Tauriell grabs Niamh "Run!" and runs back up the tunnel to get behind Jimmy.
The second solifugid charges after them but Jimmy gets in the way. But the critter is not picky.
Jimmy also looks like thrown into a shredder after the beast attacked him but he returns the favour stabbing the thing out of existence on the first try.
Niamh follows Tauriell as fast as she can and hides behind Jimmy with her. She lets her glare rambles over Tauriell's injuries. She bites onto her lower lip critisizing herself that she just ran away without helping Tauriell.
"Oh no! Jimmy!" Gwenhwyfar shouts as she sees the beast clawing at her hero. She uses her hex through the scar on him.
Abomentolor runs to close in on the spider things to come into range of his other spell. But his short legs are not helpful with that.
Darthdy shot an arrow on the spider.
The last solifugid attacks Jimmy as he is the first line of defense now.
Jimmy attempts to run the horrid creature through.
He also swiftly LoH for
Niamh lays her hand onto Tauriell's shoulder and tries to heal her.
Not as good as Gwenhwyfar could do it but nevertheless Tauriell feels immediately better.
As Jimmy stabs furiously at the solifugid it has no chance. It is run through and oozed out of the new openings dropping to the ground dead.
"Awwww. Nothing left for me!" Abomentolor says as he arrives at the battleground too late.
Tauriell sits down to calm down from the shock. "Wow. That was a close call." She stares absent minded at the wall.
"Well you can bloody well go and look first then." Jimmy says turning angrily to the Gnome
"Do you need some patching up Tauriell?" Jimmy says walking over to her.
Gwenhwyfar runs to Jimmy. "Are you alright?" she asks worried.
"Whew." Niamh says sinking onto the ground in relief. She sits next to Tauriell. "Are you okay now? You look quiet a bit shocked. No sorry. Of course you're not okay or you wouldn't look shocked." Niamh palavers to calm herself. Then she shuts up and looks at the elf.
"Thank you Gwen, I think I am mostly fine, But Tauriell looks like she could use some help."
"No I'm not ok. That thing almost shred me to pieces in one try." she replies looking at herself. "Niamh patched up the worst but there is still enough left that needs some healing."
Gwenhwyfar moves to Tauriell and lays her hand on her to heal her.
"Take your time. It's over now." she tries to console the elf.
Tauriell sighs and gets up again. "If you don't mind I'll be the rear guard from now on."
"We seriously need to stop putting ourselves into positions like this." Jimmy says slumping down against the carcass
Niamh grabs her violin and her bow and stands up. "I don't mind." The halfling replies to the elf looking up to see into Tauriell's face.
"We're just lucky we met these things in a narrow tunnel. With enough space they would have taken us apart in no time." Tauriell replies. "But I don't think wise planning would have helped with these beasts. Or what would you have changed besides us being unnecessarily far up front."
"Booooooooooooooooooooooooring I like the thrill that reckless adventuring provides." Darthdy says to Jimmy.
"I think it would be wise planning to be stealthy and just creep away." Niamh suggests. "Except of Abomentolor and Darthdy. They could stand there and fight them. That would make sure they don't notice us." She adds dry giving both of them a glare before sitting down again.
"Perhaps finding them without them first finding us, having us all close enough together that we didn't have to run, and have the hardest to hit people at the front." Jimmy says, "But you are right, those things just hit hard."
"Then you all have to wait and let me take the front. I have short legs you know." Abomentolor states.
"I would really like to be harder to hit. But I'm at the upper end of what this party has to offer about that." Tauriell comments. "You might have the better armor but you make no effort to move out of the way of a hit."
"My armor is good too. So I'm on the upper end too." Niamh throws in to make sure nobody thinks she's immobile.
"I can get out the way when it counts. And I can keep myself standing when I get hit." Jimmy responds
"I didn't want to criticise you. All I'm saying is that anyone but Gwenhwyfar could stand up front if it's only about hard to hit. Personally I really appreciate it that you volunteer for that position." Tauriell clarifies.
"I am and have before." Jimmy says, "We need to figure out how to make one of us properly hard to hit."
"I can't argue with that. Can we go on now?" Niamh asks. "Abomentolor and Jimmy first then Gwenhwyfar and Tauriell. Isn't that a good row?" The halfling asks and follows along the left wand of the tunnel with a new dancing light.
"Hey everyone. Be happy! We survived once more a dangerous encounter. And even if we bit off more than we could swallow we are now all back to good health."
"And congratulations to Abomentolor. He is now the harbinger of fiery doom he always wanted to be." Gwenhwyfar tries to brighten up the gloom atmosphere.
"Yesss! I'm the master of fire!" Abomentolor states proudly.
"And that hard to hit problem is also easily solved with the right kind of magic." he adds his view on the problem at hand.
Niamh's steps echo in the tunnel. So she tries to be as quiet as she can to not disturb the silence.
She walks through the tunnel until it splits into four.
"I guess Niamh hasn't got a grasp on your idea. Let's move on before she steps into the next pile of shit." Tauriell suggests.
"I still have a few scratches that could do with patching up actually." Jimmy says as he focuses on them closing.
Niamh chooses the left tunnel and left some pie crumps for Brutus so the others can find her with the help of the dog.
Darthdy takes her bow and follows the light. "Niamh are you there?" Darthdy asks.
As Jimmy is ready Tauriell follows Niamh together with him. She puts her blade away and takes her bow to be ready for the next encounter.
"She is seriously going to get herself into trouble and we won't know where she is."
"She has a trained voice. You'll hear the screaming over the whole cape." Tauriell jokes.
Abomentolor casts magic armor on himself using the wand. "Why I'm at the back again. I thought we agreed that I walk in front." He hurries to overtake all the others to get into pole position.
"Well Niahm certainly wasn't supposed to be at the front." Jimmy says
Gwenhwyfar follows shaking her head. "There are quite some members of this group who don't take this seriously. It's like herding cats."
"Indeed, and now you are left at the back on your own which is a bad idea."
The rest of the group closes up and takes the desired formation with Jimmy and Abomentolor at the front and Tauriell at the back. The tunnel Niamh selected leads again several thousand feet in a slight slope upwards this time. It ends at a fork and there are voices heard close by. The voices are croaking.