You enter down into a foul-smelling sewer. It's quite dark down here and the passage is about 10 feet across with pipes and drains at regular intervals pouring sewage down which drains through a central channel in the passage. The passages lead off to your left (west), right (east), and a side passage straight ahead as you stand at a T. Ev notices that there are side passages some distance to the east and to the west leading north as well. The passage you are looking down appears very much like the one you scried but lacks a barrel and other belongings.
Perrin's face twists into a grimace, but whether of disgust or frustration it's hard to tell. "Any thoughts? That passage in front of us looks familiar..." a chirp from Ev as they return "...but apparently there are more like it to either side."
Perrin mutters an incantation and studies the ground, searching for any sign of which way the recent fugitive might have gone. Helpful sonar pulses inaudibly over the surface.
In the dark, Perrin can't make out any tracks.
Mel examines the area with reasonable care, but sees little to indicate a direction.
Even on the hard brick floor with waste water dripping over it, Perrin can tell there have been tracks recently. They seem to lead west about 30 feet then end.
Perrin points out the smudges in the sewage and follows them to their sudden end. "Well. Maybe she flew? Teleported? Opened a secret entrance?" He stands there, looking thoroughly flummoxed. "Now would be a great time for a clever plan."
Mel flips the hood up on her newly acquired cloak and whispers "Wait here just a second ... I'll peek ahead."
Mel moves very quietly and carefully peeks around the corner into the nearest passage. The only sound is the dripping of water and the trickling of sewage. Mel sees a plain stone passage sloping slightly away from her that ends with sewage going down into a grate, just like the passage you saw when you first came down here.
”What we should have brought down here is some chalk to mark the walls. We can get lost down here, and from where I stand every route is as good as the next. Do we have any way of knowing where we should be going?”
Mel returns to the group. "Just another passageway," she says quietly. "It seems to be quite a maze down here. It's puzzling that the tracks just end. If she were going to teleport anyway, why come into the sewers at all? She could have just teleported from an alley out of sight or something. I wonder if there's a hidden passage."
Mel examines the area around where the tracks end, checking the walls, ceiling, and floor for any signs of a secret passage or door.
Mel examines that area very closely but doesn't find any signs of a secret passage or door.
The last (aka westernmost) 10 ft of footprints are slightly smudgy in an odd way.
While the others looked for traps, Kazador busied himself looking for any secret doors or alcoves in the walls.
Mel moves further forward and peeks around the corner of the westernmost passage.
Kazador can't quite make out where a secret door might be but he has a sneaking suspicion there is one nearby. Something just doesn't feel right about this stonework. He can't put his finger on it.
Mel finds a passage very similar to what she looked down before.
Muttering angrily while prestidigitating filth from his beard, Kazador began working faster. Truly focusing on his task he made one last look for the secret door which he just knew was around there.
Perrin paces back and forth along the tracks for a moment, his frown deepening. Then he suddenly whirls to face Kazador. "You're right. Every route down here is as good as the next." He turns to the wall beside him, right where the tracks end. "So why is this one so bad?" He draws his new magnifying lens from his pocket, holding it to catch the light from his opposite palm. "Or rather, why is this one nonexistent?" He rests a hand on Kazador's shoulder and points, murmuring a word of guidance. "Four identical passages, and one spot where a passage could be but isn't." Leaning in, he carefully examines the northern wall. "Unless... it is."
Perrin points out a likely location and Kazador examines it with his dwarven ability to make out stonework. He peers closely at the brick wall and notes a hairline crack in the mortar from floor to ceiling. He believes it could swing open if a certain prominent brick is pulled on as a handle.
Mel returns to the rest of the group, not wanting to stray too far from her allies.
”Ha! See? I knew it.” Kazador grinned. ”Try to pull one last a dwarf? Why, this is no more complicated than the-...” He trailed off, the mirth dying from his voice. ”Nevermind. What I mean to say-“ He continued, much more seriously ”-is that one of these bricks is probably the handle to the door, so to speak. We just need to find which one.” He went to work looking for it.
He knows which brick. That part is relatively obvious as it sticks out in a crooked fashion.
"Hm. If she's in there, opening the door would be a bit of a giveaway, but we might not have another option." Perrin rasps the words to a spell.
Perrin detects loads and loads of magic about 35 feet due north. The auras vary in strength but none of them are overwhelming.
"She's there." Perrin's voice drops to a whisper. "I think. Loads of magic, a dozen yards past that wall."
Perrin picks up on two strong auras with no school associated with them. He also detects eyes of the eagle, a belt of strength, a scroll of see invisibility, 2 scrolls of zone of truth, a scroll of pass without trace, a scroll of knock, and a scroll of enervation.
”Gromthi! Drazh-nu!” Kazador’s eyes flashed briefly. ”I will darken these halls so none can see. We will charge out of the darkness so that even if she is ready, surprise will be ours.”
"Um... actually, I don't think that's her. The items are totally different than we saw in the scrying. But they're still probably not friendly, and she might be nearby." Perrin steps back from the hidden entrance and works a handful of preparatory charms, while Ev grabs another alchemical pouch. "Ready?"
"Uh, Kazador," Mel says, "Much though I like the idea of getting the drop on her, if you darken the area I won't be able to do much. Unlike you, I can't see in the dark, and, well ... " she holds out her bow. "Archer. I don't think Perrin can see in the dark, either, or Roet. So maybe let's keep the lights on, hey? Other than that, I'm ready. Oh ... are we taking her alive? I hope so. I've ... killed enough for one day."
Mel steps well back from the door, bow drawn and ready, to allow Kazador and Roet freedom to move in quickly.
I wonder who she's waiting for down here, Mel thinks, glancing up and down the corridor. Could be she's waiting for Alric ... but could be someone else. She keeps an eye out in case of an unexpected arrivals.
When everyone's ready, Perrin takes a deep breath, activates the wand of haste, and yanks open the door.
Gripping his hammer, Kazador was ready to charge in.
Mel presses her back to the wall beside the door, hoping to avoid notice until her allies have cleared the entry. She nocks an arrow.
The door opens and in the partially-lit tunnel with one crate and another longer one. You see a halfling at the end of the passage turn on you. You seem to have caught her in her private hideout! There's a bedroll in one place, a small barrel in another, and some dried food on top of one of the crates. She mutters something you don't quite catch and starts moving her hands and speaking some strange words.
Kazador surged forward to attack the spellcaster. He knew what trouble there could be if such were left to their own devices:
Against a foe caught flat footed, it was likely going to be a well struck blow. But he knew that they would not be so fortunate to have the fight end so quickly.
Seeing the woman already invoking a spell, Mel chooses to wait a second, lining up a shot with intent to disrupt her casting. "You can surrender and come with us," she calls to the halfling. "Otherwise you'll be joining your associate Alric, I'm afraid."
The halfling spits at you, blood mixed into her saliva. "Big talk, lady. There's no way you're taking me." Suddenly, there's a shiny metallic rod in her hand and the room fills up with a green vapor! You cough and retch as it's stetch nearly overwhelms you.
She just cast a quickened stinking cloud. You know how the spell works.
Everyone but Kazador and the halfling can be heard retching and vomiting in severe pain and distress. Oddly, you also hear a weird retching noise that sounds like a combination of vomiting and hissing at the same time.
You see a large constrictor snake squeeze up from the 10 ft long crate. It's too busy hacking and coughing and vomiting to attack. The halfling, however, disappears! She has turned invisible. Kazador, you can still see her.
Perrin cries out in alarm as he sees the halfling's spell fill the room with choking green fumes. "O-" is as far as he gets before vomiting onto his boots. Yet even as his mind is overcome with nausea, something else is pushing back. A force from beyond himself rushes through Perrin's body.
The nausea floods out of Perrin's head for a moment, and he blinks in sudden clarity. "Out of the fog, everyone, now!" Taking his own advice, the doctor staggers back through the open doorway behind him. Meanwhile, Ev takes flight, zooming down the passageway with an alchemical pellet clutched beneath. When they get close enough to spot the halfling with echolocation, they zero in and drop the pellet in a burst of smoke.
As the halfling's foggy form comes into view, Perrin makes a quick snatching motion with his hand, and an invisible cord of force yanks at the rod in her grasp.
Seeing that Mel hasn't moved, Perrin mutters, "C'mon Mel. Stay with us. You're the most stubborn person I know."
Perrin manages to briefly alleviate the problem for himself and two of his allies while also snatching the rod away from the halfling. He urges Mel on with his words.
Seeing Mel resist the fumes, Perrin quickly relays the halflings location in case she needs to shoot through the fog. Then the rod soars into his hand with an audible hum that seems to shake the very magic in the room.
Silently Kazador stalked towards the invisible halfling. Funny he thought. She thinks I plan to bring her back alive.
His body tingling with arcane energy he renewed his assault, his hammer moving like a blur. He had barely restored a semblance of his honor. He wouldn’t be retreating due to a bad smell.
As the noxious fumes billow out over them, Mel claps her hand over her mouth and nose, almost gagging. But Perrin's words of encouragement reach her, and bolster her resolve.
Holding her breath, Mel shrugs out of her backpack and drops it squarely in the middle of the door. Then she withdraws back out of the cloud.
Perrin dispels the halfling's invisibility and Kazador strikes her hard twice. She cries out in extreme pain and nearly falls down dead, hanging on by a thread. Nearly dead and seeing herself surrounded by adversaries, she tries to cast one more spell. With a smile on her face, she taunts "Only little people are tied to the ground like you."
She disappears, this time from all sight.
She cast dimension door. From what you know of her, she could travel 800 feet with the spell.
An object starting with 0 velocity in mid-air would fall 530 feet in 6 seconds.
Mel, unaware of what is going on within the sickly roiling vapors, draws an arrow and nocks it, hoping to catch an opponent emerging from the cloud.