Tenubis Encounter - 6/20/19

The second known time the Nightlight Zone was explored by humans is documented here. It follows another marine biologist by the name of Ava Porter, who came into contact with Tenubis, and survived the encounter. While it is possible that others have gotten away from this being, Ava is the only one who has retold the story of how she escaped.

Ava Porter started out on a short submarine trip through the waters near Netarts Bay with her colleagues, keeping track of the local wildlife populations, and setting up small cameras on the seabed. Ava disliked the fact she was working while the Netarts area was dealing with wind, earthquakes, and food shortages, but knew she had to do her job nonetheless. Eventually, Ava was left alone in the ocean, and she saw what looked like a creature's legs in the far distance. Resurfacing, she found the Gatekeepers traveling right next to her, and was immediately taken aback. Slightly curious, she traveled closer, trusting something as large as they were would not care to attack one tiny human. It's only when she was transported to the Nightlight Zone did she regret her decision. After the transportation, Ava saw a vast array of kelp stretching in front of her, in a deep area of the ocean.

It wasn't long until she was chased by a Giant Fringehead, and she drove the submarine in a beeline away from the entrance chute, hoping she could out-swim the creature. However, she kept almost ramming the submarine into large rock formations and plant roots in her surroundings, and it kept slowing her down, but she was able to out-swim it by driving directly upwards where nothing obstructed her. Soon after, she used the sonar map in her submarine to retrace her steps back to the entrance, and found it had disappeared. Before she had time to think about what to do, strange humanoid creatures with red glowing eyes began surrounding the submarine, threatening to break inside. In a panic, Ava tried the same trick she did with the fringehead, but the humanoids latched onto the sub with their clawed fingers. She swerved to the seabed again, and was able to escape them by brushing against boulders, and pushing them off the hull. Combined with a nearby Abominable Crab picking them off in an attempt to eat them, she rid herself of the strange creatures.

For several seconds, Ava took a rest, before searching for an exit herself by wandering aimlessly through her surroundings. After a long drive, she found the entrance to an Air Pocket Cave, and thought it looked like a portal. She swam through, and found a cavern with several human figures inside moss cocoons, with only one appearing as if he still had life. After making sure her submarine was not flooding, she freed the man that was still alive and brought him to the vehicle. She found out his name was Malcolm Norris, and he had been missing for around a month ever since an earthquake struck Netarts Valley. They agreed to escape together, before Ava heard a Watcher's voice inside her head telling her to find an exit inside a desert region. Deciding not to excessively ponder over what this new underwater realm was, she drove towards the exit, finding a large expanse of Sand Dunes. She saw several new creatures inhabiting this biome, including the Boulder Crab.

For a while they traveled over the expansive sand dunes, encountering numerous different species inhabiting the region. Ava wasn't sure she should've trusted a voice in her head, but at this point she was desperate to find an exit to this unnatural place in the ocean. The two of them encountered a Desert Wanderer that was using its arms to slice the submarine's hull open, as an act of self defense, and Ava had to drive away as quickly as possible. They were also attacked by an enormous Grobbit Worm, which nearly grabbed the hull with its mandibles, but Ava swam away in a beeline. The worm, although half-buried in the ground, cornered them against a large rocky overhang, and prepared to strike again. Ava was only able to escape as it lunged forward, just barely dodging the mandibles. She drove up and over its hide, and racing away before it could lunge and grab them again. It was then that the two of them became more tense than ever, and searched vigorously for this supposed exit.

Then, they encountered a group of those strange humanoid creatures, flanked by a large Cave Stalker who could speak English with his telepathy. He introduced himself as "Tenubis," and planned to capture the two of them to bring into a hive mind of his, in order to use to bring resources to him without putting himself in danger. It was then clear that the humanoid creatures used to be regular people that were captured by him and transformed to serve him. Ava saw an exit chute behind the crowd, and attempted to race around them, but the humanoids were chasing them again, threatening to break into the submarine. Malcolm had to swim outside and distract the crowd by making himself look like an easier target, while Ava could get home. Soon after she reached the chute, he swam towards her, and they were transported together just before the humanoids reached them. From there Ava had to explain where she was, while making sure Malcolm was reintroduced to his family.

Tenubis

Tenubis was a Cave Stalker that was able grow a hive mind of servants, though from what is known about his species, his abilities are deemed unnatural. For one he was much larger than a Cave Stalker should be, and he could cocoon humans, cause them to lose their identity, and have them emerge as fully submissive to his commands. He could also control the Gatekeepers to appear wherever and whenever he wanted, in order to pull in the most amount of humans he could. He wanted to capture humans because they were easier to capture than other animals, and with their thumbs could collect any type of resource for him. In short, he desired to have his own army of humans that he could use to defend himself and to collect resources to survive, and he was given the means to do so by one of the Watchers, who must've witnessed his struggles alone in the wild.

The Earthquake

For over a decade, there have been natural disasters that would've destroyed small civilizations all over the human world, a consequence from Tenubis controlling the Gatekeepers to capture people for his private army. The beings operate on a schedule, because otherwise their presence would cause storms to grow out of control. The majority of the human population passed some of these off as consequences of climate change, but recently, they began affecting Netarts Valley more than other settlements. It is possible that Tenubis figured out that there were a high population in Oregon that could see the Gatekeepers, and focused them there, in the off chance more would see them and get closer, only to be transported to the Nightlight Zone. The Gatekeepers somehow triggered a fault line nearby, and sent an earthquake for the Oregon Coast, which in turn leveled the buildings of Netarts Valley. Then, the heavy winds that constantly battered the landscape made it difficult to receive imports from elsewhere, which caused food shortages in some parts of town.

Missing Cases

After the earthquake in the Netarts area, several missing cases were reported, which was thought to have been partially because of a nearby cruise ship being destroyed. The quake caused a large tsunami to form, which toppled a ship on its side as it was passing by. The Gatekeepers were right next to it as it happened, and the entire crew was transported to the Nightlight Zone. Malcolm Norris was one of the missing persons from the ship, and was the last to have been captured by Tenubis, after surviving in the Pocket Caves by himself. A month after his disappearance, Ava Porter freed him and brought him to his apartment, where his cousin - who wishes to remain anonymous - was living at the time.

Miscellaneous

After witnessing the Abominable Crab pick off the humanoids from her submarine, Ava noted how large it was for an arthropod, and she immediately concluded that the Nightlight Zone was not a natural place. Although, knowing the Gatekeepers exist - as well as oceanic pressure not being a danger in the Nightlight Zone - also influenced her to form this belief in the first place, and after her endeavors in the Nightlight Zone, she still could not believe it was real. She compared it to "some edgy teenager's bad worldbuilding project."

Ava also encountered a Polearm Squid in her journey through the Kelp Forests. It was chasing a Lathradon in order to kill it for food, and after it accomplished its task, it noticed Ava staring at it. It did not attack, but watched her with what appeared to be curiosity, which led Ava to believe it was more intelligent than it looked.