Move 420: Amidst the Quaggoth BodiesTunnels--Late, Day 41 (Marpenoth 24)
Everything was taken care of quickly, and Aloysius, Azrun, Echo, Jana, and Kanon went to check on the rest of their comrades. They went through the tunnel with the large burn marks from the web on the floor to find them. All of them except Echo looked a little more wounded than before. Echo was lugging a two-handed sword and a big axe along with her.
There were more quaggoth bodies on the floor, but the area was already so littered with carcasses that it was difficult to assess how many had been added. Renn, now visible and wounded, was doling out healing spells to Blacky and Dalgaer, who were pretty banged up prior to that, as the others walked into the tunnel. Arachne was nowhere to be seen.
"Arachne, you here?" Jana called out softly.
"She resting." Dalgaer said, "She healed some of my wounds by taking them on herself!" Dalgaer shook his head, "She is very brave..."
"'Tis good to see that all are well," said Aloysius. "All the non-quaggoth anyway. Methinks the main leader may have been in the lot we battled, and is now dead. Surely there can't be more of them, can there? Although we have as yet not seen any females or young . . . ." He shrugged. "There is a large pool up ahead and another tunnel leading off from that area. And numerous dead quaggoths. I have exhausted my combat
magics, but yet have formulae that may assist in reconnaissance, if that be our plan.""I'm here," Arachne murmured. Her voice was close to a closed packet which was lying on the floor near Dalgaer's feet. "Are we going anywhere right away?"
Kanon looked around at the bodies and then to his companions, "I guess that we are all okay. No thanks to my poor tactics however. The depths of this place are not only twisting my mood and disposition but my thinking skills as well." The priest walked over to Aloysius and weaved his hands through the gestures of a minor clerical prayer.
Aloysius began to protest but stopped so as to not interfere with the spell casting. Once Kanon was finished, the mage said, "Stargazer can heal himself, but I thank ye for the boon. Your decisions were not unwise, although perhaps premature. Taking the other passage seemed proper so as to avoid encirclement. Things turned out well. 'Twas fortunate that the quaggoths chose to bunch themselves so."
Azrun shook his head, "Don't worry about it, Kanon. It'll take you a while to get used to fighting down here and with us. Right now we should find us good place to rest up and then finish exploring this part of the tunnels. Just thinking ahead, where are we heading after this mess with the quaggoths are wrapped?"
"Can someone use some healing magic on Arachne? I know she is very, very badly hurt!" Dalgaer said.
Kanon looked over at Dalgaer and then at the bag around his feet, "Arachne put your hand on the right side of my belt and I will heal your wounds. Azrun I think we should search the tunnels as you say and if we are reasonably sure there are no more quaggoths search these bodies and then if allowed I will search the pool further down the tunnel."
"We've had mixed luck with pools down here," Jana chimed in. "I'm of the opinion we'd best all stick together. And if Arachne needs to rest, we ought to back up to a secure position and let her."
"I agree," said Aloysius. "We have struck a mighty, if not fatal, blow to the quaggoths. There is no point moving forward on any timetable save our own. We should scour the immediate area for anything useful and then fall back. I'd like to examine the bracers that the large leader wore."
"If everyone else is ready to go on, then I don't need to rest that much, the small gnome's voice said. The packet on the floor disappeared. "Kanon, thank you," Arachne's voice continued. "I'll be with you in a minute. Dalgaer..." Arachne's voice moved close to the larger gnome. "Please take your packet of dust. I've already used more of it than I should. I'm very grateful to you for giving it to me and I feel as though it's already saved my life, but it's yours, not mine. I shouldn't keep it. Please... Put out your hand and let me give it back to you."
"None of us died, but we took a beating nonetheless. I agree. We could all use some rest." Dalgaer said.
"Since Aloysius doesn't have fighting magic left and the fighters took a beating, I think maybe we should web up behind us and go rest," Echo put in her opinion to the discussion. "I have a scrying spell left so I can check what we left behind us once we're somewhere safe. Safer. I can use another one tomorrow or the next day before we come back."
"Nice axe, Magical?" Blacky commented upon seeing the weapon.
"Thanks for that Renn, much better now." Blacky said.
"I can't tell you how _relieved_ I am that you weren't killed, Dalgaer," Arachne murmured, apparently directly in front of him. "I -- I'm just glad. I'm also still holding your dust --" she prompted, before raising her voice slightly and changing the subject. "And I wouldn't _object_ to finding somewhere to rest and heal. Um, will it be far?"
"I'm low on magic. I didn't have a spell to check," Echo replied. "I brought it just in case. Do you want to carry it?" she asked hopefully.
"Sure, I'll carry it 'till you have time to check it." Blacky shouldered his own axe and inspected the weapon Echo had been carrying.
"I'd like to retrieve the bracers first," said Aloysius. "I'll be but a moment." He headed off to retrieve the bracers.
Jana frowned as Kanon said the word 'order.' She turned to Aloysius and nodded. "We may's well check 'em all again to see if there's anything of use. Echo already found an axe and a big-ass sword. Did anyone else see any of thse fuzzballs with any weapons or anything else?"
"I'm very glad you were not killed either, Arachne." Dalgaer replied. Dalgaer remained near the wall, obviously resting after the bloody fight.
"Oh, but there wasn't any need to worry about me," Arachne's voice exclaimed. "I was _hiding_! I mean, even when I was trying to get to you, I was still hiding. After all, you can see that everyone else who was --" The voice paused. "What I mean is that of the party members who were invisible at the start of the fight, I'm the only one who stayed hidden throughout. Everyone else came out of hiding and fought..." She paused again and there was a rustling from her location as well as a small, suppressed yelp. "But that's beside the point, Dalgaer. What had me frightened was the way those quaggoths had you so tightly surrounded and I couldn't even get to you and I remembered ..." There was a bit of scraping and shifting of straps and the like, consistent with a gnome troubling over sitting on the ground. "Well, there it is. We did all survive and I did find something else I can do while you're fighting --" Her voice was fading toward mumbling. "-- which I guess I wouldn't be embarassed to admit to afterwards. Not as bad as having to say, 'Well, I made sure that no-one was going to sneak up on us from that dead-end tunnel over there.' Can't say I _enjoyed_ what I was doing, though. It's really, really grim. I understand now why Faire said it wasn't something anyone in their right mind would want to study. Nor is it for beginners...."
"I got those," Echo told him. "They're in my pack. Along with a gaudy belt buckle. I didn't see anything else I thought was worth carrying."
"I picked up everything I saw while you were...getting rid of the rest of them," Echo told Jana.
Jana nodded. "So if these have been checked, we can find a place to rest for awhile. Let's hurry. Who knows what the bodies will attract."
Aloysius stopped. "Ah, very well then," he said. "Let us fall back then and rest a bit afore pressing onward."
"Nothing but stone axes, up close and personal. Right Dalgaer?" Blacky said giving the sturdy gnome a friendly nod.
Dalgaer chuckled, "Very close, yes. I thought the whole world was quaggoths there for a bit!"
"I don't even want to think how beat up you looked after taking my wounds on yourself! I outweigh you by quite a bit!" Dalgaer said, "You saved my life, Arachne, when you took those wounds the first time. If not for that healing the Quaggoths would have surely butchered me!"
Dalgaer turns to Renn and Backy, "And you two as well, I thank you for my life."
Dalgaer pushed out from the wall and bowed formerly to both."It was much closer than I'd thought it would be," Renn smiled and nodded in return. "But you are welcome good Dalgaer."
Then, his face split into a huge grin, apparently nearly dying was cheering for the gnome. "Arachne, if you are feeling better, could you come here for a moment?" He held out his hand.
"All right," Arachne's voice said. There was a bit of noise consistent with an invisible gnome getting to her feet. Her voice was directly in front of him. "Um, what's up?"
Dalgaer pulled the invisible gnome to him and gave her a big kiss. Then he blushed and looked at the ground, "I.. um.. wanted to thank you properly."
There was a soft yelp when Dalgaer took hold of the invisible gnome, but whatever else might have gone wrong with the gallant gesture, the unseen partner in the embrace didn't seem to be struggling. However, there was a soft "Owwww..." as he was releasing her.
"Um..." Arachne's voice said softly after Dalgaer had tried to explain himself. "Uh -- maybe..." There was a pause. "Perhaps you might've waited until you could see me -- that is, if you don't mind seeing me. You might not want to look at me right now. Maybe if you could've waited until I'd healed up a little more --? I don't mind the – I _like_ the thanks. I just -- I need to sit down..."
Azrun chuckled quietly, "Arachne at a loss for words. This has been an interesting day in the least."
The priest smiled and crouched against the wall. His smile faded into a placid expression as he stared down at the floor of the cavern and waited patiently.
Azrun stood around waiting for a decision to be made on where to go and what to do, "If we're in fairly descent shape, I'd say we go check the end of that tunnel out and if its empty rest there. If it's not empty I can drop one of my webs between us and what ever is occupying it and we can fall back...just my 2 bits worth."
"Quite welcome," Renn replied. "I've used all my healing prayers for the day, and have but a few utility spells left that I may cast."
"Janathell is correct," interjected Aloysius. "All these bodies will draw Mystra-knows-what. We should fall back and allow Echo to scribe the area afore returning. Time is important, but we should avoid a headlong rush forward."
Jana watched Daelgar attempt to kiss Invisi-Arachne with a puzzled expression. When she figured it out, she quickly turned away then stared at the bodies lying all around them. She turned a little green around the gills. "Uhm, yeah," she said, looking directly at Aloysius, "I wouldn't wanna head on up the tunnels only to find something nasty's back here, uhm, eating, and we're trapped in some dead-end."
Azrun nodded, "Works for me, let's go."
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