Move 235: Meeting Back Up
Tunnels--Day 12, Still Early-ishA few minutes past the pool of blood, the group met back up with Jana and Aloysius. They were jogging, although at a non-furious pace, back towards them. Many of the group were still injured, and Daelen was going to be out for a while yet.
"We couldn't catch the damned thing," Jana said with a scowl. "Fast sumbitch. Anyway, I didn't think it was smart to follow for too long, so we came on back. Let's get outta here, so we can rest and heal up. I'll take point, in case we run into that troll. Renn, you lag behind just a bit, in case it knows its way around here better'n we do and tries to sneak up on us, okay? Olaf and Blacky, can you two carry Daelen? If you feel up to it, I'll spell you guys and we'll trade off on taking point."
"Is he going to be all right?" Jana asked Arachne, nodding toward Daelen. "I shouldn't have put him on the front line," she mumbled. "He went down in the last fight, too, but I thought it was just 'cuz he had some bad luck. I shoulda known better, and put him back in the second rank, to support. He almost got killed, 'cuz I didn't assess his abilities right." She pushed back a stray lock of hair, looking quite upset.
"I don't think it was a mistake, Jana," Echo said. "That troll that hurt him wasn't the same as the others. It was bigger, probably stronger too. It might have been the leader. He did fine in the last fight, even if he did go down. Shit happens, you know. I think he can hold his own."
"You want me and Arachne to keep bringing up the rear, just out of the light?" she asked. "Where are we going to rest?"
Jana flashed a grateful smile at Echo, then sighed. "Yeah, well, I'm not so sure he'll agree with you." She brushed at the recalcitrant lock of hair again. "Yeah, if you two are able, that'll free up Renn to help carry Daelen. But if you even think you hear anything, don't go checking it out on your own, okay?" She stopped abruptly and grimaced, then added sheepishly, "I mean, I think we ought not get separated, you know? Uhm, let's get some distance then rest up. As much," she said, looking at Arachne, Renn and Olaf in turn, "you guys think we can make with the injured."
"Well, I went down in the last fight too, damn near in this one. I think the main problem is that those trolls can really do some damage and they seem to use all their appendages at once. I know that I'm the strongest of all of us and I can't hit them hard and fast enough to keep from taking a beating myself. Guess I'm just not as tough as I think I am. On a brighter note we did diminish their numbers some more and take out a noisy leader type to boot. Which reminds me, we might want to use that silence spell if one of them starts screaming like that again. Hopefully we only need one more foray to finish this tribe off. Oh, by the way Jana, we heard some more coming just before we left." Blacky said " We might as well camp where we did last time, but keep an eye out for that runaway troll coming back."
The group moved on down the tunnels, back to the place where they had broken the previous camp a short time before. Everyone settled down to pass another boring, dark, and damp "day", just waiting for time to pass. Around the time everyone finally started thinking they could get some sleep, Daelen came to, moaning and generally seeming to feel extremely bad.
Aloysius had gone off and sat by hiself, his mood very low. He seemed to be lost in thought for quite a while. Then he took a long drink from his waterskin, collected himself a bit, and began performing small, quick movements with his hands while muttering quietly to himself.
Echo took out a small sewing kit to work on any new rips in her clothing. "Does anyone have anything torn you need me to fix while I'm doing this?" she asked the rest of the group.
After she did that, she moved over to Aloysius and squatted down in front of him, quietly asking him something.
Azrun spent most of the time curled up in a ball trying to rest. After a while he pulled out a spellbook and started to look it over. When Echo mentioned fixing clothes he looked down at his shirt to see if it was salvagable, "Echo, do you think you can fix my shirt? He did try to take a big bite out of me, so I'm not sure if it can be fixed."
Jana spent her time cleaning her sword and armor, changing into the studded leather during the rest. She handed over her torn padding when Echo asked if anyone had things needing mending. "I can deal with a torn shirt," she said, "but I'd appreciate it if you could do something with this padding."
Echo took Azrun's shirt and Jana's padding to work on. "Holes can usually be fixed," she grinned at Azrun. "But it may not look too good when I'm done. I'll do what I can."
Azrun smiled, "Well, it's not like I have a whole bunch of people I want to impress down here. Trolls like me cause I taste good, not for my fashion sense."
"It should take some time to get everyone back on their feet, but we'll get what we can done," Renn smiled and nodded. "Though at this rate we'll be cutting up our clothes for bandages," he added with a grin and a short laugh.
When the group regained their campsite, Renn lagged behind and once again warded the tunnel with his protective spell.
While everyone sat and kept a watch, Renn went along and bandaged the wounded as best he could, with special attention to the unconscious Daelen. With his back against the wall of the cavern and his longsword laid across his lap, Renn stared ahead and looked to his reverie.
Arachne, who'd been passing the time the way she usually did (napping a lot, interrupted occasionally by getting up and looking for wounds to repair), got up from her nap and went over to Daelen. She picked one of his nastier-looking remaining wounds and put her hands on it.
"Should've checked this before -- but there was plenty of other work to do," she muttered.
Arachne did what healing she could, leaving Daelen looking and feeling considerably better, and checked for any lingering troll germs. Renn bandaged and cleaned wounds after warding the tunnel.
Daelen gritted his teeth and forced himself to sit up, ignoring his wounds for the moment. After a few seconds of letting his eyes adjust to the light of the cavern, he looked around for the others.
"I'm starting to think all the mountains of gold and flocks of beautiful women aren't worth these annoying little beatings." He said, reaching for his waterskin.
"How many did we... did you," he corrected himself, "get this time?" he asked, lying back down on the stone floor with a heavy sigh.
"I don't know," Arachne said absently. "Half a dozen or so?" She shrugged. "Something like that, I think. We weren't taking souvenirs. I didn't anyway. Should we?"
"Probably not," Daelen said with a shrug, "Aside from being tasteless, severed heads that keep sprouting new bodies make for impractical mantle pieces."
"Actually, I think it was nine. Four that rushed us in the begining, including the ugly grey one. Four that arrived as reinforcements. And one of the two that escaped the web spells. The other one ran down this passage and we haven't found him yet. Don't feel bad Daelen, you helped as much as the rest of us and we're all in pretty bad shape this time around." Blacky managed to crack a smile as he cleaned troll saliva off his armor.
"I don't feel bad as much as I feel sick... if you're not too busy could you take your axe and split my skull open? I think a small army of dwarves are pounding on the walls trying to get out."
"Already did," Arachne told him. "Looked for sickness, I mean. I didn't find any, but that doesn't mean you can't feel unwell. It just means I can't do anything more for you until I've rested some more."
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