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Message: <blockquote data-quote="NoOneofConsequence" data-source="post: 566631" data-attributes="member: 5400">Part 8: The Test of the DemonwebBy the time we had returned to Fareach an early wet season had burst forth upon the Verdant Coast with a deluge so heavy that it threatened to wash the coastal colonies into the sea. For weeks on end tropical storms battered jungle and town, river and port. Commerce came to an irrevocable halt, as man and beast hid in whatever shelter could be found. For our part, or adventuring company took whatever lodging that was affordable and available. Kakita returned to his house near the beach just north of Fareach. Most of the rest of us took lodging at a tavern, dividing our time between drinking and trying to keep dry. Save for the thunder and lightning, it was a quiet season for all of us. For my part, the encounter with the mind flayer left me with a wound in my mind that took a long time to heal. At first, drink seemed the only solution, but as the season progressed, with only the four walls for company many nights, I began to find a way to heal. As my psychic wound healed, the scar hardened to forge in my mind the will to hunt and slay every illithid that I could.By the time the rains broke Pax and I had a standing appointment to play cards and drink each evening in the taproom of the Frog’s Flippers. Kuslamarka, Aria and Tellara regularly joined us and on this night Harmony was in from the jungle, where she had spent most of the season, in defiance of the weather. We were several rounds of drinks into the evening when the head of the city watch, Captain Hearny, whom everyone called “Hogwash”. With him was the Hetman of a small village just north of Fareach named Lerick. The Hetman’s name was Allar and Hearny Hogwash had brought him to us because he needed to hire some adventurers. We were not exactly in the best condition to discuss business when Allar sat down with us. I was almost seeing double, Harmony needed Allar to repeat the name of his town twice before she got it and Aria and Pax fell to arguing whether the people of Lerick fished or farmed for their livelihood. Allar was not too offended by our behavior, and agreed to meet us the next morning over a meal. As we broke bread with him, the hetman of Lerick explained that his village found itself exposed and vulnerable. For some time the village had sponsored a group of adventurers who called themselves the Golden Band. The Band lived in the village receiving free room and board and in return they defended the town. Just over a week previously the Band had traveled west into the hills to investigate sightings of giant spiders. They feared that the spiders were the precursors to a goblin invasion of the area. Giant spiders are known to be sacred to many jungle goblin tribes and they are often used to terrorize enemies in battle. However, something must have happened to the Band, as they had not returned and no word had been sent by them. Allar assured us that the Band was steadfast and loyal and they would not have disappeared for so long without cause. With nothing else pressing, we decided that we would come to Lerick and help locate the Golden Band.----Lerick was little more than a day’s march north of Fareach. It was a small cluster of wattle and daub huts with thatched roofs clinging to the thin strip of ground between the beach and the jungle. The locals were fisherman mainly, making their livelihood by selling their surplus catch to the markets in the nearby capital. One of the huts was the lodging of the Golden Band, provided for them by the villagers. We stayed the night here, taking the opportunity to search for any clues which the Band may have left behind. From their journals and writings, as well as the ways they stored their kits and treasure (most of which we located with some ease) we came to the conclusion that the Golden Band were competent, if somewhat inexperienced, adventurers. They should not have fallen victim to any mere accidents, or amateur’s mistakes. The next morning we set off into the jungle, hoping to find out what exactly had befallen them.For two days we tracked the Band’s path through the jungle. Between myself and Tellara, we never lost the trail, and on the afternoon of the second day, we came upon a grass covered clearing in the rainforest, a hundred paces across. Scouting the edges of the clearing first, we determined that while the Golden Band entered the clearing, they never left it, for we could not a single track leading back into the jungle in any direction.Gradually working our way through the towering grass to the middle of the clearing, we saw that the tracks led up to a low mound of earth. We approached the mound cautiously, weapons in hand. For my part, I wondered if the mound might be a barrow or burial mound, and that some dead thing might have arisen and taken the Golden Band into the next life.Our investigations showed us a flat square of marble, a lid-like trap door, hanging open over a narrow stone stairway. The Band’s tracks led up to the doorway and then went crazy. The tracks became confused, crisscrossing back and forth like the lines of a spider’s web that has been tangled by a vicious wind. Suspecting an ambush, we all stood watch in a circle about the trapdoor as Mark checked the entrance for traps or other treacheries. After a careful investigation, Mark declared the entry to be safe. We decided to go in.I was to go first. I paused before entering to draw forth psychic power within myself. Through a synchronicity of physical and mental discipline, I embodied the tiger, the animal serving as a symbol of affinity to draw forth new might within me. Made stronger by the psychic affinity I was prepared, and stepped onto the first stair. Instantly I became aware that Mark had been fooled by a treacherous cunning, for he had missed the trap which I had now triggered. The air became a boiling cloudlike mass of buzzing, stinging insects. Our cries of alarm and discomfort echoed down the stair well. Even Harmony, normally unconcerned by assaults of nature such as this, cursed under breath and swatted wildly at every uncovered patch of her skin. Instinctively, I ducked down to avoid the offending swarm and realized that the cloud of insects made no move into the stairs, instead staying at the surface. I called out to others that the stairs would provide a sanctuary and then stepped downward a half a dozen paces. In short order the rest of the party joined me and we crouched in the half dark stairwell, listening to the buzzing of angry insects just above us. Clearly we now knew where the Golden band had gone and why. Doubtless their fate lay somewhere below us. We wondered at the kind of being that might set a trap so clearly designed to force enemies in, rather than keep them out. Like the Golden Band before us, we had become the invited guests of a host hiding somewhere underground beneath the dense jungle. Mindful of our fates, we went down the stairs, armed and ready.</blockquote>

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