Normally after such an expedition, you'd be wise to take a few days rest.
Also, it would take a while to be recognized by Achiettes. As I had mentioned, I had done quite a few odd jobs before applying to the Guilds. She apparently noticed some of my work in helping around Burthrope and Taverly.
But while I had just returned from my quest to join the Champion's Guild, Achiettes was visiting the Champion's Guildmaster to discuss the recent rash of missing adventurers in the Brimhaven dungeon.
Anyone going into the dungeon is well aware of the risk. You even need to pay a fee to enter. Plus the dangers of Giants, demons, and Metal Dragons. There can be great rewards earned in there .... but what was disturbing was the rather long list of names.
She asked if I was willing to investigate.
After browsing the list, and noting a few familiar names, of course I was going to investigate. I was not going to be going alone either.
Two acquaintances of mine, Gren who was pretty handy with a battle-axe, and Edrith a mage, were also coming along to investigate. We agreed to meet up in Brimhaven in 3 days to begin the search.
Near the local House Portal, we met up. I had brought along a Spirit Terrorbird with extra recovery potions, sacks of food, and teleportation tablets just in case.
When we made it to the entrance of the Brimhaven Dungeon, we were surprised that the local Karamjan was not there to greet us. In fact, the surrounding jungle seemed eerily quiet. We entered and began to work our way through the tunnels.
After a day carefully exploring, Edrith started to get several odd feelings. Firstly, it felt we were lost, going in circles. (Easy to get lost in the dungeon since it was quite large). Secondly, most of the beasts and demons there were not attacking us. Some even had a strange look on their faces noting there was something else bigger there waiting for us ....
Gren immediately dismissed it, but did suggest setting up camp for the night, and got a fire going with some dried roots from the wall. We settled into a small path from the main caves that would be difficult for any creatures to come in to. Gren took first watch.
Barely an hour after I took watch from Gren, I saw someone coming running through the cave in terror, half his armor missing, the poor soul all dirtied, starved and barely able to lift his sword. He attacked me as I approached calling me some evil spirit that couldn't fool him. But his desperate attack was poorly aimed and I could easily sidestep it.
I caught him as he stumbled and disarmed him, but he kept weakly pounding on my armor saying to let him go. By then Gren and Edrith were awake to help restrain and calm him down. A few moments later, another young man in even worst shape staggered up to us, said "help", and then collapsed.
After an hour and a brief meal, the poor men started to gather their wits, and stated their names.
The first Dean Redith and how he had been lost down there for nearly 3 weeks, and ran out of supplies 2 days ago. The other, Tobias Maple, says he had been down there for nearly 6 weeks.
I instantly recognized their names from the list of missing adventurers, but there was a problem. Dean's clan had mentioned he had left barely 3 days before we did for a trip to the dungeon to look for some missing clan mates. He was only to have been gone a day, but when he did not return, they listed him as missing along with the others.
Tobias, a mere 2 days before that.
At first we thought they were just confused, but after comparing dates and from their disheveled looks, it was clear that somehow they had both been down here for over a month. And if these 2 had been down here for nearly a month, but only a week had passed, then the others who were missing would be in far worse condition, if they could be found at all.
Gren, Edrith, and I decided to make this a base camp while we made a simple detailed search of the caves again. Gren and Edrith would stay here, while I went out to look first, but not go far, just to the next main cavern a mere 300 yards away.
I set out, and began a quick search into the next cavern, found nothing except more of the same strange stares from creatures and returned. I was gone maybe 30 minutes.
To my surprise, nearly twenty other lost adventurers had wandered to our camp, our supplies mostly gone, and Edrith looked tired since she had been tending them for 2 days, and Gren more so from keeping watch the entire time. They were just as surprised when I looked like I had just left.
But everyone's stories were starting to sound similar. You arrive, seem like you get lost, get the eerie feeling of a dark sinister presence, not be able to find your way back to the surface, and teleporting failed.
How long you were down here didn't make any sense ...
One adventurer reported missing a month ago, said she had barely been down here a day. One group who had gone missing 2 weeks ago were clearly down here for months.
We decided to all travel together, and started to make our way slowly back the known route to the surface. But within an hour, it was clear we were going in circles past the Black Demons.
Soon we heard an ungodly laugh all around us, then a specter of a woman appeared in the center of the cavern ... continuing to laugh at us ... pointing ... giving that same dark chill we all felt since we got here.
Clearly this was the source of the problem. With barely a dozen of us in fighting shape, we could easily overpower any monster in these caves, but we had our doubts with this specter. But by the grace of Guthix, we were going to try.
We quickly armed ourselves and took positions around the specter. It didn't seem to notice or care, just kept pointing and laughing.
Unable to take it, a few of the less experienced rushed into the attack with their adamant and rune weapons in hand. Gren followed up with an attack from the specters blind spot with his Greataxe.
But it was over all too quickly ... the adamant weapons appeared to melt when they came into contact with the specter, and the rune weapons were burnt black. The greataxe was untarnished. But all the weapons just seemed to pass right through the spirit. Those who rushed in were then pushed back by an awful force in all direction. A few landed on the ground back to where they had rushed from, a few with enough force they had crashed into the walls.
A ranger let fly a few arrows and Eldrith and another mage fired off a few spells, but again to no effect. It was clear, we had no weapons between us that could harm this spirit.
I shouted out to everyone to try and teleport out. They said they tried but to no avail. I shouted for them to try again, but with each effort it drained them all further and further, and using teletablets felt like they were being slapped in the face by an unknown force.
At this point I was the only one still standing, I told the others to channel their magical and prayer energies to me in one last attempt to teleport the whole group out. I focused on Catherby since it would be nearest place I could teleport us all to.
... discontinuity ...
I woke up to a thud as I fell several feet back to the ground. I was still in the dungeon staring at the specter, but I was alone this time.
The specter seemed upset that a few of its play things had escaped and was getting bored with me.
It summoned 3 Broodoo Victims, Blue, Green, and Yellow, smiled then told me that these will now entertain me. With that, she vanished, and with her much of the dark aura within the caves.
For the next hour I fought off the Broodoo Victims, and then spent another three hours working my way to the surface.
When I finally exited, exhausted, I found Gren, Eldrith, and the others on the ground. It seems they had a hard landing, and had just teleported out a few moments ago.
They were all confused as to why I was using the doorway rather than appearing with them from the teleport, but I figured I would fill them all in later. What was more important was treating the remaining wounded.
We traveled from noon to nightfall to Tai Bwo Wannai where we were finally able to find help and rest.
That night, I had a discussion with Trufitus about what had happened. He said he was aware of the dark spirit for several days now and was communing with the gods on how to exorcise it. The gods had told him that others would soon come to defeat the evil spirit and how we were lucky to escape as none of the jungle gods intervened.
The next day, we all teleported to Taverly to report to Achiettes at the Heroes' Guild.
She was surprised to see us since she had just seen me off to Karamja the day before and could not believe that days had passed for us.
For our efforts in finding most of the missing adventurers, Achiettes welcomed myself, Gren, and Eldrith into the guild.
In the end, we found over half the missing adventurers, and some good fortune as over the following week, a few more were found or managed to make their own way to the surface since the dark spirit's presence was gone.
Some were have found to have perished in the caves, and to this day, nearly a dozen remain unaccounted for.
Also, Trufitus' prophecy was also proven true as a few days later, a group from the Legends Guild on the same quest managed to overcome the same spirit during some grueling ritual tournament to purge her essence.