Move 414: Quaggoth SplattersAzrun cast a spell, sending two magic missiles into the quaggoth on Dalgaer and two into the injured quaggoth on Kanon. Aloysius cast a spell, causing four images of himself to appear. Jana moved after the creatures facing Kanon. The red-outlined fighter easily killed one of them, and Kanon hit the other with his mace. In the front, Blacky and Dalgaer obliterated the two quaggoths, both of which had been wounded by spells.
Jana's rosy red outline disappeared. Blacky and Dalgaer arrived to help Aloysius, though he did not look like he thought he needed the help. The two remaining quaggoths stood no chance against the group, and they were quickly dispatched by the fighters. Twenty three quaggoths killed by weapon or spellfire were sprawled on the tunnel floor. The six that Aloysius had taken out with his colorful spell were still breathing.
Jana walked over and began methodically killed the sleeping quaggoths.
The Aloysiuses watched Jana's work with satisfied grins, each slowly rubbing its palms together.
"Let us examine the passage ahead, whilst the potion and my spell are still in effect," they said with an air of confidence. "We must eradicate these low creatures entirely now that our first blow has struck so soundly."
The five images peered down the passage in the direction from which the big quaggoth and its companions had come.
Dalgaer leaned against the wall witha groan, "Damn apes." Seeing Jana he said quickly, "Wait a moment... shouldn't we try to question one?"
Kanon knelt on the floor among the surrounding Quaggoth bodies and drew a silver chain out from his armor. He held the rosy quartz at it's end closed in his palm and began to pray quietly with his eyes closed and his helmet lain aside him on the floor.
"I was paying attention to other things..." In the silence after the yowling quaggoths had been silenced, Arachne's voice could be heard. She was close to Dalgaer. "...but I thought that quaggoths came from two directions...?" Her voice sounded tired.
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to catch up with you while you were fighting," Arachne's voice said to him. "Do you want to --? Your wounds, I mean. I think it's stopped now -- the fighting...?"
"Oh," Arachne focused on that idea. "That does sound like a good idea. I might be able to dig out _something_ from his mind if there's a language problem..."
Jana halted her unpleasant task. "You wanna, like, suck their brain or somethin'?" she asked Arachne while making a face. "Okay, if you wanna. We got some rope, for when they wake up?"
"Suck their --?" Arachne's voice echoed. "Eewwwww!" There was a pause and then she added, "I said mind and I meant mind." There was another pause and then she continued, more doubtfully, "And I said dig because, since they've been trying to kill us and all, I didn't expect any of them to _volunteer_ any useful information to us. I guess I was, uh, hoping that I could take care of the communication part if someone else handled the intimidation portion?"
Azrun dusted himself off and looked at the hole in his shirt, "Damn...I liked this shirt." He looked around at the carnage before him, "Wow, that went better than I thought it was going to. It's a shame we don't have more of those potions." He then went to Renn and Arachne and thanked both of them for their healing.
Azrun thanks were met by silence from the gnome.
"I'm sure me an' Blacky could be reasonably intimidating," Jana replied. "I suspect we might have to use one to prove our point, though."
"Yeah, we could, but what information do you suppose they would have. They seemed like feral beasts to me, all but the tall one that is and we won't be getting any information from him." Blacky said looking down at the corpse by his feet. "Our time would probably be better served searching the area for information and clues."
"Not everyone needs to gather around while I interrogate," Arachne murmured, her low voice close to the ground by Dalgaer's feet. "As for the information they might have..." There was a pause. "Where their children are... and the women, unless they were part of the fighting force -- someone said we wanted to wipe out these quaggoths. We can't do that unless we eliminate -- unless we kill the females and the babies also." There was another pause. "Where their food supplies are. To support this many of them -- what are there, dozens? There must be a lot of food. And a safe water supply. That'd be useful. You know, this is pretty much a sunless desert we're traveling through. In a place like that, the locals always have useful information." Another pause. The voice even quieter: "Maybe they know something about those dragons we heard about..."
Kanon's faced wrinkled up and his eyes opened as he finished his prayer, "I would not be opposed to questioning in the normal sense even with intimidation techniques. I could not be a party to slaughtering their women and children however. Unless they attack us I say let them leave these caves. I know that it seems to perpetuate a cycle of violence.." He paused and shook his head, "It is just something I could not be a party too." The priest clambered up in his heavy armor and tucked his holy symbol away, "We might as well do as Blacky says. Those that are still invisible could search the surrounding caverns and gain a ley of the land whilst keeping a look out for any of these beasts treasure that we may claim. Meanwhile the rest of us will carry out this interrogation."
"You don't have to be a party to it, Kanon," Jana said, firmly but not unkindly, "but you will not hinder the rest of us. I agree with Arachne. We can't have potential enemies behind us. If we're able find them, you don't have to take part in cleaning them out. You can keep a lookout or whatever. Remember, these things are not people. These are just two-legged animals that would eat us given the chance. It's the same as cleaning out a rat infestation. You don't leave the female and baby rats to continue the infestation. There are real people living down here, some gnomes you haven't met. Every infestation we clear makes them that much safer."
"And without their warriors," said the Aloysiuses, "any other members of their group will die soon anyway. "Let us proceed down this passage whilst our magic are still effective. For all we know, that may have just been a scouting group. There could be dozens more." He grinned oddly at that suggestion.
"I want to take a look before these images vanished. I'll not stray far."
The Aloysiuses withdrew a light stone and headed down the passage from where jumbo quaggoth and his buddies had emerged.
Arachne let the Aloysius lightstone dim a bit before remarking, "He sounds as though he thinks we're all fit to take on another couple of dozen of these creatures." She paused and then added, "And Kanon, it's nice to know that it's still utterly unchallenging to start an argument over how ruthless we should be down here. By the way, I don't know whether you meant for me to go exploring or stay put. I think I'd rather stay put because -- Anyway, I said I thought somebody wanted us to hunt down and kill every last quaggoth in these tunnels. I don't know that that's what I wanted. Well, I do know that I don't want to die down here. And I believe that, were I to meet a quaggoth, the quaggoth's agenda would immediately become the killing and eating of a scrawny little gnome. So, if that's true, what ought the scrawny little gnome do to protect herself from quaggoths. Avoid them. That's easy. But suppose the scrawny little gnome has to help establish a safe passage from an evil underground city up to the surface and the passage runs near to a nest of quaggoths? Is the extermination of the whole lot of quaggoths now part of the rational actions of the scrawny little gnome?" Another pause. "I don't know. I don't know quaggoths' customary hunting range. I don't know what quaggoths usually eat. Maybe I can find out if I ask a quaggoth. As matters stand, I can't argue with Jana's choice to be prudent. And by the way, if what Aloysius said is true, then the blood of the rest of the tribe is already on our hands and we might as well go ahead and make certain of it, quickly and surely. Aloysius's is _not_ a successful argument for sparing the other quaggoths. I do not have enough knowledge of the creatures now to be able to argue either side, actually."
Jana killed a couple of the incapacitated quaggoths before stopping at Dalgaer's mention that they might be able to question them. She requested some rope so that they could be tied up. Blacky tried to peer through the webs blocking the tunnel through which the first group of quaggoths had come, but he found the webs were thick enough to hamper visibility into the next cavern. As a discussion about the hows and whys of questioning quaggoths started up, Aloysius announced his intention to check a short distance down the western tunnel, the area that the second group of quaggoths had come from, before his multiple image spell ended. He walked off down the tunnel.
After a pause, Arachne said hesitantly to Azrun, ”I'm glad that... you're well..."
The priest nodded and sighed retrieving his helm from the floor. He looked around at the surrounding bodies and started to walk through them looking for actual equipment, "I'll try to busy myself with something else then. It seems to be the common mood of the group and I won't go against that."
Azrun straightened himself out and picked up his stuff, "I'm going to go make sure Aloysius doesn't get into too much trouble. Be back in a bit." With that he headed down the tunnel after the mage.
"Okay, Arachne," Jana said as she looked at the quaggoths, "let me tie 'em up and then let's get this over with, okay?" Jana took some of the rope used while wading and hogtied the critters.
"I'll stand a watch near where the main body of them were coming from," the still-
invisible Renn added."I hope he hasn't acquired any delusions of invincibility," the invisible gnome's voice muttered.
"OK." Arachne scuffled fairly noisily over to where the hogtied quaggoths were collecting.
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