Move 316: Another Night in the Grell Nest
Grell Nest--Midday, Day 29 (Marpenoth 14)At that point in the twisting and winding conversation, Jana walked back in.
Olaf said, "We don't need a rigid structure, when we will need to react to varying situations. We just need to know our basic roles and trust each other. And we need a leader to give us broad orders, 'Attack, defend.', that sort of thing. But we also must not blame each other afterwards if the rest do not leap to fulfill all our desires."
"If someone is supposed to be watching my back and they don't and I get the crap beat out of me, someone is definately going to hear about it....if I live that is. And I would expect the same if I screwed up too. I'm not talking about smacking them around but I will give them an ear full." Azrun then returned to his spell book.
Olaf looked at the group and shook his head. Then he moved back to the corner and tried to sleep again.
Jana walked back into the cavern, her face expressionless. She looked over at Echo and Aloysius, furrowed her brow as she caught a bit of the conversation and started in their direction. At Olaf's comments, she visibly bristled and muttered something under her breath. She took a deep breath and continued over to Echo and Aloysius.
"The components are the pieces I took out of the grell," Echo told Aloysius. Her voice was almost too quiet to hear. She seemed to be hunching farther into her cloak and her arms were crossed across her chest.
Aloysius gave Echo a concerned glance as she made like a cloak-turtle. "Would you like for me to examine them to see if I can hasten their drying?" he asked quietly.
"For one of the prayers I mentioned I need incense, for the other we need to find a naturally occurring pool of pure water and some nut oil extract." Olaf says, "The first will aid us in determining the best course of action, and the other would allow me to view distance places and things, though it is not certain nor is the view always perfect."
"Well, I could look for an extract of nut oil the next time I go shopping for supplies," Arachne said. "And likewise the incense. Maybe I could try to contact Gala, ask her to look around for those things -- if she'll let me talk to her. As for that naturally occurring pool of pure water, I don't know. It seems as though the pools we find are contaminated with snakes and the like... Um, Renn, I know this is a sore point, but do you know whether the sun is up on the surface now?"
Aloysius had finished speaking with Jana and Echo, and glanced upwards briefly upon hearing Arachne's question. He went over to where his equipment was and sat down. After sitting quietly for a while and staring straight ahead, he rolled up in his blanket and tried to go to sleep.
Grell Nest--Late, Day 29 (Marpenoth 14)
Eventually, everyone grew tired enough to sleep and the watch rotation began.
Renn took Cethryn's holy symbol in hand and smiled for a few seconds as he gazed at the amulet. He seemed loath to give it back to Arachne, but offered it with a small sigh. "It appears to be after sunup, but I'm really not sure Arachne," he said apologetically.
"No, no," Arachne said quickly. "I wasn't asking for the amulet back. I just thought that you needed to keep track of the moon, so you might know whether it was day or night up there. I didn't want to try to contact Gala in the middle of the night." She looked puzzled. "I really don't know when's a good time to try to contact her."
"No, keep it Arachne," Renn said firmly as he smiled. "Truthfully, I'd forgotten I still carried Cethryn's amulet, thinking I'd given it back to you before," he smiled again. "I do need to follow the moon's progress, but it will be quite easy to glance at it from time to time when we have camped for the day. Gives me a reason to pester you somewhat doesn't it," Renn laughed and pressed the symbol into her hand and folded Arachne's fingers over it.
Renn patted Arachne's closed hand and said with a wink and a smile, "As for contacting Gala, aye, I would think the middle of the night isn't a good time."
"Uh, yes..." Arachne said, looking doubtfully at her fingers and the moon symbol they were holding. "I ... um ... all right. Well, I guess that figuring out proper honoring for Ceth never stopped being my responsibility. I just never worked out how to do it. Um -- and I guess the worst that could happen is that I don't notice I'm being pestered..." She put the moon symbol's chain around her neck and slipped it inside her dress.
Grell Nest--Jana and Arachne's Watch, Day 29 (Marpenoth 14)
While almost everyone was sleeping, Aloysius, Blacky, and Renn were each awakened by a sharp little kick in their sides. "Wake up!" Arachne called, as she tried to rouse people. "We have creepy guests!" Her call was loud enough towake Azrun so he did not have to be kicked. Echo and Olaf did not immediately stir.
Everyone who woke up saw two dark figures moving into the camp. They had glowing red eyes and looked like men, but made of shadow and only formed from the torso up. Jana had moved to intercept them, but only one seemed interested in her. The other was heading for Blacky as he lay on the cavern floor.
Seeing the figure heading towards Blacky, Aloysius did the best he could to shake the sleep from his brain and headed to move inbetween the creature and the sleeping fighter. He drew his good dagger as he moved and tried to kick at Blacky to try and wake him up.
Renn reluctantly pulled himself from his reverie. With a sharp intake of breath he tried both getting to his feet and freeing his crescent moon holy symbol from under his surcoat.
The gnome was resolved to be thorough. Having already swept past Blacky, she did not take careful note of the creepy guest's interest in the blacksmith. Instead, she made sure that Azrun, Echo and Olaf were awake and alert to the danger. (Most likely in that order, but it was actually a matter of whom she reached first.) Once that was done, she looked for a quiet spot out of people's way in order to try to see what else she might do to be helpful. "Are those things actually dead?" she wondered aloud.
Azrun rolled out of his blanket and up to his feet, "Shadowy..red eyes...only half a body...I'd say that's probably a good bet. Another good bet is that only magical weapons are going to have an effect on them, too." He took a a moment to study the creatures.
"Oh, shit," Jana muttered as the second shadowy figure slipped past her. "Up now!" She drew back her sword and swung twice at the creature in front of her. She held her sword one-handed, the other hand clutching her shield.
Jana swung her sword at the shadowy creature. At the two points where the sword made contact, black vapor boiled away like so much steam from the thing's torso. It tried to retaliate, but it caught her shield, leaving claw-like frostmarks on the front of the protective device.
Aloysius valiantly sprinted to Blacky's aid as the warrior struggled to shake the sleep off and get his footing. Aloysius missed badly with his dagger. The creature raked him across the arm with a dark claw, leaving a patch of torn frozen flesh behind.
Renn got to his feet and pulled his holy symbol into view. With his holy symbol held firmly in hand, Renn moved to keep both the creatures before him. He raised the amulet and said, in a commanding tone, "In the name of Corellon Larethian and all of his light, begone from this place." Both of the figures shrunk back and then withdrew from the light they had recently entered out into the surrounding darkness.
Renn used his healing spells on Olaf and Azrun, the most seriously injured of the group other than himself. When he finished, he used a single prayer on himself to begin to repair some of his own injuries.
Jana held her position in front of the others until the things were gone. She looked at her shield and, wide-eyed, squeaked "Holy gods. Renn, whatinhell were those things?"
After a scowl in the direction the creatures fled, Renn turned a substantially softer glance to Jana. "Wraiths, shades, shadows. abominations of the night," he said softly as he lowered the moon-shaped amulet and dropped the chain over his neck again.
"I don't know *exactly* what they were, just that they were evil and not of the natural realm," Renn said with a quick shrug and another look out of the groups camp.
Blacky got his sword out just in time to see the creatures retreat. "Lot of good I've been lately." He muttered to himself. "Should we go after them or are they gone for good?"
Azrun moved up to Aloysius, "Aloysius, are you alright? Let's see your wound."
"Well done, Renn." Olaf said as he got to his feet and shook his sleep from his head.
Aloysius looked down at the frosty slash marks on his arm. "I'm . . . fine," he said uncertainly. "A bit chilled, but not much the worse for wear."
He stared down the tunnel in the direction the nasties had fled. "Be there no end to the terrors that lurk in these tunnels?" he asked rhetorically. "How I loathe this place . . ." he muttered quietly as he headed back towards his blanket. "I suppose we shall have to move on now, or else they will return soon." His voice sounded very weary. "It's as if we have walked into hell itself."
Azrun nodded, "Many who talk of this place refer to it just as that. Let's get Renn or Olaf to take a look at you wound just to make sure everything is ok." He put a hand on Aloysius's shoulder and walked him to one of the healers.
Echo looked around sleepily, trying to figure out what happened.
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