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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 3965929" data-attributes="member: 3448">Apologies for the posting delay.  A combination of busy times at work, holidays, and poor net access at my parents' house caused me to miss some posts.  I should be back on schedule for the foreseeable future.----After crossing the Shadowline, we passed through the dust clouds that blow continuously across Caldefor and made our way to the tunnel entrance of which we knew.  We entered the tunnel.  A few of the periodic translucent globes still glowed with an orange light, but most were long dead.  The working globes were infrequent enough that we had no choice but to use my lantern.  After three days of travel through the tunnels, we emerged-- still some distance from the dragonhold but much closer than we had been.  The Shadow was darker, both visibly and in more metaphoric ways, now that we were several days from the border.We passed some few Shadow creatures, but at first everything ignored us.  Our disguises were sufficient that we looked like we belonged.  Finally, as we approached the dragonhold, to the end of the second day of travel beyond the tunnel, something noticed us.  There was very little movement there, presumably because the dragon kills nearly anything that moves close to its hold.  Suddenly, we were surrounded by giant scorpions, giant soliphugids (camel spiders), and giant spiders-- many of them, ranging from the size of dogs to twelve feet tall.  There were about two dozen of them over all, and they seemed to be just pushing past us.Spring flew directly up and saw someone who was a beautiful woman from the waist up and a scorpion below that.  She was some two-hundred yards away, in the midst of a stream of more insects and scorpions.  We all recognized her strange form as clearly the effect of too much exposure to Shadow, with the taint mutating her, but none of us recognized her specifically.  Spring also noted that she had a beautiful matched set of war-fans, and spiders crawling through her hair.  Spring returned to the ground, reported, and with a quick spell rendered Buzz invisible.  I also went invisible, using my ring, and Sideh hid, though not particularly well.The Shadow woman crested the dust dune ahead of us.  Spring settled back to earth, more or less in front of her, and she leapt back onto the top of the dust dune.  Despite her corrupted form, she moved very gracefully.  She snapped both war-fans into the open position, with some sort of metal webbing linking the sharpened spines.  I have tried to recreate their conversation accurately, although I cannot swear to every word of it.Spring spoke placatingly. “I mean you no harm.” “Ultimately, we all seek to harm one another, but I’ll take you at your word.”Spring shrugs.  “I guess that is right, but in this specific meeting I mean you no harm.”“What zouuvt do you serve?”Based on my training in demonology, I knew that the zouuvt are demons that raise undead.“I was killed on the front line and continued to serve.”“Of course.  Your loyalty to Lord Borsh’tro drove you to continue to serve.”“What route do you follow?”“I go to patrol the border.  To wait for the one who challenged my master in his own city.”  Her anger was obvious.  At a further inquiry from Spring, she projected an image of Lankman, the peculiar dwarf we met before our recent expedition to Circle Greenfield.  “He has stolen from my master.  Goods and slaves, who he has taken to the service of the Light.  He is imperious-- he will return.”Twang interjected, “Who do you serve?”“My master.”“And who is that?”“The Caldefor of Caldefor.  You do not remember me?”“I am not from here.  Are you?”“I am.  I am the Marchioness of Uight.”“Is that part of Caldefor?”“It is.  It was beautiful farmland.”  The Marchioness appeared slightly disturbed as she said that, as if at some level she still understood the damage she had inflicted on her fief, but she quickly suppressed the response.There was some whispered discussion about whether we should take a more active approach to the Marchioness.  Some thought that she could be brought back to Orderly Darkness, while another suggested that we could take her prisoner.  Still, without our sergeant present to decide on what we should do, we took no clear action.Spring asked, “Do the dragons look for this dwarf as well?”“They do.  Greatclaw in particular looks for him.  The dwarf mated with one of his shes-- one of its mates, in the harem.  Greatclaw seeks revenge for this, as I seek revenge for my master.”“Why not pursue him directly, then?  Do you not fear his escape?”“It has been revealed in a divination that he will return soon.  I will not pass the border.  Except for the greatest of us, the pain from crossing the border is very great, and the alarm that would be set off would cause us to be eradicated.”Twang asked, “What if you could cross without setting off an alarm?”  I still worry about the kobold sometimes.  How can we be sure that he has fully renounced chaos?  Still, I am ordered to serve with him and must not question those orders.“If that could be guaranteed, there would be no border to cross.”We exchanged some further pleasantries, and the fallen Marchioness moved on, continuing towards her patrol position.</blockquote>

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