Move 323: A Flash of Movement
Tunnels--Later, Day 31 (Marpenoth 16)The group continued onward and downward. Olaf poked a lot of rocks with his sword, and a couple of people seemed to be acting more nervously vigilant than usual. No one noticed anything odd as they walked on for the next few miles. Suddenly, almost everyone caught a flash of movement above their heads near the tunnel ceiling. Whatever it was seemed to have gone into another small tunnel they were walking by.
"Jana something in that tunnel." Blacky hissed indicating with his axe.
Olaf spun towards the tunnel, sword out and ready to attack or parry as needed. "Could any of you tell what it was?"
Azrun pulled his bow free and then nocked one of his light arrows, "Nope, but if I get a shot at it, we'll know where it is at least."
"Where?" Jana whispered back, drawing her sword and looking in the direction indicated. "I don't see anything."
Aloysius stood in the tunnel with a puzzled expression. He looked over at the tunnel Blacky had indicated with his axe. "It was on the ceiling?" he asked. "Oh dear . . . .I hope it isn't another of those large lizards."
Arachne, being invisible, was not seen to be doing anything. However the glow of her lightstone did not move away from Azrun's side. She didn't say anything either.
“It was on the ceiling," Echo confirmed in a whisper. "Couldn't tell what."
"Aye, small, quick, and on the ceiling," Renn said as he put an arrow to his bowstring and looked from the ceiling to the floor as he turned a slow circle.
The group went into a state of even higher alertness, readying bows and swords as they watched the side tunnel where the movement had gone and the area they were standing in. For the moment, nothing seemed to be happening. They did not see anything else, and they could not hear anything other than their own noise.
Olaf said quietly, "I'm going to scry for evil." He then pulled his holy symbol out and chanted, "Lord Tyr, Reveal Evil unto my sight, Grant Thy Servant the Wisdom to see..."
"I didn't even see the damned thing," Jana replied in a whisper. "Which way did it go?"
Azrun spoke quietly, "It went down that small tunnel. Let's sit still for a second and see if maybe Arachne can hear it."
"Perhaps we simply startled some smaller denizen of this realm," suggested Aloysius hopefully. "Although we should find out for certain 'lest we leave something perilous at our backs."
He eyed the tunnel nervously.
Echo waited quietly, also looking at the tunnel nervously.
Arachne reported that she heard the movement of something crawling against the rocks from the tunnel where whatever it was seemed to go, and that the noise did not seem to be moving away from the group.
Renn held his bow ready, and awaited the results of Arachne's and Olalf's examinations.
The party remained at high alert while Olaf cast a spell. Nothing made a reappearance from the small side tunnel.
"I can detect nothing evil, within our sight." Olaf said, "But if it is hidden..."
"Perhaps Stargazer should simply web the tunnel so we could move on?" suggested Aloysius. "It would give us about a 20 minute head start, so if whatev'r lurks in yon passage is still interested in us, mayhap it will be dissuaded from following."
He awaited comment.
"That's fine with me," Echo whispered. "I wonder what it is though."
"And cut off a potential avenue of escape," Jana added darkly. "I'm not too wild about leaving something unseen or at least hard to see lurking around behind us.
Aloysius looked once more at the side passage. "I meant not to web the main passage, only the side one. Is there some reason we might use it later? With all the small side caverns and tunnels we have seen, certain am I that there are all manner of creatures 'behind us' that we've yet not detected. I fail to see why we should risk a closer inspection of this one if it can be avoided."
"I said 'potential,' Jana grumbled. "But do what you want." She muttered something else too low to be heard.
"Nay," said Aloysius. "If you think we need to at least identify whate'er is in yon passage, then we shall do so. The question is 'how?'. Does anyone have a light stone that we could toss in that direction? We can't identify the creature if we can't see it."
Azrun held unto his bow with one hand and reached for his light stone, "I can toss mine in there. I'm with Jana on this one. I don't want to leave any unknowns behind us. If it's a friend, fine. If it's mean and nasty, well, we deal with it."
"Yes, it seems to have stopped instead of fleeing further. Not a good sign.' Olaf said.
"Give it to me." Blacky said with one outstretched hand, the other holding his axe. Assuming he was given the stone he moved to a position to the side of the tunnel. " Cover me with that bow." He said and tossed the stone a short distance into the tunnel regaining his two handed grip on his axe.
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