Move 261:  Dagger and Flask

Troll Caves--Midmorning, Day 17

After a few more dives, Azrun managed to retrieve what he was after from the rocky bottom of the pool. He made his way out of the pool, shivering violently from the frigid water and the cool cave air. The flask was made of green glass and still appeared to be sealed with thick wax. The dagger was very shiny and had a few runes inscribed on its short blade. There still appeared to be nowhere left to go in this series of cavern, and they still seemed troll-free.

"Unless someone would like to try summoning a demon now," Jana remarked dryly, "it would seem our work here is done. So let's get back to the gnomes and get on with it. There're people down here who need our help."

Olaf said, "I suggest we head back to the gnomes. I think our work here is done."

"Demon, schmemon," quipped Aloysius. "Let's go see Carmeneren and eat some more of those tasty fungi!"

Azrun pulled himself from the pool and crept over to where his shirt and boots were. He tried to wring a little of the water from his pants before putting his dry clothes on. "Brrr...t-t-that w-wil make you f-feel alive.....geez..." He shook the water form his hair and pulled on his shirt and boots. He stuck the flask in his pack, but kept the dagged out to look at it.

He shouldered his pack and looked to Jana and smiled, "Lead on , Fearless Leader. We'll try to summon demons tomorrow."

Daelen was ready to comment, but seemed to loose his train of thought as he looked at the seemingly random scratches Aloysius had made in the floor.

"Can you DO that?" he asked the wizard, somewhat apprehensively, "Summon demons, I mean..."

Aloysius resheathed his dagger and stood up. "If you mean 'can I do it?', no. If you mean, 'can it be done?' . . . . " the mage hesitated a bit as if trying to build dramatic curiosity . . . "YES! YES!," he cackled, "it CAN be done!"

He quickly reassumed a straight face. "Can we go now?  I think I smell, but it bothers me that I can't be certain."

"Very little is certain but I have great confidence that you reek of trolls and troglodites just like all of us." Daelen said.

Blacky stopped by to pick up the mace and shield on the way out and took up his position for the march back to "civilization".

The party decided that they were finally done with what they needed to do in these caves and headed back in the direction they had come several "days" earlier. It did not take long for them to reach the slippery part of the tunnel again, several miles back from the troll caves. As it had before, the loose rocks and slick fungal growths slowed them down. Renn started clearing his throat often enough for it to be noticable after a few hours. More time passed, and he had developed a cough.

The group came to the split in the tunnel where they had left the deep gnome patrol they had originally traveled with when they left Carmeneren. In a nice moment of deja vu, two deep gnomes who might or might not have been Pruc and Ciekor stepped into their lights. Both deep gnomes squinted against the light and one of them spoke, "Carmeneren wait you. We take. You need rest?" The gnome seemed to be making a head count and taking in the group's various injuries.

Aloysius grinned when he saw the gnomes. "Oh goody," he muttered. "Do either of you have any of those delicious fungi?"

"Oh good," Arachne's voice murmured, from the usual center of light, when the two gnomes turned up. "A moment of familiarity. I think we've seen them before. Jana, you might mention to them about Echo and me, lest they start making plans for a wake.

"Renn," the voice added. "I should like to have a look at that cough of yours, if we rest. It might be something I could help you with – or it might have to do with the moon..."

"Dang troll spit," Renn harumphed. "I think it's the trolls Arachne," the elf sighed as he coughed into a handkerchief. "As for missing my day of joyous celebration, prayer will help, though I also feel the need to get my hands on a hammer, chisel and perchance a block of wood or stone," Rennirolas smiled. "Though if you can do anything about this cough," Renn said between hacks, "that would be greatly appreciated."

"Uhm, yeah," Jana agreed with the disembodied voice. She looked over at the gnomes. "The, uhm, the other two who were with us, the gnome and the other woman," she said, holding her hand up to about Echo's height, "they're still here, just invisible. And I think we can go on now, if we don't move too fast."

Upon hearing Jana's reply, Aloysius clapped his hands gleefully. "Yes, yes, yes . . . . ." he muttered rapidly.

"Yes." Olaf added, "If it is a normal disease I can ask Tyr for a blessing to cure it, if Arachne needs my help."

"I doubt moving too fast will be much of a problem... I can carry Arachne if she's afraid of slowing us down." Daelen said.

“Well,” said Arachne

Perhaps realising he'd been speaking as if the gnome was not present, Daelen glanced towards the last place he'd heard her voice.

"Are we expecting more trouble or do you two actualy enjoy being invisible?"

"I enjoy being not so obvious a target," the gnome's voice admitted.  "And I guess I was sort of assuming that if I wasted Echo's spell, she might not give it to me again. That's silly, I suppose, but that's how I am, sometimes..." There was a pause. "It's me, I'm pretty sure. The silliness -- is just me. Not this place causing me to be weird.   Anyway, no. I'm not expecting trouble.

"I'm always afraid of slowing us down, if you must know. But Jana just said that she didn't want us to move too fast, so I don't think I'm as afraid as I usually am."
The voice took an audible breath. "So, let's go?"

Azrun looked to the mage worriedly, "Aloysius, do you by chance still have
some of the yellow liquid you make from the flowers?"

"Why, would you like to try it?" asked Aloysius. "I don't think it'll help you. All it did for me was make me a bit . . . gassy." With that, he let out a little yip and looked about anxiously at the others.

Azrun shook his head, "I was just a bit worried about you. I guess we all
just need to see the sun again."

Aloysius wrapped his arms around himself, and then lowered his gaze towards the chamber floor. "Aye," he said softly, "the sun. Stargazer would like that very much."

"I can continue on. You OK,Renn?" Blacky asked

"Aye, and in these more traveled tunnels I might not draw as much unwanted attentions with my hacking," Renn shrugged, and punctuated his words with a pair of coughs in quick succession.

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