The pair progressed slowly, Tinka stopping at every intersection to cast her cantrip and leave a mark indicating the direction they had come from.  They found several dead ends once they were further west of the outer wall of the reclaimed city and were now beneath the ruins of the ancient city of Laelith that had not been recovered yet.  Maddeningly there were many times when they had to backtrack or passages looped back on themselves as the underground system of drainage curved and twisted.  Alternating branches and parallel lines led back and forth to the same underground cisterns.  Throughout it all they were able to keep to the sides of the tunnels that were damp but free of water.  For the most part however even the center of the passages, which dipped down to collect and funnel the effluvia and rainwater from the city above, rode only a few inches high with slow moving water trickling slowly west and down towards the sea. Tinka seemed strangely quiet throughout the time, as she was well aware of how her voice might carry in the tunnels, but she did comment that even if it weren't for the marks, they could always follow the flow of water and end up eventually at the point where they knew they had to be under the reclaimed city.<br/><br/>After almost two hours of slow and cautious investigation in the cool damp passages, Tinka stopped Velma and pointed to scratches on the walls.<strong>"Look," </strong>she whispered,<strong>"these scratches go up the walls and on the ceiling, these weren't made by rats, and they look far too fresh to be anything but some creature that still roams these passages.  Do you want to try to double back and explore that passage that went south?"</strong>