. No idea what it was for, or why it was there, or even why I didn't notice it before, (it was to the left of the portal, across the trees to a more field like area, it was at the edge of the trees) but I only realized it was there when I was quite literally sitting on top of it's upturned side.

It didn't seem broken, but we decided to leave it. Veo theorized it was being used by the beings in the valley, for whatever purpose. They likely were the ones creating the path up the forest hill.
(The black circle in the first illustration is where the stairs came out to)

To our left some more, facing away from the cart-thing and to the left of the cliff edge, was another hill.
I hopped on top of it only to duck down again, as there was a fireplace, lit, in the field beyond, and three cloaked people.

Veo says they could've been anything, even looking humanoid.
Following our earlier rule, we left them alone, although I am curious.

Returned to the portal and closed it, no idea if I may ever be back there, but hey, it was cool!

(As a note, I may not do illustrations beyond this post, it was mostly trying it out, but I suck at quick sketches, and they do not look as good as I want, as well as simply finding it tiresome to do so)

Onwards and upwards my friends.
See you on the flipside.

--end of transmission--

fundude53 wrote:sounds interesting looking forward to the next installment

Thank you Fundude, I'll be sure to post whenever I explore the abyss. ^_^

Nienna wrote:I'm quite interested by what you may find Darksbane . I love true adventures !

Me too! This has made me super excited, and I'm very curious to see what I find! (: Thanks for tuning in!

Very interesting post. Thank you for for sharing this.

--incoming transmission--

Greetings fellow travellers!
I am indeed still alive, and have not forgotten this journal of mine.
I have had many delays, and my own lack of motivation, and laziness, setting me back almost a fortnight.
But I have indeed gone into the abyss again, finally!

This time, I traveled with Veo, Keila, and Accalia. K and A are succubi sister spirits.

Veo opened a portal, and we were on our way once again.

I opened my eyes astrally, and it appears I had landed in a large expanse of desert. Not only was it desert, it was very windy, and the sand picked up everywhere. It was strangely clear sight, but the small grains blew this and that way.
Veo quickly taught me to put a windshield up, a thin bubble like layer that is nearly invisible, to keep the sand away from my face.

I looked at my gear and found I had equipped a set of armour, and a set of twin razor swords. I have had not much memory of it, beyond a faint memory of fighting through a hallway in my dreams, but apparently Veoduno and the others have been taking some of my dreams as time to teach me combat.
The twin blades are made of mirrors apparently, (as I have a, likening to mirrors symbolically) and I have found the left one shows me, male, and the right one shows a female counterpart of me. Very interesting.
They also are able to float around me, and I am able to direct them telepathically. Very cool.

Veo was mildly disappointed I seemed to have not much recall of the training, although mentioned that it may come back to me over time as I use it.
I also should start training while awake, to commit conscious memory to it.
On the bright side, I am told astral combat is less about repetition until it's ingrained, and instead, learning to trust and develop your instinct.
Which sounds much less tedious than repeating the same move over and over, as it is in some training camps. Not that there won't be any repetition, but it won't be the focus.

But I digress, back to the desert.

So I pulled them up, shielded myself for protection, and we moved on.

There was wind, more wind, and lots of sand. Did I mention sand? The sun was all hazy, and the sky was a drab brown.
I don't recall if there was just one name, but the Swept-desert was Veo's nickname for it. As in, the wind swept it.
The shadows, due to the lighting, tended to be dark green-black in colour, which also posed a problem, as there apparently was snakes of the same colour.
Fun.

As we walked along I suddenly sensed a hole in the ground, at which point the sand did indeed fall away and reveal a shallow pit, about the width of a man, angled at about 45 degrees away from me.

Veo was cautious of a trap, like large predatory spiders (even MORE fun) so he had me toss sand into the opening.
No response.

So I tossed more sand in and set the sand on fire.
There was definitely spiders in there, I sensed (with my spidey sense ) but they weren't coming out.
So we backed away, and carried on.

I spent a few minutes trying to calibrate my sight, as whenever I did a sideways spin with my blades (hey I was testing it out haha) my vision went 3rd person, and I mildly disconnected from my astral body. Or my vision did.
I got a bit reprimanded for somersaulting in the sand, but hey, I synced my sight with the rolling somewhat. The thought still makes me dizzy a little, seeing the sky and ground rotate haha.
Veo told me having third person sight, as long as it didn't slow my actions, was fine, and would help against ambushes anyways, just like any senses, so I didn't need to worry.

A snake tried to attack me, but before I could think to react, I automatically retaliated and hit back, beheading it.
It's somehow more disconcerting for me that I can be a fighter at all, without having the memories of training. Veo informs me it hasn't been for a long time, but it's something that can be picked up naturally.

We continued walking along, Veo cautioning just to ignore the snakes unless they followed us, as our shielding would protect against idle attacks to test for the unwary.

Then stuff went down.

I and the others suddenly sensed a large presence in the sand dune ahead, Veo hoped it would be asleep, but apparently it had other ideas.
It was a gigantic snake, easily the thickness of a bus, if not a trailer truck, and at least 50 feet long, if not longer, being partially underground.

I could just see the text type across a screen

"BOSS FIGHT: Giant Snake"

I couldn't help it, I found it immensely funny, if not the scary part the giant snake looked pissed off. Or hungry, one of the two. Maybe it was pissed off because it was hungry, who knows.

It lashed at us, and we all launched into a counter attack.

Well, first what happened was Veo jumped at the snake as it launched itself, and sliced off it's head. Then it slumped to the ground and he walked back to us. He commented big things usually weren't as scary, as they were slow. It's the things the same size as us that tend to pose bigger threats.

Then the snake reformed, it's severed neck splitting into three pieces, like a leech face, and basically screamed it's defiance at us.

Zombie snake, Veo commented. Not good.
Whatever a zombie snake is.

Then we all launched ourselves at it.

Honestly I couldn't have thought all the actions as quickly as I executed them, I was rolling and slicing and jumping before I completely consciously thought of them, focusing on just not getting squished into a snake-sand-and-Darksbane sandwich.

I then did a teleporty thingy, a blue-silver line following behind me in a square shape, before I teleported to a vantage point in the low of the sand dune, as a large mirror formed around the connect-the-dots, and sliced right through the snake's body, before I launched myself at the mirror, smashing it, and then directing the broken fragments at the now-approaching snake's face.

I didn't see the others, but I saw the results as it often flinched or moved away from certain spots, or I would see them out of the corner of my eye.

At one point it launched it's "mouth" at me yet again, and I put up a shield, then quickly realized it may end up crushing it, so I decided not to test that theory and rolled out of the way.

I also figured out how to put my time manipulation to good use, slowing down things so I could take a moment to think, or jump out of the way. Making the enemy react slower is always an advantage.

Finally it was dead, I didn't realize it at the moment, but I tried my typical "heal" method, slicing it along the side and pushing compassionate energy beyond the shielding in it's scales, and it basically imploded, turning into hazy energy.
What I later realized is that I put life/love into what lacked those things. Hence the implosion. Mildly confusing, but good to know.
Did I mention I had a thing for being a healer/one who appreciates/follows that aspect of Aphrodite?

After it blew up, I struck a victory pose cause I'm silly like that, and it was just too much like video games not to. *duh duh duh daaaaaaah*
I also found I had been in my female form *shrug* lol.
Male or female, as I've mentioned in, other posts, I like both aspects.

Veo told me not to fool around, which sent me laughing, and he said to not talk about it too much like it was a video game. So hey, I'll tell it like it is. I won't dramatize it. But I do hope it's enjoyable to read
Also, I don't know how good or bad I am at fighting, so don't go thinking I'm some super fighter lol. I didn't even fully grasp all I did 100% of the time. But I'll get there. That's what I get for not doing training during the day :lol:

So we continued on.

Finally reached a bit of cover, these large orange-brown rocks, pockmarked with caves/holes, like some giant ant had chewed it's way haphazardly through the huge rock walls.

We removed our sand dust shields, and walked between the mountains, the gap between reminding me of an above ground trench.
As we walked along, it was a lot quieter. But we didn't let our guard down, lest something popped at us from the shadows of the caves.

Then something did pop at us, but it wasn't aggressive. It was a quirky old man, wearing a large rectangular (tall, not wide) totem mask of some sort of indescribable native-like design, with faint impressions of eyes and a mouth.
He approached us, and Veo stopped him, asking him to state his name and business, and the old man turned out to be a seller/tradesman, a shopkeeper if you would, and self proclaimed fortune teller.

He offered for us to join him briefly in his shop/home, and Veo accepted. So we clambered in.

It was quite cozy, with a floor mat, and a counter where the man has various curiosities strewn about, a side table with even more, and shelves behind him that led into a storage with yet even more.

He offered us food, we declined, and he chortled, saying he wouldn't bite us. Then he asked what we were doing around, and Veo countered, asking why the man approached us. The answer was simple, business, the man thrived off of goods-trading.
Apparently the pass was the safest route, and many people found shelter, permanent or momentary, in the mountain caves.

After being offered a bunch of luck drawing items, and various other things, and declining, he offered, in return for an "inner astral" coin I had in my hand (I was inspecting my pockets for money) (the abyss is the outer astral, "normal" astral is inner astral) he offered to do our fortunes.

I'll say mine alone, which card I drew was the Eye of Fortune (not a normal tarot card I know of) which was drawn upside down, which he translated as there was much in store for me, but I needed to relax and "open my eyes" and trust my perception to guide, and not force it.

Sounds like my troubles with AP'ing, funny enough. So it's fitting. Nothing new, but cool enough.

None of the fortunes was ill willed, which the tradesman noted wasn't as frequent with passerbys apparently. I suppose with all the danger out there, it was common to get a warning or word of caution.

We thanked him, and left. Something curious to note is he kept calling me lad, but I was still in my female form, with longer hair and a chest. (He commented he calls everyone that, but then switched to calling me "lady" afterwards I inquired. But then upon leaving called me lad again)
Also, a facepalm-worthy mistake, I didn't think of a code name to use with those I come across astrally. I shall think of a better name, but used Sam at that moment.
Hmm. I just thought of a nice name as of writing this. Nightmirror. Kinda like my combat theme it seems, and well, night haha. I love the night. Let me know what you all think of the nickname!
He noted my energy felt more masculine, but left it at that. I shrugged and pretended to find it uninteresting. I'm sure there's weirder out there that he has seen, more than genderbending, but I don't need unforeseen complications and I was seen in that gender lol.

We left, and it having taken a while, decided to leave it at that.

And now I'm here. Desert adventure at a close. Woohoo!

And with that, I shall catch you all hopefully sooner.

See you travellers later!

--end of transmission--

Hi Darksbane 1ey
Thanks for sharing! I love reading about other's astral adventures! I'm hoping I'll get to the point where I can astral travel with my companions as well.
Also I love your new alias "Nightmirror", very deep and mysterious!

elena.rose wrote:OMG this is soooo Epic i like your drawings of your journey i hope to do this some day too
i look forward to your next incoming transmission DB 1s

Thank you Elena, I look forward to doing it again too! Hopefully sooner this time haha, thank you for joining me in these transmissions, and commenting!

jonathanjett95 wrote:Very interesting post. Thank you for for sharing this.

No worries, and thank you for hopping on board, plenty more abyss to explore!

HopeFaerie wrote:Hi Darksbane 1ey
Thanks for sharing! I love reading about other's astral adventures! I'm hoping I'll get to the point where I can astral travel with my companions as well.
Also I love your new alias "Nightmirror", very deep and mysterious!

You are most welcome Hope, and I hope you get to that point too, I'm sure you will be able to, at some point soon.
And thank you haha, I like it too! It's also gender neutral, which makes it easier for me. As astrally I'm fine being either. 3
Thank you for taking the time to comment, and I hope you enjoy the future transmissions!