Move 147: Retreat
The Garlstone Mines--Afternoon, 2 Eleint 1374 DRThe battle continued to unfold as Renn and Cethyran watched on. Aloysius wandered alone to the side passage, taking the lantern with him. Echo made her way to the sleeping man, deftly avoiding the fights taking place near him.
Etienne's defenses finally failed, giving both halfling and human a chance to wound him. Arachne attempted to tap the halfling on the shoulder, but she failed to make contact as the halfling continued his melee.
Jana took down her opponent about the same time that Daelen and Snow took down theirs. The red-haired man avoided Blacky's attacks again, but his persistent attacks left Blacky in very poor shape. With a final sneer at Blacky, he gave the order for his remaining men to retreat, "Fall back!"
The remaining man and halfling facing Etienne withdrew from the melee, the human taking a wound from Etienne's scimitars as he did. Blacky managed one last blow against the red-haired man as he retreated. The three of them ran off into the darkness the way they had come.
Daelen started after the retreating men but paused to see if others would join the chase.
Jana sprinted after the men.
Daelen, Jana, and Snow chased after the three escapees while the others talked.
Aloysius' attention was drawn by the red-haired man's command, and he turned away from the passage that he had been inspected. He hurried over to where the fighters stood. "Oh dear. . . .," he mumbled upon seeing Blacky's condition. "That one," he said, pointing to the sleeping man, "will awaken in a short while. What are we going to do now? I expect reinforcements shall arrive in short order."
Exercising one of his many annoying tendencies, Aloysius proceeded to answer his own question without waiting for someone else to do so. "A suggestion have I," he said quietly. He attempted to draw the group a little closer so everyone within the passage could hear, but hopefully those without could not. "Certainly, there are those among us in need of first aid. Methinks we should advance as soon as that is accomplished so as to provide these villains with as little scheming time as possible. Stargazer has access to a spell that creates an area similar to the lair of lactrodectus ma- - -," he stopped in mid-word as his eyes met Echo's. "Er, the black widow spider. While the strands produced are quite strong, they are also highly flammable. If I could catch some of these men within the strands, Daelen could set the strands alight whilst the others stand ready with missile fire. Perhaps betwixt the flames and the subsequent missile barrage, we could strike a potent blow aginst these evil-doers."
He suddenly looked rather uncomfortable and looked nervously at his foot. "If all of thee favor such an approach," he added quietly.
Echo took out some rope and tried to tie the sleeping man. "How much smoke will that make? I doubt there's much air movement down here."
Aloysius absently stuck his finger in his ear as he pondered Echo's question. "It would be rather like
burning normal webs, I would think," he replied. "Doubts have I that smoke would be a problem."He addressed the group generally. "What incantations do the rest of thee retain?"
"I suppose you had a good reason for not trying that spell while the dear departed were still with us," Arachne grumbled quietly. "But what's undone is undone. Is your spell suited for our going after them or better employed waiting for them to send another foray? Not that I like the idea of waiting here for them, plus more, to come back. I don't like the possibilities of what they'd have for more." She sighed, then turned to Blacky. "Better see how far I can get at patching you up," she said.
"I expended TWO incantations," said Aloysius defensively. "Trying was I to keep something in reserve. I . . ." his voice trailed off and he covered his face with his hand.
"It should make no difference," muttered Aloysius. "'Twas simply a suggestion offered to fill the void of alternatives proposed."
"I have a couple of healing blessings from Corellon," Renn offered.
"Any help would be appreciated. " said a weary and badly wounded Blacky making no move to pursue "Boy that guy was fast, he must have had some magical help. I think we should press on after interrogating our prisoner here. If we retreat, they will only be better prepared the next time." He puffed out while leaning on both his axe and the wall to keep from falling.
"Eric?" said Aloysius, meekly approaching the huge fighter. "Stargazer tr-tried . . to assist thee. I'm..sorry."
"Not a problem, Aloysius, I don't expect you to wade into a fight. Besides, not many people can take me one on one, so I wasn't expecting to have that much trouble." Blacky reassured the mage while trying to keep from slipping in the pool of blood at his feet. "That red hair seemed to be quickened beyond normal human limits, do you have a spell that could affect me similarly?"
Aloysius somberly shook his head. "No, I do not." His expression brightened somewhat. "But mayhap if I can ensnare him in a web, that will impair his speed."
Etienne dropped to one knee, placing his scimitars on the ground. He dug through his pack finding a small pouch with what look to be small strips of cloth. He slowly bound the wounds he had taken in the fight, ".....he looked like he took as many shots as he gave, Blacky.......to keep up with one with magical speed you were doing damn good......maybe a little bit of magic could have kept me out harms way this time too...."
Suddenly looking rather ill, Aloysius stepped back and leaned against a wall, avoiding eye contact with any of the others.
Etienne looked up at Al and then looked abit red in the face, "Oh, Aloysius.....I did not mean from you....What I meant was that if I had the red hair man's magic speed, I wouldn't have had a problem with those two....It's not your fault...I.," He looked up to see Jana and Daelen running off into the dark, "Crap!.....would someone who can actually see in the dark go with after them. Daelen's sword is going to be one big SHOOT ME beacon."
Renn cast one healing spell, then a second on Blacky. Etienne bandaged his own wounds, leaving himself looking a little better. Echo finished tying up the sleeping man, who was awakened during the process.
Arachne had stepped back to give Renn room when the priest offered to patch up Blacky. At Etienne's request, she whispered, "Not sure about actually managing to _catch_ them, but...", then scampered after the bloodthirsty warriors. Realizing that she lacked her quarry's eagerness, however, she soon slowed her scamper to a more cautious trot.
Aloysius watched as Arachne took off after the others. He picked up the lantern and looked at those who had also remained behind. "Mayhap we ought to follow," he suggested in a subdued tone.
By the time anyone else decided to go after Jana and Daelen and made any real move in that direction, they could see the light of Daelen's sword as the two made their way back to the group. Daelen was badly wounded, shivering, with the exposed skin of his hands black with frostbite. His equipment, save the clothing and weapons he wore, was missing.
Arachne halted and waited for Daelen to come to her. Skipping discussion, she reached for his hands and set about patching him up.
Jana scowled and said, "There's a hole back there with a ladder. The ran down the ladder. He," she said, gesturing at Daelen, "thought it'd be a good idea to toss his stuff down the hole." She shrugged and made a 'don't ask me' gesture. "So then he grabbed the ladder and got zapped. And I brought him back. It was a good thing, him getting zapped, in a way. I mean, no way was I going down that ladder myself. They'd have killed him easy before his feet touched the ground."
Aloysius' brow furrowed in concentration as he tried to take in what had occurred. "What shall we do now?" he asked. "Wonder do I if the ward on yon ladder exists still?"
Cethyran spoke to Blacky softly, "May I offer you aid, Eric? Your wounds seem to still pain you."
After Arachne has finished, Rennirolas knelt beside the warrior. With the chant that has become well known even to those who do not speak the Elven tongue, Rennirolas put his hands to Daelen's shoulders.
Renn finished his prayer to Corellon, yet no healing warmth spread to Daelen. The look Rennirolas wore
on his face bespoke his chagrin and surprise. "I shall have to resort to more mundane healing I am afriad,"
Renn said as he looked down to his healer's bag and began to search through it."This Ranchefus prefers the wardings of cold doesn't he," Renn replied distractedly, his lips turned down in a small frown. "It seems to me that the ward should have been dispersed, the cold ward on the doorway in the keep was similar to this and 't was discharged." Rennirolas shrugged slightly, "But that is only a learned estimate, I truly do not know."
"A reasonable conclusion," replied Aloysius. He bent over the man who was tied up and sniffed at him.
"If we're gonna follow 'em," Jana said impatiently, "let's get moving." She looked over at the prisoner and scowled. "What do you intend to do with him?"
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