Flaurmont 9-11
Whether because of or in spite of the night passes without incident. The next two days are a lesson in boredom, endurance and hiking. It is determined that the most efficient way to begin the search is to draw a rough circle around the party's camp and methodically begin searching. The mountainous terrain contains a multitude of gullies, crevasses, ravines and valleys -- many with small creeks flowing through -- and the heavily forested slopes severely reduces vision.
However, the exhaustive search reveals no sign that anything, of any interest, is currently or has ever dwelt in this section of woods. It is late morning on the third day, as they are beginning to head south to investigate another patch of forest, that the adventurers stumble across their first excitement of the trip.
Perhaps seventy feet away, up a rocky slope, stalk two giant spiders, each longer than a pack mule. They have glistening black carapaces, on the underside of which glisten a red hourglass. The adventurers sight the spiders at roughly the same time the spiders espy them. But whether the spiders have just fed or have no interest in tangling with an armed group of that size they seem to have no interest in molesting the adventurers.
