We spent a few hours looking for a proper Orukthyri group to target. We needed a group that wasn’t too large, broke away from the main group in the cavern, and was also heading on one of the routes where they would be willing to chase us down, while still having a low enough ceiling that it would be possible for a weaker person to stay ahead of them. Most importantly of all, the group would also need to be traveling a route that was near one of the trapped caverns, since only a certain number of caverns had been rigged to collapse. The scout leader made it extremely clear that preserving our lives was more important than succeeding: if we didn’t find an opportunity after looking for a day or two, we would simply be forced to return to the city empty-handed.

After sitting in the area and watching for several hours, we eventually found a good target. It was composed of two adults, which was a small enough group that we could still handle a potential emergency using extinguish and Sallia’s physical combat abilities. If we got lucky during our time here, we could wipe out this small hunting party, and then hit another two or three groups before we were forced to withdraw.

Of course, that was if everything went perfectly, which was highly unlikely. But in our best-case scenario, we could wipe out maybe 10 Orukthyri before any major fight happened, which would shave down the number of enemy combatants by a huge margin. The Orukthyri warband was much smaller in number than the city’s army, so if we cut down 10 enemy combatants it would hurt them much more than if we lost a scouting team of eight people. I felt a small surge of excitement well up in my chest at the thought of potentially farming a large number of achievement and keeping the city safe with our actions here.

Then I took a few deep breaths, trying to suppress my excitement. We had locked on to a target, but we hadn’t accomplished anything else yet. I needed to be careful until the moment we actually finished our task.

As I thought about the potential ramifications of our attack on the Orukthyri, our group kept stalking our target group.

We spent several minutes carefully walking through the dim light of the glowmoss, straining our eyes to pick up any sounds of other Orukthyri hunting parties that might interfere with our mission. The size of the Orukthyri ensured that they wouldn’t fit in several of the smaller tunnels, meaning that the directions they could walk were highly limited in most areas. This made it very easy for us to follow the hunting party, despite being well out of sight of the creatures.

The lead scout flashed us a grin that I felt myself returning.

At least so far, the main tunnel was heading directly towards one of the trapped caverns. With any luck, we could dispatch this group nearly risk-free before moving on to our next target. Our group slightly increased our pace, hoping to intercept the Orukthyri right as they passed by the trapped cavern.

Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go as planned. Partway through their hunting trip, the Orukthyri took a turn that ensured that they were no longer heading directly towards the trapped cavern, and were now heading in a slightly different direction. I frowned.

The further away the Orukthyri were from the trapped cavern, the harder it would be to safely pull off the trap. I glanced at the scouting leader, wondering if she was going to adjust the plan somehow, but she glanced at me and shook her head, before gesturing towards the path the Orukthyri had taken.

It seemed that we would keep going. I hoped the scout leader had a plan to pull this off safely, but I didn’t say anything as we kept moving. In the worst case scenario, I felt that Sallia and I could deal with a group of two Orukthyri, although it would be somewhat risky. With six scouts backing us up, we could probably manage it with minimal casualties.

About an hour later, we were close enough to the Orukthyri that we could hear them. Their occasional grunts, snuffles, and snorts were easy to notice in the otherwise silent tunnels. Our scout leader made a few gestures towards us, telling us to slow down our movements and make extra sure that we didn’t make any loud noises. I made sure that I was making as little noise as possible, although I didn’t have any special stealth skills or abilities to mitigate my presence.

The head scout quickly glanced at me, and then quickly pulled out a piece of paper before she quickly sketched a few words on it. I glanced at it, and realized it was a very rough sketch of the main tunnels. The main tunnels were shaped kind of like a giant Y, with the main orukthyri cavern being placed at the bottom of the Y. We were currently on the left branch of the Y, and the trapped cavern we were trying to lure the Orukthyri towards was on the right branch of the Y. There were also several hastily sketched out smaller passageways that led from one main tunnel to another, but the Orukthyri wouldn’t enter any of those, because they wouldn’t fit inside.

Despite the massive detour the Orukthyri had taken, we were still somewhat close to the trapped area. We could reach the trapped cavern within about an hour and a half of walking, even if we walked slowly and stealthily.

At the bottom of the map, the head scout had written another set of words.

You guys head to the trapped area and prepare to drag the Orukthyri in when they get close enough. I’ll lure them towards the area. Miria, do you have any restrictions that would prevent this plan from succeeding?

I felt some admiration for the woman after reading her note.

Being bait was, obviously, the most dangerous part of the plan. Even though the Orukthyri would have a hard time reaching their top speed in the tunnels, they were much faster than a regular Orthanoid in regular circumstances. Being bait and trying to duck and weave through the tunnels for perhaps half an hour of running and dodging required a massive amount of courage. It did seem unlikely that the Orukthyri would chase her into the side caverns, if she got desperate, but it would place the success or failure of the plan squarely on her shoulders, and she was still undertaking a massive amount of risk to her personal safety.

That required a good amount of courage.

I passed the note to Sallia who quickly scanned it, before she gave the scout leader a small nod of respect. Then, she passed on the note to the next scout, who passed it on until everyone had read the note.

I saw a few of the other scouts nodding in agreement, and after a moment of hesitation, I nodded too. The scout leader’s plan was reasonable enough. If she was confident in being able to lead the Orukthyri towards the cavern without getting caught and killed, this plan would work. The Orukthyri would keep chasing her as long as she stuck to the main tunnels, and once they were close to me, my madness-inducing water would temporarily remove any wariness they had towards trapped caverns. In theory, this plan could work perfectly.

The seven of us began quickly moving back towards the branching main tunnel, before we started heading along the other pathway. We made better time this time, since we didn’t have to worry about being stealthy once we were farther away from the Orukthyri hunting party. We jogged to our destination, before we settled down to wait in tense silence.

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Minutes ticked by, as we waited for the scout leader to come back. And waited. And waited.

I started to feel like the worst part of this mission was the waiting. I had no idea if the scout leader had messed up and gotten eaten by the Ourkthyri, or if something else had gone wrong. We were just stuck sitting around and hoping nothing had gone wrong.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sallia start to turn pale. She looked into the distance. I perked up, realizing that the scout leader must be returning. Then, I realized that Sallia’s expression didn’t look quite right.

I frowned, trying to figure out why Sallia’s expression was so odd.

Then, I finally heard what she was listening to, and I resisted the urge to swear.

In the distance, coming from the ruined city, I could hear another group of Orukthyri coming our way.

If the scout leader was fleeing from one group of Orukthyri and ran straight into another group, then she would almost certainly die. Instead of springing a trap on the Orukthyri, she would get surrounded by Orukthyri, caught, and eaten.

I saw the other scouts looking into the distance with grim expressions.

We needed to do something.

I looked at Sallia. and then, praying that the oncoming Orukthyri wouldn’t hear us, I took the risk of whispering to Sallia.

“How many?”

Sallia closed her eyes for a moment, and then held up 3 fingers.

Another hunting party, this time composed of three enemies. That was too much for Sallia and I to handle in a head-on confrontation, even with the backup of the scouts. It was better than being cornered by an entire army or something, but with the scout leader possibly sandwiched between two enemy groups and Sallia and I being unable to handle one of the groups, it was still a bad situation..

“What do we do?” whispered one of the other scouts. “If the leader gets trapped between two groups like this, she’ll die.”

I looked at Sallia, and for the briefest moment, I saw her pale expression start to recede as Sallai fell into thought. Then, a manic grin started to form around her lips.

“We’ll lure this group of three into the trapped cavern, then you guys drop it on top of them,” said Sallia. “After that, Miria and I will fight the two that the leader is luring over while you guys support us,” said Sallia. “It’ll be risky, but I think it’s possible that we’ll be able to off both groups. We won’t be able to continue afterwards, which means we won’t hit our best-case scenario kill count of ten. But dropping five Orukthyri before the big fight is still helpful, and we might be able to hunt more tomorrow.”

I finally realized why Sallia was now wearing a manic grin. She was excited about the upcoming fight. I sighed, but after thinking over the situation, it did seem like the most reasonable plan.

I could definitely kill one Orukthyri with extinguish, and while an Orukthyri was stronger than Sallia and I, the height of this tunnel was much lower than the ceiling of the border cavern we had previously fought in. That would seriously limit the movement of the Orukthyri. There was at least a decent chance we could win against a single Orukthyri in these conditions. And in the worst case scenario, it probably wouldn’t chase us into the smaller side caverns.

These weren’t bad conditions for a fight.

I saw a few of the other scouts frowning, and one of them even opened his mouth, as if he wanted to refuse. However, I shook my head at him before he could say anything.

“It’s the best chance we have,” I whispered. “It’s either this, or we sacrifice someone to the Orukthyri to lead one of the groups away. I think it’s our best chance to keep everyone alive.”

I saw a few of the scouts close their mouths as they seriously considered Sallia’s suggestion. After several pregnant seconds, the first scout nodded, followed by a few more nods. They were willing to give it a try.

So, after a few moments of hesitation, Sallia stepped out of the cavern we were huddled into, and two other scouts, armed with dissolving crystals, moved towards the trapped cavern. I quickly moved right next to the entrance of the trapped cavern as well, so that I could immediately drag them into the cavern when they appeared. The other scouts started moving into the side tunnels, making sure that the Orukthyri wouldn’t see them and get distracted, but ensuring they were close enough to offer us some support if things went wrong.

It only took Sallia a few minutes to return, with the Orukthyri hunting party clumsily chasing after her. Their massive frames didn’t fit properly within the tunnels, but despite that fact, they were making good time. However, Sallia’s stats, coupled with her smaller figure, let her easily stay ahead of them.

On top of that, the Orukthyri would occasionally pause and scan their surroundings. They were clearly wary of trapped caverns, and were being cautious about accidentally straying out of the main tunnels.

Sallia flashed a grin at one of the Orukthyri, before she ran right next to me. The Orukthyri Sallia had grinned at now looked distinctly uncomfortable, as if realizing that something had gone horribly wrong. It warily glanced around, as if wondering where the trap was.

I also grinned at them, before immediately activating my rune ability. Madness-inducing water swirled around me, before I used alteration essence to transfer the location of my whirlpool and placed it directly in the middle of the cavern.

For a few seconds, the three Orukthyri lost their mind, and chased the whirlpool of water. They completely stopped worrying about traps and Sallia, and the two of us watched happily as they ignored us and rushed into the cavern.

The two scouts quickly jammed their crystals into the side of the cavern before activating it. In moments, the roof of the cavern destabilized itself, before imploding. Several tons of falling rock collapsed on top of the three Orukthyri, burying them in several tons of stone. I saw a few massive boulders bounce out of the cavern, before falling onto the ‘main tunnel,’ where they immediately started liquifying and sinking into the road, as if they had been thrown into a vat of incredibly powerful acid. I grimaced as I watched the old tunnels ‘clean themselves up,’ absently wondering how they managed to distinguish what should be ‘melted’ and what should be kept around. If we could just make the roads identify the Orukthyri as ‘debris,’ the entire tribe of Orukthyri would melt in a minute or two.

I sighed, and put away my wishful thinking. If it were possible to control the roads, I had no doubt someone would have done it hundreds of years ago. I refocused my attention on the Orukthyri. As I listened to them grunt and squeal in pain, I grinned to myself.

I doubted the Orukthyri would live for long.

However, the rumbling sound of a cavern collapsing very, very loudly announced our presence to the surrounding caves. I waited for the rumbling to stop, before looking at Sallia. She had the highest Perception right now, so if something else was coming our way, she would be the first to notice.

However, a few moments later, I heard a blood curdling screech in the far, far distance. It sounded like an unholy choir of drowning babies wailing while someone hit a basket of cats with a metal baseball bat, it and it sounded nowhere near where the Orukthyri cavern had originally been.

A few moments later, I saw Sallia’s eyes widen as her gaze swiveled towards the direction the leader was supposed to be coming from.

“Fuck,” said Sallia.

I glanced in the direction the unholy screeching sound had come from, and then looked at the direction the scout leader was supposed to be coming from, and swore as well.

Instead of the leader being sandwiched between two hostile forces, our group of seven was now sandwiched between two hostile forces. And I had the distinct feeling that whatever had made that horrible screeching sound wouldn’t be quite as afraid of trapped caverns as the Orukthyri were.

Which was a huge problem, because we had no other trapped caverns nearby.