Turns out the cave wasn't done with the nightmare fuel. The wet walls? Those were some sort of organic growth that was accumulated on the cave walls, as we went deeper it formed protrusions of sorts that looked like eggs, almost.

István looked ready and willing to hoof in a laboratory on his back just to study these growths, but Viktor and I were able to rein his worst impulses in. Then we started finding the corpses.

Turns out those protrusions were corpses that the walls had integrated into itself - it seemed to be feeding off the biomass of these corpses and growing with it - the 'eggs' were actually some form of digestive organ.

Then we saw an insectoid monster dragging a corpse up to the wall and depositing it there. Viktor 'dissuaded' it from doing so again in the usual manner and we watched the wall slowly encompass the corpse. I'm not entirely sure why it was necessary for us to watch the whole thing, but it was kind of like a train wreck: difficult to look away. I'm sure István would claim scientific value - I was pretty sure by this point that nothing could faze the man provided he found it interesting.

Fortunately the pace was fairly glacial, the kind of thing where any living critter wouldn't have trouble escaping, but that didn't stop the process from being terrifying to think about. I wanted to try to dispel it, same as the wall barring access into the base, but it didn't have the same vibe as that lifeform. This felt almost like a prototype or some aborted experiment. Either way, the Umbral Veil really had a flare for unspeakable horrors. That, and blowing another section of the cave up would probably be a bad idea.

Although on second thought, 'kill it with all the fire' seemed appropriate for this chamber in particular.

Once we'd determined the function of the 'eggs', István backtracked and eliminated them with surgical precision, lancing each with targeted scalpels of his energy he kept tightly controlled. He came back spot-free, which was impressive considering some of the wet splashing noises I'd heard.

We pushed on, only to be hounded by increasingly large numbers of those insectoid monsters, which made Viktor's day; he was more than happy to be repurposed as an overgrown fly swatter.

The growth on the wall grew thicker and thicker, eventually modifying the natural biome of the cave into a wide assortment of colorful plant and mushroom-looking protrusions that would have been delightful had I not known where they came from. There were bioluminescent varieties as well that resulted in the cave being surprisingly well lit for something firmly underground. Neither the glowing crystals we used in the entrance nor the artificial lighting on the previous level were present here.

Along with the increasingly interesting forms it was taking, the monsters we were facing diversified into more shapes and sizes of insect. It became necessary for István to contribute as masses of smaller winged forms besieged us like angry clouds of mosquitoes, only much larger. The scientist was a clear nemesis for these types, cooking them straight out of the sky with blasts of superheated steam.

I was slightly disturbed at how they smelled a little like bacon, which only served to remind me of how I was missing some good cooking at home. I hoped my family wasn't too upset with me being gone - I'd told them I'd be going into the field so that they shouldn't wait up for me. It wasn't uncommon for a normal rift recovery to take well into the evening once cleanup and transport was all said and done, so they likely wouldn't start really worrying until the morning.

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Only problem with that being I had no idea what time it was.

"I would not recommend that," I heard István say, only to realize that Viktor was about to sample one of the steam-cooked bugs. He dropped it back to the floor.

"Smelled good though," said the big man, looking forlorn.

"So did the boar that one time," István replied, "We both remember what happened after that."

Viktor made a face. Apparently whatever had happened had been something crazy- I filed away my desire to follow up on that story next to the fact that Viktor seemed to have a soft spot for bacon… and bacon 'alternatives'.

Eventually we found tall spires, essentially hives that the different bug types were inhabiting. These fell to Viktor's fists, whereupon we learned that they were essentially spawners for the bugs, rather than being a house for them, we could see undeveloped versions of the bugs being assembled out of the same sort of biomass being utilized by the walls.

"This does not seem native to this planet," István commented. "Since if it was it'd be the only form of life left. What have the Veil done here?"

"I agree, whatever this is, it doesn't have the same vibes as the corrupted things we've fought in the other rooms. Furthermore, everything in this space feels like the same thing to me," I added, explaining what I'd noticed earlier. "It'd also explain why the monsters were fighting each other earlier, the corrupted ones and these things aren't on the same side."

István was rubbing his goatee again, deep in thought. "It seems that no matter what the final outcome of our explorations are, we need to eliminate this completely before we leave."

"Agreed," I replied, and Viktor gave his customary noise of affirmation.

"For now we should get out of this space," István then said, before destroying another small cloud of what looked vaguely like bees. He was starting to look tired.

"Running out of steam?" I asked, and István gave me a weird look indeed, which made me rethink what I'd just said. "Ah. Sorry, pun not intended."

Viktor slammed his fists together and a withering wave of heat blasted out. "Stay behind me," he said, "We will just force our way through."

István and I looked at each other, before we both shrugged. It was worth a shot before we got overrun and became the next food source to fuel further expansion.

Viktor took this as a confirmation and began plowing forward, using his huge frame like a battering ram to push through everything that came our way, we followed as close behind him as we could without getting singed by the scorching energy pouring off of him. The stamina drain had to be pretty extreme, but considering the level of crazy that was his standard operating procedure, I had no real idea how long he could keep it up.

The walls narrowed as we traveled, to the point where biomass started getting singed off as we passed. I was starting to worry if we were just traveling headlong into the mystery cave-equivalent of a stomach when we came to a door.

Viktor had the sensibilities to not punch this one off its hinges at least, and we travelled through.

Surprisingly, there was nothing on the other side. Nothing to the point that there was no light once the door shut. Viktor retrieved his flashlight, handing it off to István as he slumped against the wall, finally dispelling whatever it was that had been keeping him going. He looked smaller somehow, sitting there panting. He had a satisfied smile on his face though.

I slapped the wall, crushing an insect of some kind that had snuck out with us. I wasn't sure how much of the previous room had to escape to reconstitute itself, but I wasn't about to find out.

István shone the light down the hallway, revealing a pristine set of white walls, which was a relief. At least whatever infection was eating the cave hadn't gotten this far… yet.

We were continuing down the hall, looking out for whatever was next in this house of horrors that the Umbral Veil had so kindly prepared for us, when I felt that tug at my soul again, this time from behind me. I spun around, but again saw nothing. What was going on?

Did I even want to know?

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