Mel puts her hand on Fyrtor's shoulder. "Come on, let's form a chain. Kazador, then Fyrtor, the me, then Brolin, then Túrion, then Kelian, and finally Algric. Keep your left hand on the shoulder of the person in front of you. Túrion, Nelly can walk beside you -- keep your other hand on her shoulder. This way everyone knows where everyone else is, and the two of us who can see in the dark without magical aid are at the front and the rear where they can keep lookout for ... I don't know, any surprises that might be in there."
She thinks a moment and adds "And let's go slowly. Kazador, take my spare bow and tap the floor ahead of you as we go, just in case of pressure plates or pitfalls."
Mel puts her hand on Fyrtor's shoulder. "Let's form a chain -- Kazador, then Fyrtor, then me, then Túrion, then Brolin, then Kelian, and finally Algric. Túrion, Nelly can walk beside you."
"Everyone put your left hand on the shoulder of the one in front of you. That puts the two of us who can see in the dark without magical aid at the front and the back, where they can keep an eye out for any surprises, and everyone else knows where they are in relation to the other."
She thinks a bit more. "Here, Kazador." She takes out her spare bow and unstrings it, leaving a long, straight stave. "Let's go slowly, and you can tap the floor ahead of you as we go, in case of pitfalls or pressure plates."
The group creeps along in the dark hallway for about a minute until they can make out a faint orange glow up ahead.
"What's that?" Mel asks softly as the light comes into view.
”Wish I knew...but glad ye can see it to.” Kazador said as he led them towards it.
Mel believes she is seeing Torchlight about 100 ft away. It looks like the source of the light is moving around the room.
"It looks like torchlight -- perhaps a hundred feet ahead. It's moving." Mel says. "I guess there's not much to do but forge ahead."
”Agreed. Let’s move.” Kazador said, his voice filled with anticipation.
You walk down the hallway, not particularly quiet, and see the torchlight recede away from you off to the side. At the end of the hallway that you are in it appears there is a large stone gate of some sort and a hallway that branches off to the left. The gate reads in Dwarvish "No lone man will pass through here."
"'No lone man will pass through here,' huh? Hmph! Typical," Mel sniffs. "I take it none of the vault keepers were women, Kazador?"
”Not that I know of. But they were a secretive lot. Often wouldn’t know one if ye talked to them. I only knew a few because of my station.” He glanced at Algric, as if daring him to make a comment. ”Luckily none of us will have to go alone. Let’s push on.”
"May as well," she says a bit dubiously.
The group moves up to the stone wall. It seems as if it might this up into the ceiling to reveal a passage forward. But it certainly is not doing so now and remains solid. Meanwhile, the source of the torchlight has receded further west down the side hallway and around a corner to the south.
"Well, I guess we follow the light," Mel says. "Seeing as how there aren't really any other ways forward."
”Aye, seems like the only course of action to me as well.”
"Perhaps . . . I'm not volunteering for it, but perhaps a few people should stay a bit further back then the rest of us, from our human caterpillar. In case we all, we all die, they could . . . not die. They'd need someone with darkvision with them, so they wouldn't be alone in the dark."
He sighs. "Beyond that, I guess we go towards the light, minus anyone who'd rather stay behind."
”It’s alright lad. It’s alright. These layers of defenses? Likely made to warn of intruders, nay to outright kill without warning. That’d be pretty fooked up, aye?”
"It can't hurt to be cautious," Mel says. "It's easy enough to split into two groups, spread a bit apart: Kazador, Fyrtor, then me in one group; and then a second group consisting of Algric, Túrion (with Nelly), Brolin and Kelian. Algric's group can fall back fifteen or twenty feet from Kazador's group."
”Right.” Kazador said, eager to move in. ”We’ll go in first.”
"It's good sense. We don't loose anything by being sperated a bit, but it may keep us safer. Let's keep moving though."
After a moment Fyrtor adds, "I wonder how who or whatever we are following has light. Maybe we should try a torch of our own since magic seems to have failed us."
Fyrtor lights a torch, nicely illuminating the hallway you stand in.
"How odd," Mel says. "Creatures who can see in the dark naturally are unimpaired; mundane light works normally; but magic that grants the ability to see in darkness is cut off."
She frowns. "I suppose it could be meant to make it easier for dwarves to ambush enemies who cannot see in the dark. They would not need torches -- which make the torchbearers an excellent target."
She looks around uneasily.
Once the torch is lit Fyrtor attempts to cast detect magic.
Fyrtor performs the components but detects nothing.
Mel thinks she hears very light footsteps moving softly away with the torchlight.
"I hear footsteps -- very quiet ones. Someone, or something, is carrying that torch." she whispers to the others.
”Survivors?!” Kazador’s eyes widened. Without thinking he called out hello in Dwarven. Not loud enough for his voice to carry back into orc controlled tunnels, but enough to reach the footsteps
"Or it could be a magical construct; or a trained beast of some sort," Mel says in a more normal tone of voice. "Oh well, I guess we'll find out soon enough!"
The response to Kazador's words is the torchlight goes out, leaving you in the dark again except for the torch (which isn't Fyrtor's). You proceed through the tunnel and come to a turn. it looks like collapsed walls have somehow widened the tunnel here.
Mel holds a finger to her lip to indicate silence, and slips forward to peek around the corner.
As Mel heads forward out of Fyrtor's torchlight, she finds herself enveloped in darkness in the tunnel, again. She peeks her head around the corner and still cannot see anything.
She moves forward just a little farther and looks into the crumbled section of the tunnel. It is still dark there but suddenly she can see through the darkness. She notes the elves she fought on the riverboat earlier crouching, the senior to the north and the junior to the south. They don't seem to have noticed her extremely stealthy approach.
Mel purses her lips and returns to the group.
Quietly, she says: "Not survivors. Ambush. Concordat elves. The two spellcasters we fought on the river. Senior to the left as you enter, junior to the right. Darkvision spell works normally around the corner."
”Those..” Kazador growled. ”My hammer is tapped out. Nay more magic left in it for the day. We need to kill them and to do it quickly. And from last time I know that brute force won’t break their defenses. So, how do we do this?”
"I'm not sure, but they know we are here. We would expect illusions for traps to be sure. That won't be without tricks. I can't think of a way to about confronting them directly though geven how magic doesn't seem to work here..."
"I'm pretty sure magic works around the corner up ahead," Mel says. "I could see clearly in the dark again once I poked my head in."
Fyrtor nods, "Which leaves us basically at a point where we must be exposed to use magic of our own while the elves have surely prepared for us. If only we could lure them to us. Here where magic is usless it would be an easy fight. But, I'm sure they have realized that magic is void here and so will not come.
Still we could try. They already know we are here, we lose nothing in attempting to trick them in return.
I've managed to pick up a bit of elvish from Mel and some previous experience. I could try to call to them and get them to come here. But what should I say?"
”But will it work if they cast spells on you when shooting from here? Seems to me that this might offer some protection.”
"Is it all magic that's cut off?" Mel asks. "I thought it was just the darkvision spell ..."
"The torchlight made me question. I tried detecting magic to see why our darkvision had failed and nothing happened. I mean I cast the spell and there was no effect, just... nothing.
I have no idea if the elfs' spells would pass into this area or not, but they are more skilled spellcasters than any of us, except maybe Turion. I worry that they are somehow responsible for this effect.
"Or it could be a pre-existing part of the dwarven defenses."
"A null magic zone? Huh." Mel thinks a moment. "Well then, surely the easiest way to deal with them would be to grab them and pull them into the affected area?"
”Heh. I like the sound of that.” Kazador slung his hammer, not trusting it to change shape at the moment. ”I’ll go for the more powerful one. If he’s going to zap anyone, it ought to be me. Turion, can ye counterspell or dispel magic or anything like that? If ye can stop them from escaping while we drag their arses in here, we can then kill them like they deserve.”
Muse gets no response from his attempt to enter spirit dance.
The flickering torchlight gives Fyrtor's concerned face a haunted cast. "I don't know. Kazador do you remember what happened last time you tried to get at that wizard directly? He threw up a shield that stopped everything in the blink of an eye.
They know we're here. They likly know we are enemies since I'm sure they will recognize Dwarvish even if they don't speak it. I won't be able to prevent them from casting anything and there're two of them. Turion is only one man, err elf. Can he stop both of them from casting?"
Fyrtor places his hands against his head, his frustration and worry apparent. Last time we fought these villans Brolin DIED! Gah, Still what else can we do? They bar the way forward... After a few moments he speaks again. "Maybe we should go back and try the stone gate. The elves aren't likely to follow. We could set a guard well within the null magic zone to guard our backs. If they follow they will be easy prey. Maybe that way we can get around and face them on our terms, not theirs. They are dangerous and know we're coming. They won't be easy to overcome."
"If this is truly a null magic zone, then Túrion is unlikely to be able to cast any spells at all. Nor are any of the the rest of us," Mel points out.
"How about this?" Mel reaches into her haversack ... and produces nothing. "Blast! I didn't think of that. I have my old lamellar cuirass in there. I was going to suggest making a dummy out of that and a spare pair of pants. We'd shove it into the room ahead of us in the hopes of getting them to waste their spells on it before we enter. But alas, my bag, it seems, is currently nothing more than a bag."
"Do you suppose it might be worth talking to them?"
She checks her scarf to make sure her ears are hidden.
”Or shooting them from here. If their magic can’t get in, they’re fooked.”
"Mel, you said you could see in the dark around the corner, so magic must work beyond there. They can use magic, we cannot. At least not until we are where they are... We could try to see where the boundary ends. That costs us nothing but time.