>>5485447Yet, you see the remnants of no such devices here. What, then, could have caused the untimely demise of these orcs? A magic spell is the first answer which comes to mind; you possess little knowledge of the Art and its practice, although you have certainly seen stranger magics at work firsthand. If that is the case, then who was it that killed the orcs, and what could they be doing here? Eilistraee's own may have magic workers among their number, but you have not seen a single strand of Ilythiiri hair anywhere here.
A scan of your surroundings leaves you with a handful of choices. The obvious one is to return from whence you came. However, there are no guarantees that you will not be followed back, nor can you be sure that the situation will not have changed once you arrive. As befitting their graceless ilk, the orcs left a rather obvious mess in the pitch dark mud that is guaranteed to take you to wherever it is that they arrived from, with the added benefit of helping to obscure your movements with theirs. Curiously, you manage to make out a trail of subtle indentations in the floor that belong to a quadruped. A lizard, perhaps?
What to do, what to do...
>I could follow the patrol's path back to their origin. They must have come from somewhere familiar to them.>Following prints left by the creature may be my best chance of making a meaningful discovery. >Better to err on the side of caution. I should do my best to retrace my steps to the cavern's entrance. 