Continuing onwards through the dark tunnels you settle in for an extended trudge. Following the main passageway roughly north and east once you rejoin it hours pass where the only variation is whether your left or right foot is thrown forwards.
As you trudge, there are a couple of minor offshoot passages that you pass. One leads Eastwards and the other more Westerly. There is little to the passages that might recommend one direction o'er another.
"Any of these branches look interesting to the rest of you? I suppose my vote would be to keep the main path."
"I don't know...we risk getting cut off, if there are enemies down the branches. The other possibility is that there are potential allies who prefer to keep hidden off the beaten path--the deep gnomes can be like that. Too, the more we can learn about this place, the better off we'll be in the long run. I'd prefer to reconnoiter at least a little ways down each of the branches."
The offshoot of the tunnel leading East is predominately disused and you cannot see any tracks or markings that suggest inhabitance.
The offshoot to the West is also far from well travelled, though there are some older foot trails and a light smoothing of the tunnel's floor that suggests it connects to something upon the other side.
The main bore of the tunnel has the stronger indications that it is more heavily travelled though.
"All right then. Let's try the offshoot to the west. We can make sure it isn't currently inhabited and then continue down the main tunnel. Sound like a plan?"
Hilde nods. "Agreed."
Moving into the Western tunnel you continue for a good mile or more and note no real change.
Padrym follows, his axe ready for more slugs.
"Anybody else getting turned around in here? We should start making a map maybe."
"I like to think my direction sense is very good, but I have to admit that these tunnels are quite confusing, seeming to double back, almost like they are all running into each other. Mapping is a wonderful idea."
"I agree. This branch isn't that well-traveled. Let's get back to the way east."
You travel back to the main tunnel and continue on for another half a day before making a discovery. Lying in the middle of the tunnel is the decomposing corpse of a surface human. Cautiously looking for foes you find no reason for immediate caution and move forward to where the body lies.
It has been dead at least a few days, flesh slowly rotting and being consumed by maggots. There is no steel left upon the corpse, just the remnants of travelling clothes. The skull of the human is smashed and broken.
"I wonder how a surface dweller made it all the way down here? Without the ability to see in the dark, he'd have had to have some help, or something brought him down here."
"Probably had torches, or some other light source. Still, if he's been killed and stripped we should be quiet and do some looking around. Or move through this area quickly."
Hilde gives the body a close examination. As she probes at the damaged skull, she blanches. "That's a little disturbing. It looks like something bored into his head and ate his brain."
"Quite a mystery. Here, give me a couple minutes and I'll take a closer look at him." As Stáli rolls the man's head to the side, he recoils reflexively. "Oh, this is strange and not good at all. Look here. Something has bored into the skull and it looks like his brain has been eaten or removed."
"There are ancient tales of body thieves--aberrations that can burrow into a victim's skull and control the cored body like a puppet. They can mimic the victim well enough to pass unsuspected for a time, and when the thief moves on the previous body is discarded...rather like this one. I had thought them legends, as this is the first proof I've ever seen or heard of." She hastens to sketch the head wounds and jot down some notes for later reference.
"So now the real question. Where is the new body?"
Hilde smiles. "How good are you tracking?"
"At that I'm a fair hand. Let me look."
Padrym will scan the area in order to find any tracks leading away from the corpse.
Though Padrym's initial attempt at tracking is somewhat comical as he accidentally picks up the tracks of five dwarves who have recently passed through the tunnel... he is redeemed by the simple fact that there are only two directions. Since you haven't passed anyone - if there is anyone else still walking then they would by rights have to be before you.
"I guess keeping in the same direction is really our only choice."
"Forward it is then. Sounds like we should expect more trouble ahead once we catch up with it."
Not too long after leaving the spot where the body had fallen, Padrym's eyes improve and he is able to discern several tracks. A group of roughly four to six humans (or near enough to their gait) travelled to where the body fell... but they seem to have doubled back upon their own trail. By the distance between prints and the shuffling cadence you'd wager that they are half-stumbling in the dark and not all of the company can view through the darkness with the same ease that you can.
They appear to be a couple of days ahead of you, but you wager that you'd be able to catch them if you hustle forwards at pace.
When Padrym fills the group in on his findings, Agna addresses the others. "If those humans are down here without a light source, they need our help. They will be picked off by most of the creatures down here. I say we pick up our pace, and try to save them, if possible."
"That's assuming that they aren't these body thieves. We should still try to catch up with them, though." Hilde stifles a smile. "It'll be good to be able to actually catch up with a longshanks."
"Yes, that would have been quite the accomplishment back on the surface. We do seem to have the advantage now that we're down in our homeland once again. Let's go, but warily."
"Agreed, we should catch them up, but I don't think we can assume anything down here is helpless or friendly until they prove otherwise."
Hustling down the tunnel as you track, you urge what speed you can from your legs without o'ertaxing them and seek to make up the distance. A full day in pursuit follows before the tunnel hits a T-junction. Coming upon it from the South - the tunnel branches to the West and East. Looking upon the tracks you see that they continue along the Eastern arc of tunnel.
Stáli looks at the branch of the tunnels, "Well here's a quandary. Which way do you all think they went?"
Survival Untrained
Padrym looks at the tracks and shrugs.
"They went East."
"Except for this one. Someone doubled back and went West. Stumbling."
"I think we keep moving east then. See no reason to change the plan to follow them now."
Hilde shakes her head. "This may be a stretch, but what if there was more than one of these body thieves inhabiting human bodies, and one of the ones who wasn't taken got away from them? Let's go after the singleton--it isn't moving very fast, so we should be able to catch up with it, find out what it knows, and then follow the others." She pauses, struck by a thought. "Or maybe that one is the body thief, and it killed the others and fled, looking for someone else to take. In that case, we'd better find it before it gets to a large settlement."
Stáli stops and considers for a moment. "Mmm. Hadn't considered that. I suppose that is a good course of action just in case that is what has happened. West it is."
Diverging from the Eastern path to track the lone creature to the west, it takes another hour of hustling before your darkvision betrays a slumped prone figure roughly 90ft before you. It is a human in rags... and it is not moving.
"Either way is fine with me. Heading west is fine. Hopefully we will get there in time to save at least one surface dweller."
"Looks like our quarry may have passed on. We'd better approach cautiously though after what you said about these body thieves."
Padrym stares at the body and the surrounding area.
Moving forward nearer to the body you are able to see that it is dead, and the skull has been torn open and the brain missing as with the one you found earlier. Padrym picks up on a few tiny clawprints in blood near to the corpse but there is no sign of which direction the creature went or sign of it nearby.
The corpse itself is in the early stages of decomposition, though its tracks are fresh... you wager that it was dead before stopped moving... perhaps walking only as a marionette and it's movements suffering through gradual decay.
"That's disturbing. Unless any of you have a way to follow the body thief, we'd better go find the others before something else does. If they're alive, maybe they can tell us something about this one."
Taking a closer look at the body Hilde can see some old scarring at the ankles that suggests some time in suffrage. There are not any possessions on the corpse though... apart from some scraggy rags for clothes.
"These body thieves are a problem. We all need to stick together..."
"Aye, and we need a code word, unless these beasties can steal our memories?"