Move 391: Our Hole in the WallTunnels--Late, Day 38 (Marpenoth 21)
Once everyone got back, it only took a few minutes to decide that it was time to leave. By the time the party spent a couple of hours walking over the difficult to traverse glass rock that made up the tunnel floor, almost everyone was tired by the time they reached the area of the little closed up cave where they had slept before in relative safety. They had to wait a while longer for Arachne to rest before she was able to get them into the sealed room.
"Sorry," Arachne sighed, sinking to the tunnel floor in front of the smooth obstruction. "I wasted time outside the anti-gnomial room prattling instead of rejuvenating myself." She closed her eyes and got to work resting.
The quarters were tight and smelled bad from previous occupancy, but it was the safest place they were likely to find to rest, probably for days to come.
"I could watch with Dalgaer," Arachne offered. "That is," she added hastily and glancing at her tired old boots, "unless we feel that folks with darkvision should be paired with those who have only surface sight."
"That would seem wise," said Aloysius, "although we need to remain cognizant of the need for some of us to rest 'enow to regain spells. There are 4 of our number who do not require uninterrupted rest, so they should be in the middle. Perhaps Rennirolas and I could take the last watch, with Azrun, Kanon and Echo taking the first watch? That would enable us to prepare spells and would spread the night-sighted amongst the watches."
"Why not go with three watches," Renn suggested; a backpack appeared just above one of the walls and dropped to the chamber floor. "That way, we've got three equal watches," he added, as he spoke through a yawn at the last.
Alongside the backpack, Renn's longbow and sword were laid on the floor. "If Blacky stood first watch with Aloysius and myself, and Jana with Daelgar and Arachne, we'd have someone on each watch with dark vision," Renn finished, his longsword hovered a foot or so above the floor and the sound of a whetstone being pushed across the blade began.
He looked over at Jana. "When you have a moment, Janathell, I'd have a word with thee."
"Sure," Jana shrugged at Aloysius. "Whatcha need?"
Aloysius glanced around until he saw a relatively private area and then headed in that direction, beckoning to Jana before doing so.
Jana walked over and spoke quietly with Aloysius.
Azrun nodded, "Sounds good to me, Aloysius. Perhaps the 2 of us and Echo could compare notes on the spells we have to better support the rest of the group."
"Okay," Echo agreed. "One of us needs to look at that scroll we found. I'm going to let Aloysius look at the stone I took from the statue and there's a magical dagger that someone can use. Does anyone use a dagger who doesn't have a magic one? I've already got one."
"I use a knife," Arachne said. "Not very well and not very often. I have it around here somewhere." She looked down at her waist and then at the backpack on the ground. "I think it's in there somewhere. It's kind of small..."
"I think that would be best," Jana agreed. "We doing three or four watches? I'll take a middle one, whichever."
Kanon smiled as Arachne asked for her watch and once again tried shake the excess water out of his right boot, "That sounds fine with me Arachne." Inside the room he chose a corner and began to slowly and carefully remove his armor and padding laying it out carefully in hopes that it will dry. Before long he was in only a tunic and breaches wearing his sharktooth necklace and holy symbol on it's long silver chain going about the buisness of setting up his own blankets and such, "I was going to mention I only have the materials to do it five times while i'm down here but I have the materials to call for the nap miracle. It allows for someone to rest for but an hour and have the effect of 8 hours of sleep. I can effect only seven people however."
"That sounds wonderful," Echo said. "Will that allow us to get spells back in a pinch?"
Kanon nodded as he pulled off his tunic and layed it aside, "Indeed. However, it can only be used every eighteen hours and the component takes seven days to charge."
"It's good to know it's there if we need it," Echo said. "I hope we wouldn't need to use it too often. So far, we've been able to rest when we needed to, but that may change when we get in deeper."
"That sounds fine to me," Echo said. A moment later, a short frail woman appeared where her voice was coming from. She was dressed in dark colors and a tattered grey cloak. She had copper colored hair that came to the nape of her neck and was cut very unevenly. Her skin was blotchy and her dark eyes were red rimmed. "I figured it'd be easier for me not to get in the way if you can see me," she explained.
"If no one has a reason I shouldn't, I'm going to use my last scrying spell to look in on my mother," she said. She pulled her cowl up to hide her face. "If there's something else we need it for, I'd be happy to do that though."
"I can't think of a better use for the spell," Jana said gently. "Go on and cast it."
"I hope I can find her," Echo said quietly.
Jana put her hand briefly on Echo's now-visible shoulder. "Arachne and Aloysius can give you some places to check. And if she's not at the first, then cast the spell again soon's you're able." She flashed an encouraging smile then walked over and spoke quietly with Arachne.
"May I look with you?" Arachne asked. "Just for a moment -- to make sure we're talking about the same person and that she's all right. Then I'll leave you alone."
"The looking takes place in my mind's eye," Echo said apologetically. "It's not in a crystal ball or a pool or anything so more than one person can see. But if I find her in Milborne, I'll know it was her you talked to."
"Oh. All right." The gnome left Echo to her spell.
After casting her spell, Echo told Arachne, "That's her. She looks like she's alright." Her voice was very quiet. She spent the rest of the evening sitting by herself, possibly crying part of the time.
Jana made of couple of forays over to Echo during the evening, murmuring comforting words and bringing her food and water and offering her the skin of moonshine Blacky had obtained for her awhile back, still mostly full.
"Thank you," Arachne answered Echo and, good to her word, left the woman unpestered for the rest of the evening. That was not to say that the gnome didn't glance over at Echo from time to time and even get to her feet once or twice. But a promise was a promise, as she muttered to herself at least once.
Blacky went about the task of making sure all his weapons were well oiled against the wet and damp. As he came to his axe head and shattered handle he asked "I don't suppose anyone has a spell that could restore my weapon to usefulness?"
Kanon smiled and moved over to where Blacky was working on his weapons. The young priest closed his eyes for a moment and mumbled a prayer to Lathander, "Mighty lord of light bless this worthy warrior's weapon with your touch of creation." A flash of rose colored light washed over his hands as he pushed the handle back together.
"You did it! You fixed my axe!" Blacky yelled with a stupified grin on his face as he tested the axe out. "The greatest of thanks good sir." Blacky said and looked as if he would hug the priest."That was a lot better than the mending I was going to try," Echo remarked.
"Speaking of magic," she said, taking the stone from the statue over to Aloysius. "Here," she said. "You should take a look at this."
Aloysius took the stone from Echo and looked it over closely. "Hmm . . . might I assume from your comment that you have already detected a dweomer on this gem?" he asked.
"I did," Echo confirmed. "The magic is necromantic. Do you have any idea what it might be?"
"Not really," replied Aloysius, "but since it appears that we may be here for a while, I could try to inspect its aura more closely. Do you have any pearls left?"
Echo gave Aloysius a pearl. "I've got one more after this one," she said. "I think Arachne has a ring that needs looking at too if you are going to cast the spell."
Arachne scampered to Aloysius and handed him the ring she had been wearing.
Aloysius gathered up the gem from Echo, the flask and mirror from earlier, and Arachne's ring. "I'm going to analyze all these things as best I can," he explained. "But I will need to sleep a bit later."
He looked over at Renn. "I don't think you will need me for the last watch while we are in here, do you?"
"I think it's pretty unlikely," Renn's voice replied from the area where his gear sat on the floor. "So feel free to get as much rest as you need to."
When business discussions had been concluded, Arachne went and sat by Dalgaer. "Um... You said before..." she began softly and diffidently. "You said that you know how to swim. That's -- Well, I guess I'm surprised because -- Well Cynthia never much _liked_ swimming and she always said that that was because real gnomes don't really care for the water and the fact that I like swimming just showed what a big-thinking runtling I was and no proper gnome. So... Um... I was wondering. You said you know how to swim and that being able to swim is _useful_. But you don't actually _like_ swimming, do you?"
Dalgaer said, 'I... um... I don't know who this cynthia person is but it sounds like she had some strange ideas. I mean, you are a gnome. It doesn't matter what you like or don't like. A gnome is a gnome."
Dalgaer shrugged, "I don't like mining much, I preferred hunting, or fighting. Doesn't make me a dwarf or an elf. I'm still a gnome." Dalgaer grinned, "The nose proves that! I don't love swimming, or hate it. It sure beats drowning. I knew some gnomes who liked swimming. Not many I admit.""Cynthia's my older sister," Arachne explained. "And her ideas aren't strange, exactly. I just don't co-operate with them very well. We grew up in Furthinghome. That's in Aglarond, on the Sea of Fallen Stars. Furthinghome's a maritime town. It's on the shore of the sea and the population is mostly human. Little people -- gnomes or halflings or dwarves even -- are scarce. And Daddy's trade -- pest control – meant that he dealt almost entirely with humans, anyway. Contracting with towns, villages, and lordlings in the area to control the rats, fleas, lice, mosquitoes. There are plenty of pests for him to control. "Cynthia decided that we were growing up wrong. Me, her and our brother, Simmons. She said we were getting too much human influence. Not that there's anything wrong with humans, she admitted -- except that she was given to saying that they were so often obliviously gross. But the way we were being brought up, we'd just turn out to be runt humans instead of proper gnomes. She argued with Mom and Dad a _lot_ about this and kept telling me that I was being runtling whenever what I did displeased her. Playing with human friends displeased her. Going to University displeased her. So did going swimming – especially since I did it with human friends because no-one at home was interested in going. Actually, almost anything I did could succeed in displeasing her, if she was in the mood."
Arachne fell silent, then said, "I tried not to let her influence me ... Not that much, anyway. Except -- Well, I went to University _anyway_. In Spandilyon. And by the time I fled home again – after Faire disappeared -- Cynthia had moved away inland to be with Real Gnomes (as she called them). Some cousins of Mom's, I think. Mom didn't much like them, but I think Cynthia got along with them all right. She could be quite pleasant -- she's very industrious, that's for sure. But she could be nice, if you didn't annoy her. "I usually annoyed her. She said I prattled like a human --" Arachne stopped. "Like now, I guess."
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