It's good that their legs are tiny.

Here they are. Off to the side. Silent Image, blending in with the walls, then another fifty feet down the tunnel. She can see through the illusion, the spiders shouldn't, and everyone should be beyond their senses. "Keep quiet until I signal you, and turn the light away, I'm not perfect on reflections." She's pretty good with shadows, and spiders won't catch them anyway, but she isn't perfect and there's no need to take the risk.

Oriol faces away from the illusion with his shield.

The spiders turn past the illusory wall at the junction, moving down a different tunnel.

She waits another three or four minutes before relaxing, and still speaks in whispers. "They're gone, they went the other way. We can continue. Be wary, the swarm will be behind us and it might not find new prey. I have nothing for such numbers."

Navarro nods. "We move forward."

They move forward down the tunnels for a long while. Navarro marks down when they pass by large holes in the walls, at various points.

There's a hole in the wall around sixty feet ahead of them. Tencednil spots three strange beasts, with the bodies of rats but the faces of men. They turn to look at her with baleful eyes.

"There's a... something... there. Rat-things, three of them. They can see us." She isn't going to run towards them, though. Five feet back, out of their vision, and she pulls out her crossbow in case they're ranged. If they come rushing in, she prepares to Color Spray.

Navarro readies his rapier, waiting for the strange beasts to move closer...

Oriol readies his mace. "Hello! What is your business with us?"

One of the strange rat creatures begins casting a spell. It seems to take longer to cast than typical. Both of the others run forward thirty feet and cast spells. One seems to disappear.

"Summon Swarm and Invisibility. I don't recognize the third. They're hostile, and the swarm will be here in seconds unless we disrupt the caster in the back. It lasts a bit longer than the caster's concentration and doesn't obey orders, just chases whatever is nearest."

Garril nods and readies his warhammer...

A swarm might be mindless... but they need the other two out of this fight if possible. She strides forward with purpose, preparing her Spray for when the swarm lands. "They're all casters! If we let them turn invisible we give them the engagement they want."

This position is advantageous to them, if only they wait for the correct moment...

Agreed.

A great swarm of rats appears from nothing just ahead of the ratlings—

Perfect, not spiders. She acts instantly, before it gets the chance to move. Color Spray.

The rat swarm is blinded and stunned!

So is one of the ratlings! The other is invisible so it's hard to tell if it was affected.

"In, we need to drop them while they're out! It won't last long!" Does her shadow detect the invisible ratling moving?

No.

<All stopped.>

"The third one is also out, still right there, you just can't see it." She points.

The summoner ratling runs forward and disappears.

<Invisible!>

"Don't bother with the swarm! Summoner's invisible, there!" The spell should be gone before the swarm can recover.