Rhayna follows at the back, paying attention to anything of historical value.

Kastix settles on middle route, "Try this one?" 

"Here boy!" Erky sent Weasel into the central tunnel.

(Thanks for your patience everyone. Let's get back to the hunt for the missing bugbear hunter, and ultimately, the Twilight Grove)

As Erky's weasel trots off down the central tunnel, Royan also observes that the bugbear footprints are noticeably further apart and more scuffed than in the other tunnels, confirming to him that the wounded hunter fled this way. As the tunnel weaves haphazardly into the rock, sometimes ascending or descending, and often weaving to the left and right, the tracks pass by two smaller side-tunnels, none of which hold any archaeological interest to Rhayna, as they all appear to have been made at some time in the past by natural causes, although some appear so regular as to suggest a burrowing creature.

The weasel scouts ahead and is frequently out of sight, but after several minutes of travel, the party turns a particularly sharp corner and sees the weasel stopped in front of what can only be described as a wall of darkness. The tunnel seems to just end abruptly, and neither the light of torch or the vision of the elf, gnome or tiefling can discern what lays beyond.

Kastix pulls out an unlit torch and try to push it into the wall of darkness before pulling it back out. 

The torch plunges into the darkness as if being thrust into a vertical pond of dark featureless water, but comes out again unscathed.

Kaylyn casts detect magic to see what she senses and tells the others what she learns, if anything.

Then, stooping down, she picks up a small stone she can fit in the palm of her hand, and casts light on it.  Watching it glow brightly for a moment steps to the right side of the darkness so she isn't directly in front of it and  lightly tosses it into the darkness. 

Ireniana watches the torch flicker before drawing her weapons. "Let us hope the bugbear did not get too far ahead of us." 

Kaylyn gets a distinctive tingle recognising the presence of evocation magic, although nothing 'glows' like when detecting magic on an object. Everyone watches curiously as the luminous stone silently crosses the wall of darkness, but then hear it almost immediately thud against something solid but soft, as if hitting a piece of leather, at the same height that it was thrown. The stone can then be heard to fall to the stone floor with a clink, and see it roll back into view at the bottom of the wall of darkness, glowing as it was before...

Rhayna asks Erky. “Perhaps your weasel can go to the other side to take a look?”

Kastix will try to determine if this is some kind of magic or spell.

Arcana: 18

Erky scratched his nose, looked doubtfully at the sudden obstacle and then at the Weasel. "Come on, boy, you can do it. Close your eyes, use your nose and go in." He gently pushed the animal towards the wall a bit, watching him not without worry.

Kastix's opinion is that this is indeed caused by some kind of magic, but not necessarily by a spell.

The weasel seems to understand all of Erky's requests, and although appearing somewhat reluctant, it slips into the region of darkness. You can clearly hear it's feet scurrying on the floor, but it returns within seconds. It looks up to Erky, looks back at the darkness, arches its back, and growls a low growl.

For the first time in his life Erky regretted he is not a druid. "There is something bad on the other side?" suggested he translation. "It seems we can proceed but have to do it with a caution. At any rate, someone more ... talkative ... probably have to go there. Let it be me - us, me and the brave animal. Merciful Oghma protect me!" When short speech was finished, Erky indeed bravely stepped into the darkness, accompanied by the Weasel.

The gnome and the weasel stride confidently into the darkness, disappearing beyond the dark curtain soundlessly. However, they travel only about 10 feet before Erky bumps into something solid and falls backward. Just as he does so, the darkness immediately disappears, and the entire party can clearly see the length of the tunnel, as well as the cause of Erky's obstruction ...

The bugbear that the party have been pursuing stands motionless in the middle of the tunnel ... at least half of it does. It's legs, waist and torso can be clearly seen, still blood-stained from battle, and with Rhayna's whip still looped around a belt hook. But the shoulders and head of the large goblinoid have been replaced with - or at a second glance, covered by - a large, leathery membrane, with several tentacle-like extensions and a jagged peaked top with multiple yellow eye-like inclusions. The whole 'covering' slowly pulsates, while the bugbear's lower limbs are almost entirely motionless, except for the occasional twitch of a foot. The 'creature' seems to make no hostile moves against Erky or the weasel, but you can somehow tell that it is aware of everyone's presence.

"That's . . . bad," Kastix says as he looked above at the ceiling. 

When first shock passed, Erky slowly crawled back and whispered as gently as he could: "I believe the best course of action would be avoiding that creature. May be we better return to the cross-road?"

Looking up, Kastix can see that the ceiling (which is about 20' high at this point) directly above and behind the party is relatively smooth, but from this point on and further down the tunnel, there seems to be a steadily increasing number of stalactites.

As Erky carefully withdraws, the creature attached to and feeding on the bugbear's head (which it is becoming clear that is what is happening) seems to be content to continue doing so, although it is apparently still very aware of its surroundings.

“My whip!!” Rhayna only sees her whip and goes to reach for it from the belt hook. If there is any tentacle covering the whip, she will gently move it away. “Uhmm. Excuse me. That belongs to me.” (OCC: check?)

umm... Sleight of Hand?