Move 263: Looking at Rock Walls
Svirfneblin Camp--Early, Day 19After Carmeneren left the group to their own devices, Echo checked items for magic, announcing that the runed dagger was enchanted and the green flask radiated alteration magic. Nothing else they had found was magical. Other than that, everyone rested, getting cleaned up in the bathing pool if they wished.
When everyone awoke after a peaceful rest, the deep gnomes had broken their camp and all seemed prepared to leave. Carmeneren left with most of the deep gnomes, returning about thirty minutes later. "The others are on their way back to our city," Carmeneren told them. "Pruc and Ciekor will go with us."
"Me too," inserted Blik happily.
"And Blik will come as well," Carmeneren agreed with a grim sigh. Once everyone was ready to go, she led the way out of the cavern, taking a place at the front of the group out of the lights with the other three Svirfneblin.
Tunnels--Late, Day 21
The group walked for many miles in the darkness, finding small caverns to rest in twice before they reached their destination. It was late into the third day of walking when Carmeneren called a halt. "Here," she said, pointing at a rock wall that looked exactly like all of the other rock walls in the tunnels. She stood across the tunnel as she explained, "This wall is an illusion. You should touch it then try to move through it."
Azrun approached the wall and looked at it. He then turned to the others and smiled, "Here goes nothing." He then turned and attempted to step through it.
Renn followed closely behind Azrun, first he placed a palm against the "wall" then he tried to walk through.
Aloysius stood silently, intently watching Azrun and Renn try to walk through the wall.
"This is gonna hurt," Jana muttered softly. She stepped toward the wall, closing her eyes one step away.
Once his turn came, Olaf advanced towards the wall confidently.
Being ever practical, Daelen stood by skeptically and let other people attempt walking through the wall before he tried. His first attempt was tapping on it with his sword, followed by prodding with the toe of his boot.
Echo stood back by Aloysius and watched the others.
Blacky appeared to be trying to see through the area of wall that the gnome pointed to then walked over and tried stepped through with his eyes closed.
A couple of people stood back and watched while the others tried to walk
through the rock wall. Almost everyone who approached turned around and
walked away just short of touching the wall, unable to make themselves to get
any closer. Only Renn managed to get close enough to touch the wall, placing
his palm against the rock, but he immediately started scratching the back of
the hand touching the wall."Enough!" spat Aloysius. "Carmeneren, what game do you play?" he asked in a terse voice. "Who placed this illusion?"
"It is no game," Carmeneren replied gravely. "This is no place for what you call playing. This is the work of those you will face if you continue this quest. I have hopes that seeing some of their magics will convince you to listen carefully when we speak of this. One group from the surface has already gone before you without the information that we can give and died for their efforts." She crossed her arms across her chest.
"Renn?" Echo asked worriedly. "Are you okay?"
"I think so, nothing but an itch, though it's quite annoying and..ahh..spreading," Renn offered as he began to scratch his right arm and hand more fiercely. "Corellon's sword!" he cursed, "more the fool am I for offering my swordhand
to this wall."Azrun looked to Renn, "It's spreading? Carmeneren, is this normal? This is
itching he has. Perhaps we should have Olaf cast his spell on Renn to try to
stop whatever this is."Renn pulled his hand away from the wall and backed off a few steps, still scratching. "First troll snot coughs, now magical wall itch, it's been an interesting few days," Renn laughed, and stopped his itching once he stepped back with the others. "Much better," he nodded, though his hand was quite red from where he'd been scratching. "Away from the wall, the itchiness has ceased."
The gnome had stood still for the while during which the others had approached the wall.
Then, becoming a gnomish ghost, she'd also approached the wall and then
veered off. She re-solidified quickly, then stood in thought a moment."Well," she finally said, "we were never promised that our way forward lay on the other side of this illusion. We weren't promised much at all. So..." She turned to Carmeneren. "Are you going to invite us to go with you to wherever you live or shall we linger out here a while longer?"
"This is not the way to our city," Carmeneren said. "None of us can pass through that wall either, but we have seen those who use it as a passage. The magic is very powerful. That is why I thought you should see it. Investigate it more if you like. When you are done, we will make camp and talk."
"Hmmm . . . ." grumbled Aloysius. "This bodes foul. Let me see . . ." he said, scratching his head and glancing at the floor. "Oh, yes, that's it."
Glaring with determination at the wall, he began casting a spell.
"Glad I didn't make it through," Arachne said brightly. "I'm not good for much by myself. I think I've done all the investigating I want to for the moment. Making myself ectoplasmic didn't help me ease my way through the repulsion, and my door --" She frowned. "Well, it worked... not easily, but I was able to open it through to the other side. But I couldn't keep it open long enough to go through. Mmm...maybe there _is_ something else I want to look at: Aloysius, if you're studying the magic, can you point out for us the edge of the magical illusion?"
Jana growled at her inability to walk into the wall. She tried again but was once more unable to approach. "Dammit," she muttered, frustrated. She tried once more, failed, and took out her frustration by banging her hand against the opposite, quite solid wall. "Ow."
Aloysius cast a spell then walked up to the wall. He immediately turned
around and walked back across the tunnel, just like almost everyone else who
had tried.Olaf cast a spell while watching the wall, and then flinched away all most
at once. "That wall is almost overwhelmingly enchanted. I may not have the
power to dispel it. Should I try?""Is that the only way to get to the prisoners?" Blacky asked.
Olaf said, "I have a prayer prepared which destroys dweamors. Should I attempt to dispel this wall?"
"I suppose it's worth a try." Daelen said with a shrug, "Here's where we find out how much your god likes us."
"Maybe not," Echo suggested. "If there is another way to get to the prisoners, we might want to leave it alone. They'll know that someone dispelled it and might start looking for us." She waited to hear the answer to Blacky's question.
Aloysius nodded as he slipped another hunk of root into his mouth. "Indeed, as usual, Echo speaks wisely. Let us hear what Carmeneren can tell us about this enemy and those who came before us."
Turning towards the gnome priestess, he added sheepishly, "Your pardon for my rash words, Carmeneren. Our journey here hath been . . . stressful . . . to say the least."
"No!" Arachne exclaimed. She'd started toward Renn, but stopped to answer Olaf. "I'd say differently later, but right now we're just studying a bit of our opponents' handiwork. It isn't yet time to go charging into their stronghold --" She glanced at Jana. "Really, it isn't. Assuming that it ever will be. Olaf, you could get hurt failing to destroy the enchantment. Even if you succeed, I don't think that now is the right time to advertise to the enemy that there are foes at their doorstep that they need to reckon with. That would be the message that we send if you do succeed in destroying this enchantment. "Still, I was wondering about going around it -- or seeing how the surrounding rock differs from the enchantment..."
Azrun nodded, "I have to agree with Arachne. We can't even get into these
guys to touch them. Apparently, their magic abilities are much greater than
ours considering we can't even get close to that wall of theirs. I suggest
we go on and camp with Carmeneren and discuss our options then.""Indeed," Rennirolas said with a nod of agreement of his own. "While this
may be the most direct route, while warded as it is, it's quite unavailable.""Arachne," Jana asked with brow furrowed in concentration, "do you think you
could use that spooky mind-magic stuff of yours to get us through or past this door thing? I mean, you make doors, too, sort of...""I don't know," Arachne admitted. She was studying the wall neighboring the "wall," trying to find an edge to the enchantment. Her attention to Jana's question was rather vague. "I've already tried a frontal approach -- this side to the other side right through the illusory wall. That didn't work. Couldn't keep both portals open at once. Don't know why. "Now, I'm trying to figure out if this thing's a wall or an enclosure ... what happens where the illusion is replaced by real stone. Does the enchantment continue ... um, into the blocked passageway, more or less, or does it have an edge. It's about topology, you see -- Aloysius, you understand what I mean, right? You see, if there's just an edge, then... well, I have another spooky mind trick that can decay things. It might be able to open a way around the illusion...if that seems worth doing.
"I wouldn't want to try that, though, until we're actually ready to go in."
Aloysius looked at the wall again. "I believe I see thy intent, Arachne," said the mage. "Howe'er, doubts have I that a spell of magic detection would permit me to discern the edges of the illusion. The spell causes my mind to believe it is a wall, not an illusiory wall. Therefore, I am unsure as to what, if anything, a detect magic spell would tell me."
"You couldn't detect a magical wall?" the gnome wondered. "Or sense the shape of a magical whatsit?" She shrugged. "You know. I don't."
Aloysius wrung his hands. "Besides, 'twould seem to be imprudent for us to attempt to go past the illusion at this juncture. Suspect do I that whoever made it
would swat us aside like so many flies.""Oh yes," Arachne agreed. "I'm _trying_ to keep my probing cautious. To disturb the thing as little as possible. Well," she added, "this wall seems ordinary enough here, since I don't find it repulsive, the way I do over there. So, if I try placing one door here ... and the other over there..." She pointed into the stonework, then did nothing for a little while before shaking her head. "Either it's shaped as an enclosure or it's just magical and I should stop trying to foil it with spatial mathematics," she sighed. "You know, there's something else we could try ... but I _really_ don't like the idea. I mean, we probably should, but it could leave me in some serious trouble....
"What if Blacky threw me at the illusionary wall?
"Well, tossed me... I mean, in that case, I wouldn't have any control over the matter, so I wouldn't be able to veer off. I don't know whether Blacky would be able to bring himself to do it. And we don't know what's on the other side, so I'd sort of like it, I think, if Echo made me invisible first." She shrugged. "Like I said, I don't like the idea." She gulped. "But maybe we should do it anyway. Getting back might not be that hard. Or I might have no problem opening my doors from that side."
Aloysius shook his head. "Methinks that would be most unwise. For one, the mind can exert a powerful influence o'er the body. If you believed yourself to be hurtling towards a wall, you may find yourself injured e'en though the wall be false. If something of that nature were to be attempted, 'twould be better to attempt it 'pon one rendered insensate by magic. To my knowledge, and unconcious mind can not perceive illusions."
The mage was clearly troubled by even his own suggestion. "But we know not what is in the other side. It may be a passage, or it may be much more. Those so strongly in touch with the weave could have placed an area of teleportation, or e'en a rift to another dimension. Verily, 'twould be risky enow' to attempt passage whilst concious, let alone whilst insensate."
Turning towards Carmeneren, he added, "Methinks the best course would be to allow Carmeneren to tell us what she can, and then make an educated decision after that. We have pursued these captives for a long time. Surely pausing whilst Carmeneren shares her information with us can't cause any additional harm that has as yet been undone."
"Yes," Carmeneren replied to those who asked about an alternate route, "there is another way. I can give you information about that, as well as a rough map, once we have made camp." While she waited for everyone to finish what they were doing, she motioned for Pruc and Ciekor, speaking to them briefly and sending them back down the tunnel.
Azrun looked at the wall and then at the ground and frowned, "I guess we should just go make camp. There is nothing we can for those people right now. We can't even walk through a blasted wall that's not even there." He turned and waited for the others to go.
"If we can't get through the damned thing," Jana said as she glared at the wall in exasperation, "let's move on."
"We can move on," Arachne said. "I'd be happy to move on, now. Very, very happy. We haven't tried every possible way we've thought of to get through the whatsit -- but I don't mind that. I very much don't mind that. I don't need to be thorough about this thing." She glanced at Aloysius. "I definitely don't need to be thorough about trying to get through it. Slapdash Arachne -- that's just fine with me. Especially if, the longer we stand around here speculating about it, the more nasty side effects we imagine that it might have." She walked away from the wall and Aloysius toward Carmeneren. "And I thought the thing was repulsive _before_," she muttered.
Previous Move
Next Move
Back to Move Summaries
Back to Night Below Main Page
