in 2 hours and 1 minute. Trila called it an improvement, but if they stay or try to retreat completely, they would be dead. She thought that the best chance they had was to complete their original mission of defeating the Dread Masters
. She said that the Dread Masters were heavily guarded in the fortress - the recon party sent earlier had not made it within a click before the contact was lost. DX-M2 added that the area's scans were distorted, but they detected two high-power signatures, likely hostile. Trila admitted that their chances would be much better if these sources of interference were eliminated and they reconnoitered access to the fortress. The operatives agreed to do everything in their power, and Trila said they would stay on comm and prepare an assault.Bioenergy EnhancerThe operatives went to the location indicated by DX-M2. The reached Tangled Grove region and started their search. A quick reconnaissance yielded results - the grove was occupied by the beast lords of the Dread Guard, who somehow communicated with the underground tentacles. The operatives tried to sneak past them, but the enemy sensed them and attacked. The operatives killed all the beast lords and strange tentacles
, then searched the corpses. They discovered strange devices that one of the operatives identified as bioenergy enhancers - a portable devices used to amplify and dispense dark energy from a nearby sources. The operative suggested that if they could find enough devices, they could triangulate the source of the interference in the region. Going on the offensive, the operatives quickly attacked and defeated several more groups of Dread Guard beast lords and acolytes, collecting their bioenergy enhancers. The guess turned out to be correct, and with ten devices, they pinpointed the location of the energy source. They followed the signal and soon arrived at the entrance to the cave inside the mountain. Inside, they found more tentacles and, fighting them along the way, they finally found the source of the corruption - a huge tentacled creature