It was too dark inside to see past the mound of dirt and we weren't about to go any closer without better weapons so we decided to go back and get more men to help.

Everything seemed to be in order there; all but a couple of the bugs under nets had been killed and the entrance to the mine was blocked. Men were on alert for any bugs coming out of the woods or down the mountainside. The men who were paralyzed by bug stings were lying together near the spot where the trail came out of the woods with extra guardsaround them and some men had been sent back to town for a wagon to take them back.

Malcolm made himself visible, "We're all safely here, the others just remain invisible." Malcolm told the mayor, "We've found the controller of these bugs. We haven't been able to see it but we should be able to stop all this activity if we can kill it. We need some men, as many as you can spare, with the best weapons since we still don't know what we're up against.

When the men had been chosen, Malcolm and Tintinel made them invisible and Malcolm too of course. All of us who didn't have swords (only two) or axes or pitchforks took the nets that stopped communication and we all hurried back to the shallow cave. We didn't see any bugs in the sentry positions they'd been in before and there was movement visible behind the mound; we figured they were in there protecting the controller and perhaps still excavating it or getting ready to help it move to a new location.

Malcolm paired us with one man with a weapon and one with a net. That left several nets extra for Aril, Lira and me and a couple of others. We were considered backups to be useful wherever we saw the need. We still had no idea, of course. what the controlling creature was capable of itself or how many bugs it had control of.

We crept up to the left side of the cave, where the entrance had been, figuring we wouldn't have to slog through as much dust and make our presence visible enve if we ourselves weren't. The two men with swords went first with two men with nets - the nets were mainly to cover the bugs and the weapons were for whatever creature was manipulating them.

Just before the first four men entered, Malcolm tossed in something that lighted up the cave. The four men were attacked immediately by many bugs. Those of us behind ran up to help by throwing nets over as many bugs as we could and those with weapons killing them. It was a very close thing, with several being stung and taken out of the fight, but in the end all the bugs were killed.

Then we were able to see what had controlled them; it looked like a huge grub with a head similar the bugs but larger. It obviously couldn't move itself and was no threat without the bugs to control. We could think of no reason to study it so the men with the weapons chopped its head off. This would make any remaining bugs just bugs.

We sent a man back to the mine to get help moving the stung men back to the town and to let the mayor know that they could go into the mine to rescue the poor wretches who were being eaten by the grubs or to put them out of there misery if was too late - and to kill any remaining bugs of course.

Eventually everyone was back in town and all known bugs were dead. Sadly, only one of the people who were being eaten by grubs was saved, but all those who were being used to supply blood for the adult bugs recovered. It took two days for the stings to wear off but there didn't seem to be any lasting effects. The storm Olu had predicted hit just after the stung people were back in town.

The townspeople were very grateful to say the least and we were treated royally the next days. They figured they were probably safe from any more infestations for the winter, but in the spring and summer they were going to hunt down the island that was the source and somehow destroy every bug there was.

In all we spent five days on the island and Olu said there seemed to be at least a week of good sailing once the storm ended. So we left in the morning to what was probably the greatest sendoff any ship had ever been given

To be continued...

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