Move 409:  More Quaggoth Scouting

Echo and Renn moved ahead to scout, or at least the others assumed they did. Slightly apart from the rest of the spot where the rest of the group held ready, Dalgaer stood watch, whispering quietly. The small injury he had taken from the quaggoth disappeared.

Nothing was seen, or heard, from Aloysius.

Dalgaer said, "Thank you, Arachne. That feels much better."

Dalgaer then said quietly, "Are we moving out yet?"

"You're welcome," Arachne's voice murmured.

Soon afterward, from somewhere around Blacky's knees, her voice remarked softly, "Blacky, I'm not going anywhere right now and it looks like neither are you. Want me to have a look at that scratch you took?"

"It's really nothing, but if you want to, it looks like we have a little time." Blacky replied to the air around his knees.

"I'd _like_ to get a little closer to it..." the small voice hinted. Being fairly close to the floor of the tunnel, the voice was nowhere near Blacky's upper arm, which was where the "nothing" was.

Blacky's slight wounds disappeared just as Dalgaer's had a couple of minutes earlier. Nothing was happening in the tunnel that continued past the alcove or down the other tunnel of the fork they were standing near. About five minutes had passed since the scouts left.

The alert party heard very faint footsteps approaching from the tunnel past the alcove, which was the way Echo and Renn had gone.

The priest squinted his eyes in the direction of the approaching footsteps and kept his mace at hand. He looked over at Blacky and presumably the invisible Arachne for a moment and then looked down at the shadowy floor.

Dalgaer kept his ax ready, waiting for trouble or friends.

Azrun stood watching the rear as he heard the footsteps, "So what did you see? More furry things?"

"Yes," Renn replied quickly, which meant it was the scouts who had returned. "Echo
saw fifteen or twenty of them ahead, where the passage splits again, to the right. And
they looked to be expecting trouble.  Anything else Echo?" Renn asked.

Azrun smiled, "Fifteen or twenty, huh? Well that just sounds like a swell time. You didn't happen to see anyone who looked like a shaman or anything did you? I mean a party's not a a party without enemy spellcasters." He ran over his face and rolled his eyes, "Sorry didn't mean to shoot the messenger."

Echo replied very quietly, "I didn't see anything obvious but that doesn't mean its not there. As soon as I saw the group, I came back. Like Renn said, there's another fork. I didn't scout the other tunnel cause I don't know how much time we have. I'm pretty sure they know we're here."

"Maybe we should use that potion. It looks like this could be a tough battle." Blacky asked looking to Jana.

"I think the potion's a good idea, unless someone has a huge problem with it," Jana replied to Blacky. She addressed the others, keeping her voice down, "I'm still willing to be the one who takes it. I can take out a lot of them with little or no danger to the rest of you. If Blacky and maybe Sunshine here keep them from overwhelming the rest of you while I'm working on 'em, it'll go pretty fast. I figure if I use my sword two-handed, more power, I can take 'em out in two or three strokes, and I'm getting faster so that won't take very long. When the potion wears off, I'll yell and you guys cut loose. Does that sound like a workable plan to you all?"

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