Move 338: At the Glassy Rock
Tunnels--Late, Day 35 (Marpenoth 20)The party stood at the edge of the glassy rock, trying to decide if they should camp now or look for another location. They had not covered a lot of ground during the day's march; their exhaustion was more mental than physical from their trek across the ledgeways. As they stood there talking, the rock caught the glow from their light stones, reflecting their small motions off the smooth surfaces, the colors of the rock appearing to shift ever so slightly.
"That rock looks weird," Jana muttered. "I still think we should look for a more defensible place to stop."
"Whatever..." Arachne's voice murmured from close to Azrun's head. "I don't really know what's a defensible place for big people... So much space you take up... We went by some niches I thought looked pretty good, but probably aren't... In Furthinghome, my parents moved into a house that was little more than a one-room hovel... Kept the exterior shell, but added lots of interior walls and floors --turned the place into a palace... Three stories and an attic, basement _and_ a sub-basement. Plenty of room for us as well as the pack of spiders _and_ the silk inventory. Spacious living – Of course, we couldn't entertain guests, but the amount of webs everywhere would've put people off, anyway. We kept an oversized gazebo and veranda outside and had a lot of fair-weather friends... Anybody ever heard of any pretty, smooth rock monsters that might hunt and kill ropers and quaggoths and move in in their place?"
Aloysius studied the rock for a moment. "No, at least, I have not," he replied. "Perhaps we would be more at ease if we moved beyond this rock," he suggested. "It is likely of no consequence, but it is relatively early yet and it might provide us with peace of mind."
"Let's go," Echo agreed. "If we don't find a better place, we can come back."
"I agree, we should continue on, but before we do can anyone tell if that rock is magical, just in case." Blacky grimaced
Azrun went to shrug his shoulders almost forgetting Arachen was sitting there, "Oops, didn't mean to jostle you there, Arachne. We might as well go on. If people are uneasy about the are they won't rest well."
Aloysius shook his head and looked around at the other spell casters.
Azrun shook his head, "Nope, I was looking for a fight today....not that I'm some supreme battle mage, but you know, was prepared for fighting today....yeah that was a better phrase....I was prepared for a fight today."
"I might be able to," Echo said. She started casting.
He looked around, "Why not just pitch one of the light stones at it and see if it does something. Be better than standing around wondering if its bad or not." He craned his neck around to look where Arachne was, "Are you ok up there?"
"Mmm? I'm OK. Why wouldn't I be OK? If you'd like me to get down now, that's OK too. You'd be better prepared for a fight if you weren't carrying me... Um, I guess I'll start by swinging one leg around – I have to talk my way through the dismount because I'm figuring it out and you can't _see_ me figuring it out. And dismounts in gymnastics aren't usually from _people_. You want to try to be more considerate than usual if you're getting off a person... Um...
"Oh. Did you just want my lightstone?"Azrun craned his head back, "No, I'm fine Arachne. I was just checking on you making sure you were ok. Just wanted to make sure you were comfortable."
"Oh... All right... Uh huh -- yes, I'm comfortable. Now... But we want to keep you prepared for a fight. So, um, if a fight started, you'd want your bow -- where's that? Or maybe your sword... And you're righthanded (right?), so I'd want to bail out off you staying away from your right side. Flip my right leg back first and over the back pack and then just get to the ground on your left side in a hurry. Unless there was something nasty there already, in which case I'd have to improvise, which is bad...
"OK. We're prepared." The gnome's voice sounded ironic.
Azrun smiled, "If we get into a fight, I'll drop down to a knee so you can get off safely. No sense in you breaking your neck trying to get down and I can cast from a kneeling posistion anyway."
"Thank you -- So you'd cast a spell first, most likely, if we got into a fight and you didn't have an enemy all over you right away?"
Azrun nodded, "Yeah, that's where I'm the most helpful I guess. I'm really not comfortable with the sword yet and my bow would be useless unless it was something on the ceiling. I think my magic would be able to deal more of a wound than an arrow though.....and they usually don't miss."
"I'd prefer to find a side-tunnel," Jana said. "Anything going from up ahead to back where we came from has to pass right through us if we stop here. If we can find a little side-tunnel, then we can possibly avoid a fight, or at least have the advantage of surprise."
"The rock isn't magical," Echo said. She got a puzzled expression on her face after she looked at the rock.
Azrun watched Echo's expression and asked, "Is everything ok, Echo? You look a little confused. Something else up with the rock?"
Aloysius looked nervous. "Perhaps we should move ahead," he suggested again.
Echo shook her head. "When I cast that spell, I could feel, uhm, something. I don't think it's the rock though. It's not very strong. I can't tell what it is."
Jana moved beside Echo, looking protective. "Something? Like something felt your magic or.. something? Maybe we oughta back up a little instead, and see if we can figure out what's goin' on." Jana looked around nervously. "I like it when we got magic stuff, but I don't like it at all when the bad guys do."
"Do you think the rock could be ... alive?" Blacky asked eyeing it suspiciously.
"If the source of this . . . 'feeling' . . . were of arcane origin, Echo would have detected that with her spell most likely," offered Aloysius. "Didn't someone mention something about the illithid doing 'probes' of some sort?"
Echo smiled nervously. "It's probably magic because I didn't feel it until I cast the spell to see if the rock was magic. I still feel it. It's like a faint magical presence. I can't tell where it's coming from."
"I don't like it," Jana fretted, hovering beside Echo. "Someone, something, knows you're here." She shifted her weight from foot to foot. "Let's find a more defensible place and try not to use any magic. Or maybe we can fool it with magic, make it think we're somewhere else," she mused.
"What I feel is probably magic," Echo said. "It's not coming from the rock."
"We need to decide if we want to keep going or back up to camp," she prodded gently.
Aloysius frowned and furrowed his eyebrows when he heard Echo speak. He looked all around, started to say something, then thought better of it. "Let's keep moving," he said.
"Is what I said wrong?" Echo asked, sounding worried.
"Oh no, no, no," said Aloysius apologetically. "It is simply that . . . ." Glancing about again, he stopped mid-sentence.
"Never mind. We should discuss it at another time. Methinks your analysis was perfectly correct," he added with a weak smile.
"Methinks that whate'er is the source knows we are all here," opined Aloysius. "And likely has for some time. Suspect do I that Echo hath detected a scrying spell during her analysis of the rock. Her magic did not give away her position, it simply allowed her to perceive the scrying."
He stood ready to move ahead. "But now be not the time or place to discuss it in detail."
"We're going foward?" Echo asked for clarification.
Azrun looked around, "Forward or back, folks? I'm for going on forward if we're not going to camp here next to the pretty, green, creeping some of out rock. Any objections against going forward?"
"I favor forward," said Aloysius.
"I certainly don't want to go back over those crevices." Blacky agreed
"So if we're all agreed," Jana said as she looked around worriedly, "let's move forward until we find a more defensible location. And," she added, "will someone please explain to a dumb sell-sword what this scrying thing is and what it does and howinhell we can counteract it?"
"Dumb?" asked Aloysius, a slow grin spreading on his face. "Scrying comes in many a form," he explained. "'Tis a fundamental of divination that certain formulae allow for one to extend one's senses to other places - typically sight or hearing. Howe'er," he added pensively, "typically one focuses the divination on a place, not a person or group of people, although I've read of it only in books and claim not to practice divination myself. There are incantations that can prevent scrying . . . "
He looked around at the ceiling and he walls and stopped talking.
"I'm with you, Azrun," Arachne's voice murmured.
"As am I," Renn replied. "I see no sense in resting in a place where some, or most, of us are uncomfortable," he finished.
Previous Move
Next Move
Back to Move Summaries
Back to Night Below Main Page
