Move 397:  Slippery and Stinky

Tunnels--Afternoon, Day 40 (Marpenoth 23)

The party kept moving down the tunnel. There were large areas where patches of decomposing plant life made the floor hazardous to tread, slowing them down considerably.

The group estimated they had been walking for several miles when Dalgaer, Blacky, and Jana, in the front of the group, were hit by a fetid smell. It came from a cloud of gas that came originated farther in front of them, where they assumed invisible Renn was.

"Yug." Jana stopped and started backing up, one handing coming up to cover her nose. Sounding like she was avoiding breathing through her nose at all she said, "Something gawdsawful nasty's ahead. Is that danger spell alarm-thingie on Renn goin' off?"

Kanon smacked his forehead that made an audible clang. He moved ahead quickly with a sigh, "I'm sorry I wouldn't know but my necklace allows me to avoid the stigma of such smells. I will go check on him." The priest moved ahead of the group in a straight line in front of the group casting the spell as he went.

"You forgot?!?!?" asked Aloysius incredulously.  Scowling, he held his hands ovr his nose and took a few steps backwards.

Arachne took that as a cue to stop and look around for a relatively dry place to sit. "These walls," she remarked. "With the moss and lichens on them, they're quite colorful. Pretty. I wonder if anyone's ever tried to grow pictures using the reds and greens of the moss and then, the blue and white lichen. It would take a while, most likely. I expect these plants are very slow-growing. But that would just mean that the pictures would likely last a long time, too."

Azrun unshouldered his bow and nocked an arrow, "Did Renn set off a trap or something?" He turned to look behind the group and make sure nothing was coming up from behind.

"I’m okay," Renn said, his voice was muffled, though it seemed he got closer as he continued to speak. "Some form of fungus, must have gotten too near it. But…phaugh…the smell, it’s enough to choke a sewer dwelling orc."

The stone Echo had given Renn to carry appeared in the passageway, at the height where Renn’s extended hand would be. "I’d like someone else to carry this
for a little while. I need to know if I’m seeing things," he laughed nervously. "A short while ago," he continued, his voice now a near whisper, "I thought I saw a rather tall elfin being watching me, even though I’m invisible. It looked like the statue back in the Roper cavern system."

"Augh, that's worse than when I had to slop the pigs as a kid." Blacky said trying to find a way to avoid the stench " You think its somehow watching you through the stone?"

"When was this?" Echo asked nervously.

"Oh, this is great," Jana muttered. She rooted around in her pack for a cloth she normally used to polish her armor and poured water on it. After wringing it out, she held it over her nose and mouth with her left hand then drew her sword in her right. "C'mon, Renn," she said in a muffled voice. "Let's go see this walking stinky statue of yours."

Dalgaer hoisted his axe. "You want me to come with you two?"

"Keep the stone with you," Echo suggested. "But maybe Jana should carry it if you don't want to, Renn."

"I'll carry it," Jana agreed. She sheathed her sword long enough to take it and switched it to her wet rag-holding hand. "le's go."

"There's no statue to look at," Renn replied as he gave the stone to Jana. "It was a creature which looked like the statue," he explained.  "I have no idea how long it watched me, but once I noticed it, it looked at me for a few breaths, then disappeared.

"As for when I saw it," Rennirolas paused. "I don't know exactly, but it was after we began the exploration of this branch of the tunnels."

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