[quote][color=6ecff6]"Mr. Elc, would you happen to know if these creatures have a particularly keen sight or they use mostly hearing and smell to orientate themselves? Should we find ourselves in a... difficult situation where fighting shows itself to not be the best option... Exploiting their keen senses might be a very good idea. Be it a flash of bright light or a particularly loud noise with a high frequency..."[/color] [/quote]

Miwa had to wait until she arrived in that large hall before the masked elf finally brought the topic back. 

"They are practically blind, but somehow they can locate their victim in total darkness. Did the keen hearing contribute to that mastery?  Likely so, but can we use a loud noise to stop it? I doubt it. The night before you arrived in our camp, we dealt with a few of them, and the explosion from Miss Jazdia's was as loud as you could imagine, yet they stayed at their position unflinched. I'd put my bet more on the light, but to say it is benefiting us is a matter of debate, and it only has to be used as a last resort."


Pausing to, he then continued after recalling experiences.  "What I mean by that is like this: We keep the light around us, but only at low intensity. It was to mask our presence. The balance had to be maintained. No light, and we will be visible to them, too much of it, and they will see it as a beacon worth attacking. Sure, they can be blinded with a bright flash of light, but it will only stop them for a while, and if some of them couldn't get us, they will resort to calling their brethren, and... we really don't want that fight, even if Vesemir's lantern is as bright as the sun. Light does not hurt them physically, and devourers are known to be a bunch of persistent creatures, and in this tunnel, sense of direction mattered less if there were only two directions for them to attack. And I'am sure they employed the same tactic on these people."

When Mr. Elc spoke about the "people," the young sojourner finally looked around to see what the elves had been discussing earlier.

[quote] 
[color=6ecff6]"Gods... There are probably children among these bones... To die in such a place... Without even receiving a proper burial..."[/color][/quote]

It was indeed terrible, and He let Miwa do her prayer. Moments passed before the same question that had been troubling them resurfaced again. 

[quote][color=6ecff6]"What exactly happened here... Were they purposely corralled into these caves and cornered by the creatures? If they are smart enough to employ such tactics, we should be very careful..."[/color][/quote]

"I wish I could answer that," said the masked elf. "However, I doubt that this is a regular thing. The bones are uniformly old. Means the slaughtering was a one-time occurrence. And no, they might be smart for a feral creature, but they aren't that smart to put a collar around the neck."

Despite saying that, Mr Elc felt it did little to ease his mind, and he diverted his attention to the westernant knight, who had been examining a few corners thoroughly. His guts told him that Rezello knew who they were. The question was, if this had occurred ten years ago, how the heck had he never heard about it? The number of people was too many; there should have been one or two survivors to tell a tale or ask for the rescue. Were they here for something illicit? The kind of business they didn't want the Varenheim government to know? With women and children?