Move 285: Pop, Pop
Grell Nest--Early, Day 26 (Marpenoth 11)Olaf cast another spell on the invisible gnome before she left. After a few minutes, they heard a faint popping noise in the area directly behind the bulk of the group and then silence.
Azrun readied his bow expecting the worst.
"Please tell me that noise was her doorway thingie," Jana muttered.
Olaf said, "Weapons ready! Arachne has already been attacked by a grell! They must be very close, and able to see invisible people!" Olaf whips out his sword and takes a defensive posture while calling over his shoulder towards the poping noise, "Arachne, is that you?"
"Shigand's bones!" exclaimed Aloysius as he quickly scanned the ceiling area around the group. "What makes you think they are close?" he asked Olaf.
"Because Arachne can't have gone far in less then five minutes." Olaf answered.
Aloysius seemed to relax a bit. "She can if she teleports," he pointed out. "I suspect that pop was her leaving, not her coming back. If she is under attack, suspect do I that her return is imminent."
Olaf answered, "No, she couldn't teleport to a place unknown, and the pop came _after_ the image of the attack. But, she may not be able to answer. Remember, she can teleport even if paralyzed. But she would still be invisible. So, I suspect her invisible, paralyzed body is likely lying behind us. I'll check. keep guard forward please!"
Olaf sheathed his sword and got down on his knees. He crawled behind the group in the direction of the popping sound and began to search carefully and gently with his hands for an invisible body.
Olaf's reply had renewed the expression of concern on Aloysius's face. "Did she have a silence spell placed 'pon her before she departed?" he asked. "Because there was no popping sound as is customary when she departs, we have heard the pop but once. If Olaf's vision of attack came before the last pop, then why
didn't we hear Arachne leave?"Azrun looked to Aloysius, "I think what Olaf is saying is that she walked ahead to scout. She can't port to somewhere she's never been. It helps to be familiar with the place. That's why he's also saying that the grell could be very close." Azrun whispered so he could keep listening for bad people.
Echo agreed, "I think she walked away instead of teleporting. She was going to teleport back if she got in trouble." She pulled her cowl up and moved to the front to watch down the tunnel, standing very close to the wall.
"I understand the concept of teleportation," Aloysius replied in a somewhat harsher tone. "Mostly, anyway. I simply assumed she would teleport to the grell nest as she has already been there."
He sighed and looked over at Olaf. "Stargazer needs to refrain from such things. Assuming, I mean," he added quietly.
Azrun raised an eyebrow for a moment then whispered back, "The pop from her arrival might have given her away, Aloysius."
"She just walked forward." Olaf answered, looking confused, "She wasn't supposed to teleport away, that would not scout the tunnels before us."
Renn's longbow appeared and strung itself quickly. "Pain carrying that under my cloak," he said simply. "If it is the grell, I'll loose a few shafts before making...ahh...one of our front liners immune to paralysis. Who wants it?" Renn finished inquiringly.
Olaf crawled around on the floor awkwardly for a couple of minutes. He stopped, poked around on the floor with his hand, then began casting a spell.
After casting the spell Olaf said, "I've got her, thank goodness. She should be coming around soon."
"Since we have her," Jana said, "I think we should fall back until she comes to and tells us what happened."
Olaf noded and tried to help the still invisible gnome to her feet.
"Well, the damned thing _bit_ me," Arachne's soft voice said. She sounded much affronted over this. "It wasn't enough that it swatted me until I couldn't move. It also started chomping on me while carrying me off. I think I'm still bleeding..."
"No, I didn't learn much, except that one of the side passages is a short dead end. And that the first sentry I encountered apparently had no problem seeing past my invisibility spell. It's possible that it was merely hearing me extraordinarily well, but I doubt that. A blind fighter is clearly using a special technique to find the target and that grell was swinging away at me the same as the others had been at the rest of you earlier. "Aloysius, do you know anything about spells that might enable one to see invisible things -- particularly how long such spells might last? I don't much mind the fact that I was discovered, since I got to exercise my escape plan and prove that it worked. But it bothers me that the sentry just happened to be able to see invisibility: Either that spell lasts a long time or they knew when I'd be coming. And that last possibility does bother me.... Damn, that hurts!"
Aloysius thought for a moment. "Aye, there be such spells, but I am not overly familiar with them. It troubles me that you were detected so effortlessly. How far down the passage is the first sentry?"
"You were just lucky," Jana said in a grave voice. "If that thing had gotten a better grip on you, it might have knocked you out and I'm guessing you can't use your mind-magic stuff when you're unconscious. And right after that, you'd've been lunch. No more scouting. It's clear invisibility is no protection."
"I was picking my way over the sharp rock -- where we'd been before, I think. As I said, I didn't learn much about the layout. It was more instructive regarding my scouting ability and their improved preparations. Incidentally, he just sort of appeared... I'm thinking that, if they can detect invisible scouts they might have posted an invisible sentry -- until he started swatting me."
"So they know we're here now," Echo said quietly, still keeping a watch down the tunnel. "Are we falling back?" she asked.
"At least you were able to escape, I'm sure that will give them something to think on," Renn smiled. "And if you want, I'm standing by my backpack," he continued as Renn's backpack appeared on the tunnel floor near Olaf and the invisible Arachne. "If we can find each other, I'll see about getting those bites taken care of," Renn laughed shortly.
Azrun shrugged his shoulders, "Is there a need for us to fall back? We know they're expecting us and they know we might be coming. Unless, someone has a radical new plan on how to catch them off guard, we might as well keep moving. That's just my opinion, though."
Aloysius peered into the blackness of the tunnel. "'Twould seem that we are unlikely to obtain an advantage of surprise o'er them as they are capable of scrying us. I don't recall Carmeneren speaking about wizard-grell, but maybe she did. If not, then maybe the grell have other allies nearby."
He looked at Jana. "Janathell, what say you? Shall we proceeed or is more planning called for?"
"Yes, unless Arachne feels up to moving forward. It might be best to wait; they'll be especially alert right now. Give 'em time to let down their guard a little."
"Well, if they had an invisible sentry who is no longer invisible, that gives us a slight advantage over what we had before the scouting mission. Perhaps it would be best to take care of the lone beast. Another tactic would be for me to get that paralysis immunity spell and draw it to a position where our archers could pepper it. Just some thoughts." Blacky said.
"We do have some good information now, though." Olaf said. "We know the grell have some means of detecting invisibility. Most likely it is a spell or magic item of some sort, because they did not seem capable of detecting our invisible members earlier. Also, we know the grell can turn invisible themselves, so we must beware ambushes. We have a strong indication they scryed us, but perhaps they simply prepared themselves after our first strike. If they scryed us then the attack on Arachne was ill-advised on their part. They should have allowed Arachne to pass and then attacked us from surprise."
"Yeah," Jana replied, "if they don't zap you with one of those spear things first. I wouldn't be so sure there's only one up there. Probably called all his friends. Hey, Renn," Jana asked, "how long does that immunity spell of yours last?"
"That would be slightly over an hour," Renn replied, "about an hour and ten minutes."
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