Move 445: Talking Tiggers, Shouting GnomesWhen posed with Jana's question about why she should believe the creature, he offered in a somewhat hopeful whine, "Because of the reasons I gave you before? First, I gave you my word and second, I am not stupid enough to think you would let me cross you."
To Echo's series of questions, he replied, "All I know is that the magic is similar to ancient elven magic I've seen. I would guess drow, but that is just a guess. The rock has never done anything that I saw. The dragons...I don't know. I assume they are native, and I don't think there are many kinds that live in the underdark."
Dalgaer has sprinkled some of the powder on Kanon before Arachne shouted at him.
"First, your word don't mean shit to me, furball," Jana retorted. "So keep talking. We've been through a lotta places down here, so we'll just have to make sure your story matches what we know. It'd be unfortunate for you if it doesn't."
"Yes, I am aware of that," the creature gave a deferential head nod. "That is why I gave you a second reason. What would you like to know now?"
Dalgaer looked at the powder already on the wounds and grimaced. "I'd forgotten. It was a foolish penance, it endangers all of us. So I say tough, he can be pissed at me about it." Looking uncharacteristically angry (even compared to getting his butt kicked in battle) he deliberately uses the rest of the powder on Kanon.
"Janathell, 'tis my intention to do a full analysis of the structure once we have regrouped somewhat," said Aloysius. Looking back at Tigger, he continued the interrogation. "You said there was a temple that was now laired with monsters. Where is it and what kind of creatures live there? We also want to know everything you know about captured spell casters, who is involved, where they are being taken, where you have seen any, etcetera. Since you claim to have not seen the lich or the dragons, and since the hook horrors and the quaggoth aren't very articulate, I'm curious as to how you have heard of them. Who told you and when?" He thought for a brief moment, and his face darkened. "And we want to know if you have seen an evil priest with one eye. Who does he serve again?" he asked the party generally.
Jana nodded.
"The temple is here," the tiger man pointed to the spot on his map that, from the details he had given as he drew, indicated the odd smooth walled caverns that the party had explored prior to coming here. "I know there are nests of ropers there. I did not go very far in. Something is taking spell casters from the surface, priests and wizards, but I don't know who is involved besides illithids. The kuo-toa, I suppose, since they seem to be going to their city." The creature sighed, "You are not the only group from the surface down here. I talked to another bunch like you. They were looking for a priest and a wizard they said were taken by illithids. I saw them...the time here...maybe three weeks ago. The elf wanted to see the temple, and she and a tough looking man seemed to think the dragons were important."
"I have not seen a one-eyed priest of any faith," the creature replied.
Standing surprisingly mute beside Dalgaer, Arachne listened to him condemn the penance that Kanon had undertaken. There was nothing she could say in opposition. After all, she'd several times already complained about it. Then she watched Dalgaer deliberately apply the rest of the powder to Kanon. Well, it was his powder; he could do what he liked with it. As he did what he willed, though, she quietly sank to the ground, a huddled mess. Sitting curled up and mostly silent, her head between her knees, she shuddered slightly while tears flowed.
Dalgaer turned to Arachne, obviously shocked. "What's wrong?" he asked in a worried, tender tone, "Are you okay? Why are you crying?"
"Arachne already healed me," Echo said. "I'll be okay."
"Drow?" Echo repeated, looking pale. She glanced behind her, in the direction of the hook rock or at the gnomes. "We need to hurry up," she mouthed to Jana and Aloysius.
Jana mouthed something that was probably very, very impolite. "C'mon, finish drawing, furface. We need to get moving."
"I can't do it, Dalgaer." Arachne's voice was muffled by the remaining singed material of her dress. She looked up at him, a vision of gnomic pathos. "Now I'm going to be alone and I won't be able to keep everyone alive. I don't work miracles like they do -- did. I work _work_ and it's going to be too much work and I get tired so quickly and I'm bound to lose someone and it'll probably be you because -- because --
"Oh, don't you see??" she exclaimed angrily. "Renn's missing and I can't expect him to turn up again. He'll probably wind up like Doric -- Dorian -- the irritating one who wandered off and wound up in that lizard's stomach. Renn may not have _wandered_, but he's off alone and that's just not good. And now, thanks to -- Thanks to --" She shook her head and started afresh: "Kanon's god is likely to be mightily wroth and peeved and probably won't give him any miracles at all for a month of tendays or something because he couldn't even get his penance right. And that's going to dump all the healing responsibility on me or else people will die and I -- I can't!" Her head dropped again. She looked drained. "I'm not good enough ... I'm going to -- I'm going to fail! I'm going to fail," she repeated, "and people are going to die and I'm so selfish that I'm as much worried about the one as about the other."
Dalgaer frowned, "I can't believe a good god would deny his follower healing for something someone else did. But I'm sorry, Arachne, I didn't think this through. Do not despair, I promised I wouldn't die." Dalgaer finished with a cocky smile.
"I suppose it depends how strongly the god feels about the importance of following rules once they've been set," Arachne mumbled to her knees. "But why vow to undertake a tribulation if there isn't a cost to abandoning it? And why ask the rest of us to participate in his denial -- of succor, I mean -- if it isn't necessary to the thing for us to do it right -- to complete it -- also. We're apostate, Dalgaer. Well, that's probably overstating it. But I don't know whether 'venial' would be belittling the error. I don't know, but I feel so –
"Who the HELL are you to promise that you won't die!?" Suddenly, as if she'd managed to spring from a sitting position, Arachne was on her feet, glaring at Dalgaer, her fists clenched. "As if you did ANYTHING at all to keep from getting yourself killed! As if I weren't nearly killing myself pouring myself into your bleeding carcass every damned minute so you can roar your happy battle song and go get yourself cut to ribbons all over again! As if --! And -- And then ..." She leaned against the wall. "And then you promise me you won't die...?" she asked wearily, and made a sound like a crippled laugh. "Is that a vow, like Kanon's? And, like Kanon's, does it apply at all if someone else happens to be trying to kill you?" Her voice faded. "What's the point of promises when the world comes around and does what it likes and you don't or can't keep your word?" She slumped to the floor again. "What the hell use will your promise be to me when you're dead?"
Azrun looked up, "Where are we going and how are we getting Kanon and Blacky there? We can carry them there but it's going to be awfully slow moving." He looked to the the tiger man, "Do the dark elves still come here? Being that you were living close by I would think not."
"I haven't seen any drow in the area," the tiger man said. "I think the temple is abandoned."
"Where'er we stay, he will stay with us. Any peril he knows of, he will tell us about, for it shall be perilous to him as well." He turned and spoke directly to Tigger. "Once you finish drawing, tell us if there are any more hook horrors or quaggoth about," he demanded.
The tiger man gave Aloysius a slightly betrayed look, then went back to looking scared.
"No," the creature replied, "unless some of the quaggoths fled from you before."
"Janathell, methinks that we ought to make arrangements for camp. We all need to talk about our next course, and decide what we are going to do with our captive," he said with a nod towards Tigger. "'Twould seem that this general area will have to serve as we would be hard pressed to move Eric and Kanon very far. Besides, there are answers here that need be sought, both about this place and about Rennirolas. He is," the mage stopped briefly to swallow hard and look away momentarily, "a priority for me. That may not fit well with the wishes of the group entire, but I can't leave until I know all that I can know of what became of him."
"I want to find Renn too," Jana replied in a quiet voice. She chewed on her lip for a moment. "You, furball. We're missing someone. An elf and he was invisible. Can you find him?"
"I have a spell that will detect invisibility," the tiger man cringed, "but I would have to be allowed to cast it. Other than that...I don't know. How long has he been missing, and where is the last place you know he was?"
"Damn right," Jana said with a snort.
Aloysius ignored Tigger's question. "The key, methinks, is the stone figure," he said to Jana. "Once I know more of it, we will hopefully be able to locate Rennirolas. Or, at least, know what happened to him." He shuddered and his eyes began to look rather misty. "I hate this place . . . " he muttered, head down, as he walked back over to the stone figure and started looking it over again.
Azrun looked to the tiger man, "We have already tried a similar technique. We found his belongings near the stone piece. His items were still invisible but he was no where to be found. He's only been missing a hour or so. It's the circustances of his disappearance that worry us."
Echo nodded and walked away from Tigger. She motioned for Aloysius to listen. Out of Tigger's earshot, she said, "I think the rock took him. These things have been calling us since the first one we found. He must have got too close." She looked extremely worried. Suddenly, she brightened and spoke louder. "Arachne! Can you try to talk to him like you did to Azrun when you went to the surface last time?"
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