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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DM with a vengence" data-source="post: 182762" data-attributes="member: 1679">Atten-hut! Atten-hut!Ladinya looked over the fifty foot high tower studded granite wall and solid gatehouse.  A squad of spearmen with crimson tunics and polished mail trotted out of the arched tunnel leading into the and charged through the streets.  Ladinya walked over to the sentry guarding the gate and asked.  “Where can I find Colonel Lord Hardisson, I have an important letter.  Official military business.”“Access allowed only to designated personnel!  Please stand aside!”  The sentry barked.“Listen, perhaps you didn’t understand me.”  She leaned forward, placing her fingertips on the man breastplate.  “I have very important dispatches for Colonel ‘Cave in’ Hardisson, and unless you want to spend the rest of your sorry life lugging dirt underground for the 3rd Spelunkers, then I suggest you let me in.”The sentry gulped.  “I’m afraid I can’t do that, ma’am.  I have very specific orders.  Authorized personnel only.”Ladinya put a little more weight on him.  “You must dumber than you are ugly.  I’m telling you I am authorized personnel.  I am a covert operative carrying ‘eyes only’ reports of drow activity around Tanar.  Now when the drow conquer us all because Colonel Hardission didn’t have the information necessary to break up their plans, what are you going to do?  I’ve heard that they enjoy torturing prisoners, especially male soldiers too dumb to allow people with access into a place they need to go.  Do I make myself clear?”The sentry shrunk.  “Yes, ma’am, that way.  I believe the Colonel is at the firing range today testing out the new Kheckler Mageworks crossbows.”Ladinya sauntered in, towards a long line of archery butts.  A group of tall, fat, senior officers in elaborate uniforms that glittered with dozens of medals and ribbons was watching a man in simple dark green fatigues was lying on the ground, firing a crossbow.  He pulled the trigger, and three bolts thudded into the center of the bullseye a hundred feet away. Nearly lost in the crush of officers was a thin, slight man in well used black chainmail with dozens of weapons hanging from belts, ankle sheaths, and bandoleers. Ladinya walked up behind him, and tapped him on the shoulder, “Colonel Hardisson, I have a letter for you.”“And what is it to you.”  He said without looking at her.“It’s from Sergeant ‘Nighteyes’ Zimmer.”  She added.“Huh?  Give me that!”  He grabbed the letter and sliced open the end with a dagger.  He shook it out, and glanced over it.  “I’ll talk to you in my office in five minutes.  No, make that now.  Follow me.”  He marched off towards a small single story building across the dust training field, Ladinya scrambling to follow him.The building held just a guard post and stairway down.  The guard saluted as Hardisson passed, went down the stairs into a dirt tunnel with wood bracing, down three doors, and entered his office.  The office was a stark room with unfinished masonry walls, a desk, a weapons rack filled with swords and axes, and several unorthodox trophies decorating the walls.“So, according to this letter, you found a mindflayer and his drow servants in a system of corridors under Tanar.  You gave chase, but it escaped, leaving behind a dead man. Now how do I know that you adventurers aren’t lying?”“One, note the seal on the letter.  If the letter is false, then I think that we’ll spend the rest of our lives in jail on charges of replicating the Royal Seal.  Two, this is the head of the man we found.”  She pulled the preserved head out of her pack by the ear and plunked it down on the desk.  Colonel Hardisson looked at, and nodded.“That’s real, but why do they suggest bringing along a conventional unit?” He asked.“We believe that there is a barbarian warlord working with the mindflayers.  If we were to go after the mindflayers, he might destroy Tanar in retaliation.”  Ladinya lied through her teeth.“Sounds, good I’ll be moving with Alpha Squad in 24 hours, I’ll pull any string I can reach to get heavy infantry there.  This one looks serious enough that we will deploy in force.  Mindlflayers acting near the surface is quite unusual.  I guess that this one was spying, and decided to torture the children because it was bored.  Thank the gods for the foibles of our enemies, they know we need them.”  He stood up, and ushered Ladinya out the door.</blockquote>

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