>>5294674“To me!” you bellow. “After it, warriors!”
A cry of acknowledgement and agreement goes up, and your men start after the retreating Devourer, which is already half-way down the steeply-declining chasm. You take a spare dagger from Olu and join them in the hunt. The great beast is crawling shakily but with the swiftness of its great limbs, using its uncanny climbing ability to approach a great hole which, being smooth-sided and narrowly larger than the Devourer itself, seems like to have been carved by your quarry.
Carefully climbing down the stone ramps and shimmy along shelves, lowering ropes and scaling the rocks in diligent spelunking fashion, your worthy males shall take easily fifteen to thirty minutes to reach the spot where the Devourer is right now, after only a minute or two of effort. Then, you will be hunting it through its own tunnel-system, traveling further and further from your other allies…
Or, you suppose, you could <Jump> down alone. This would use up the very last of your available spell-casting mana, but you’d have a plume of flame left in your chest, and your sword and borrowed dagger, plus your claws, and your physical strength… Such as it is, measured against a titan of old like this thing. If you’re lucky, or skilled enough, maybe your leap can bring your weigh down hard enough to pierce its brain in a single, gravity-assisted plunge? If not, your back-up will take a while to reach you and to provide aid.
You suppose the same could apply to the much-less-risky option of a well-placed arrow with your elven longbow… But it WILL be a difficult shot, to hit anywhere vulnerable, and more difficult still to pierce the monster deeply enough to be fatal. At least your elven arrows are treated darkwood, and will not degrade from the Devourer’s fluids.
What do you do?
>Travel down the chasm methodically with your forces, and track the beast back to its lair>Use a <Jump> to attempt a finishing blow, or failing that to cut off the Devourer’s retreat>Take a careful shot with your bow before the Devourer disappears into the tunnels>Write-in 