Thäoran crept forwards another 20ft, keeping his eyes and ears alert for his snakey foe, his rapier held at the ready...

"Hiding again, ye bloody coward?", the dwarf taunted his foe, axe at the ready to strike should the snake emerge again within range.

 

(Moving right into the edge of the smoke where I can still see and h olding a choppy chop if it appears within my melee range. Smite on crit.)

Thaoran continued to move forward across the rocks and reached the far edge.

Gerdar moved forward a bit to see if the naga reappeared.  

Meanwhile Fenris continued to hide at the far end of the tunnel and Soledad and Uthal waited to see what happened the next.

The answer to what happened next was . . . nothing. 

As the group stood there the dust slowly settled to the ground but nothing appeared out of the dust.  Eventually visibility improved and the group moved a bit forward as did Fenris.  They met in the middle.  It seemed the tunnel was a bit over 60' long with a bit of a curve in it but it eventually came to a deadend at the spot where Fenris had stopped running.  It was a 60' long, curving, rough stone tunnel about 10-15' wide that went nowhere.  And it was empty.  Except for the party and some bits of rock and dust.  There was no naga to be seen.  

*A couple of minutes have passed and all is quiet.  There is no need for a map at this point as there isn't much to see - a curving tunnel that hits a deadend.  

Uthal, looks briefly around to make sure everyone is ok (Fenris, do you need healing? If so, Uthal will offer up 'Cure Wounds'), before he makes his way to the wall and traverses it to the dead end (carefully looking for anything interesting), around to the other side and back (OOC: probably not the best person for the job, but investigation). 

With the dust finally settled and he himself in bad shape Fenris was surprised to see instead of a Naga ready to finish him off but the group of adventurers that had initially freed him from the Hobgoblins.

Moving forward painfully, he greeted them again. “Well met once again. It seems you chased off that creature of darkness, and in not a moment too soon, as I would surely have not lasted another round vs it.”

Finding himself to weak to really stand, the Half-Elf Rogue/Mage found himself sitting on a large rock, awaiting what to do next.

With the dust settled and the fight seemingly over, Soledad allowed her magical invisiblity to dissipate. As she released the spell the witch also shifted her conscious awareness to the web of magic that was ever-present and just beyond normal vision. Reattuned to detect any magics that might be present, Soledad began to carefully investigate the dead-end tunnel they now found themselves in.

((OOC: Ritual Cast Detect Magic)) 

With the dust settled and the fight seemingly over, Soledad allowed her magical invisiblity to dissipate. As she released the spell the witch also shifted her conscious awareness to the web of magic that was ever-present and just beyond normal vision. Reattuned to detect any magics that might be present, Soledad began to carefully investigate the dead-end tunnel they now found themselves in.

((OOC: Ritual Cast Detect Magic)) 

As the naga had seemingly vanished, Gerdar carefully approached the end of the tunnel to observe it for potential hidden passages or other oddities in the stone.

 

(Lemme do an investigate. What do my dwarf eyes see?)

Soledad took some time and cast detect magic.  It was slow to do as a ritual, but didn't waste any spell slots she might need if the naga reappeared.  So far it hadn't and things of a magical nature also did not appear.  As far as her spell could tell, there was nothing in the tunnel that was magical. 

Gerdar moved to the end of the tunnel and looked for a secret door.  He took his time but all he could find was natural cave wall and none of it seemed likely to move - whether to open as a door or fall upon them.  There was nothing.  As he finished his search Fenris noted that the place still seemed as much of a dead end as when he had huddled here 10 minutes earlier.  

Gerdar checked the last 20' or so of the tunnel and now looked back up the dust filled tunnel as it curved back towards the site of the battle and ceiling collapse. 

Note:  The spell takes 10 minutes to cast as a ritual so people have time to do something if they wish.  Also, by that time the vast majority of the dust will have settled to the ground and visibility will have returned to cave-normal.

Thäoran frowned as Gerdar found no doors-hidden or otherwise-out of the end of the tunnel. Looks like all this was was a naga's lair that they had the misfortune of stumbling across. He emitted a short sigh, then suggested to his companions:

'If Soledad's spell reveals no doors or any other way to continue, then I say we have no choice but to turn back the way we came and look for another route.'

"So that ending over there is some of the most solid stone I've seen in my hundred and two years of life", Gerdar informed the group as he returned to them, stroking his beard, "And I've seen a lot of stone."

Urthal mutters his words as he tends to Fenris's injuries, evoking Cure Wounds.

"We have been wandering these caves for how long now, and we have found nothing but a sacraficial space and an angry Naga. We should get out of here."

Feeling the power of the Goliath druid's healing, Fenris smiled and thanked him.

"Thank you kind sir, healing is always well recieved." Streching his tired bones he retrieved the rest of his gear and was once again happy to have 2 shortswords in his hands then daggers.

A Map of things as they are currently:

Cure Light wounds spell on Fenris = +11 HP.  

This is the same map you saw before except the tunnel in the upper left has been extended.  There are no distances marked on this map but that tunnel is around 100' long total starting from where the X is in the crossroads. There are two unexplored areas left, but they are both past potential collapse areas.  

"Well there were two more tunnels that we skipped since they looked like they could come down any moment", Gerdar pondered, "I'd rather not be buried under a cave in but if you want to check them I say we be careful."