(079) What a Gnome Knows

[acodispo]

"Aye," Wetzel grunts in response.

Then, with shield & spear in hand, he joins the front rank as they head back down the main passage toward the side passage out of which they came, retracing their steps.

[waysoftheearth]

Wetzel leads the way, with Zax, Karl, Gerhard, Akbar, and The Herald in tow. Having turned the small party around, Wetzel takes the first right turn, and makes his way back to the site of the goblin ambush. Eight goblin bodies lie scattered about in a 20ft wide causeway; a grim reminder of the battle fought here. Looking about in the gloom, nobody particularly recalls there being multiple egresses from the ambush site... yet it appears there are three passages running off into the gloom; not counting the one arrived by.

One passage veers more to the left; another appears to curve marginally to the left of directly ahead; a third veers more to the right and hints at a downward curve. None looks any more familiar than any other; these goblin tunnels are all alike...

The players arrived here after pursuing a group of goblins. Pursuit in the mythic Underworld is fast and reckless and creates a "gap" in your map of where you've been. Yep, it's a "gamey" trade off between slow/cautious exploration where you map the way, and fast/reckless pursuit where you run madly without a clear notion of where you're going.

Seems to me that we have here a rare opportunity to see how it plays out. Let's enjoy it...

What now?

[Tonneau]

Zax eyes the excess of egresses with some suspicion - a gnome does not easily become lost underground, even when the bloodlust be upon him.

He reruns the pursuit through his mind, seeking to wrest the true way from deep within his steel-capped noggin. His moustache trembles noticably with the effort of recollection...

[acodispo]

"I have no memory of this place at all!" says Wetzel, standing uncertainly under the arch.

[flightcommander]

"Twisty!" observes Akbar.

[waysoftheearth]

So... which way next?

[acodispo]

"I need a smoke," mutters the little man, then, sniffing the air, "I do not like the feel of the middle way; and I do not like the smell of the left-hand way. We shall take the right-hand passage."

He makes to follow his own advice, advancing a pace or two down and peering ahead, listening, sniffing, squinting.

[sirravd]

"But the right-hand path is downward, no?" says Gerhard. "I must ascend to the surface –– the fresh air –– or I will surely die."

[flightcommander]

Are we able to see any tracks that might indicate which passage we arrived by? Akbar investigates.

[waysoftheearth]

The goblin passages are used frequently by many feet. It's doubtful whether any signs that can be located are meaningful... the right-hand passage curves slightly downward, but not overtly so. Still... none recall the pursuit being onerously up-slope.