Village of the Mould-folk

As they marched gently up the lazy meandering slope, Voah’s face felt fuzzy, almost numb and she wore a crooked smile. This was just… funny. If it hadn’t been for the constant sobering reminder that she was still trapped in endless labyrinthine depths, she would have been talking Tarmen’s ear off with a constant stream of consciousness. Instead, she let out a stifled chuckle every now and again when her silly thoughts were to much to bear. How she must have looked being flung like a rag doll… Tarmen’s serious face…

Wouldn’t it be something if they could bottle up that stuff and have Wim sell it? How was her lucky star anyway? She hoped he was doing ok. Then her hand subconsciously wandered to the teak figurine necklace she had recovered from where Till had disappeared. It was gone. Perhaps it had been lucky after all and helped her escape. As disgusting as the thought of swallowing more blood was, she found herself wishing for another drink to toast Till’s sacrifice.

She barely felt how tired her leg muscles were from the days of walking and she continued on as if they were just headed down the beach for a stroll. Soon the path narrowed and came back to a smaller, man-made tunnel system that was somewhat barricaded with cairns. There was a strange runic marking on either side of the tunnel which could only be a symbol of warning against going down into that beast’s lair. If only they had noticed the other one on their way through…

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After about an hour had passed, she was feeling pretty close to normal again. They were going up and up until finally the way was blocked off by a collapsed tunnel. They backtracked to a lower level where they had seen another sort of void that led to natural cave tunnels. As they proceeded down, they began to hear sounds of life ahead. Luminous fungus and mould helped light the path and they decided it might be a good idea to extinguish the torch. As the tunnel widened, they exited into a cavern with massively high, natural ceilings.

Unlike most other caves they had seen, some of the glowing plants here were much larger. Some of the stalks they saw were even taller than trees. There was a pool near the centre of the cave and dotted around it they saw small hide tents scattered. The ceiling of the entire cave seemed to glow with blue and greenish bioluminescent mould and massive glowing vines that hung down. They saw clusters of floating spores fill the air.

But it was the tents that caught their attention. Deeper inside the cave was what unmistakably looked like a small settlement.

Out of the beast’s den and into this… not good. An encampment? A village?

They had passed some other side tunnels on their way up but all of those routes seemed to go down deeper again so this must be the way out. They would have to be extremely careful to pass through this new threat.

Still hauling everything on his back, Tarmen was hoping for a rest. Everything hurt, his ally had been poking his face sporadically like some harmless child, and now… Zin’s shroud help them.

Luckily it seemed this village was either asleep or deserted, so no spears just yet. What gave him a knot in his gut were the almost ephemeral clusters of spores that drifted like fish around them.

Not stopping his steady stride in case his legs gave, it was time to see just how lucky his sorry hide was.

She was cold, wet, and uncomfortable but at least she was no longer burdened by the waterlogged pack. There wasn't much to salvage from it.

"Wait... How??? Are we going to do this?" Voah whispered to her companion. "Not that I doubt your skill but we have no chance against a whole village of these people... Not with those... spores."

Tarmen seemed to think it over, possibly annoyed at her hints of despair.

"Forgive me... These depths have worn on me. I wish only to have a plan. Do we chance being silent and unseen? Or should we make some sort of distraction, send them down the tunnels while we cross? We should take stock of how much of that food we have left? With all of this suspended mould... I just fear we may not last long before it has claimed our minds once again. And that I cannot abide."