Move 448:  Aloysius and Azrun Scout

As Aloysius and Azrun left to go check out the next cave, the tiger-man replied to Arachne's unsubtle hint, "I am not sure. Like I said before, I assumed the magic on that rock formation and in the temple was drow, but if there are another kind of elves down here, then it could be theirs instead.  It must be," he concluded, "since one of them has your missing person. I have never heard of them, but the elf woman in the other group I talked to was very interested, obsessed really with seeing the temple and in something she said was beyond the dragons. I can't say that those two things are related, but maybe that wasn't about the kidnappings. It could have been about the other elves," he speculated.

A couple of minutes went by while the rest of the party waited for the two camp-seekers to give an all clear or an alarm.

"Oh!" Echo said. She walked over to Jana and tried to talk quietly enough that the Raksasha couldn't hear her. "That reminds me of something on the page we found on the person in the roper's belly. Do you remember?" she asked, looking at Tigger to see if he was listening.

Jana took a couple of steps back from Tigger to talk with Echo but kept her sword ready and her eyes on the critter. "I should, but I can't think of it right now," she admitted.

"I don't know if I have it or if Aloysius does," Echo muttered, "but I'm sure it said something about subterranean elves past the dragon caves. Renn thought it meant drow, but we haven't seen any signs of drow down here."

"Thank the gods for small favors," Jana muttered.

Echo nodded. "It might be what took Renn instead of drow."

"Could be," Jana agreed. In a low voice she asked, "Do you think you can tie up fuzz-face there so he can't run and can't cast spells? I'm gonna have to carry Blacky or Kanon."

Arachne listened raptly to the tiger-man's answer.  Or perhaps she heard him not at all. Her stare at him continued after he'd fallen silent. And then, after a long silent unbroken gaze...her ambiguously directed attention continued in the same wise.  There were injuries to be tended to, supplies to be checked, hooked horror corpses to be kicked. Well, perhaps that last was optional.  Nevertheless, Arachne did none of these things.

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