We angled for the Overspill as a place to pause, restock, and quite frankly to appreciate some food and proper refreshments before getting back on the road.\u00a0 When there are weeks ahead of you, you want to get in as much entertainment in as you can before you depart.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We stayed in the same inn, the stone walls now familiar, and returned to the tavern where we\u2019d first played darts together.\u00a0 The food and company, as before, were satisfying and fun,though it felt somehow distant, morose.\u00a0 I could not tell why I felt this way, but I could see the others felt similarly.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy do we all feel so down?\u201d Nemmy finally broke in while a discussion was being had regarding the pros and cons of wands versus rods.\u00a0 \u201cWhy do I feel like something is hanging over me?\u00a0 I\u2019m not the only one feeling this way, am I?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I feel kinda crappy too,\u201d Horace said.\u00a0 \u201cBeen this way for a day or two now.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething is wrong in our path,\u201d Lotonna said.\u00a0 \u201cA decision has been made, or is coming, that weighs on all of us.\u201d\u00a0 He drank back a large portion of his bowl of beer.\u00a0 \u201cI do not recognize what it is, but it is near.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I was surprised to discover that this was something shared by all of us.\u00a0 \u201cYes, I feel it too.\u00a0 What is it?\u00a0 Are we going the wrong way or something?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kineta just shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cI wish I knew, but whatever it is, we should keep an eye out for causes \u2013 this may not be a natural feeling of unease.\u00a0 It may be induced,\u201d she offered.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, we\u2019re in no hurry, let\u2019s sleep in tomorrow and see how we feel in the morning with a full meal behind us.\u00a0 Maybe we can stumble upon some insights by then,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI always feel better on a full stomach,\u201d Nemmy added with a nod.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cRats and rabbits do, too,\u201d Horace pointed out.\u00a0 Nemmy just grinned back, not taking his usual umbrage to the rodent comparison.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kineta looked over at me, and raised her eyebrows.\u00a0 I nodded, and we adjourned together to our room.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Our <\/em>room.\u00a0 That felt strange to think, at the time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We did what most couples do, particularly those who know their time together might be limited.\u00a0 Afterwards, while I slep, I had a very dark, foreboding dream.\u00a0 It so disturbed me, I can remember it vividly to this day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A deep twilight settled on me, forests of dead, leafless limbs hanging between me and the featureless grey sky.\u00a0 The hunger surrounded me, it throbbed in the ground like the pulse of a glacier.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I walked through the forest, its fog clinging to my skin and itching, burning.\u00a0 After some time I reached a clearing, looking up at a mound of rock that cascaded mists down its sides as if it were a strange fountain.\u00a0 In the side of it was carved a great face, that of a screaming demon.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Earth\u2019s Boil<\/em>.\u00a0 I knew its name, though I could not say why.\u00a0 It clung to my mind like honey to the side of a tea-cup.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Another name entered my mind.\u00a0 Liliandra<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From inside the stone mound, I heard the sounds of screams.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I found myself passed into the mouth of the demon-face, down its spine, and into carved flush stone corridors, choked with mist and freezing cold.\u00a0 Even my <\/em>fingers stuck where I touched the walls of this place.\u00a0 Though it was pitch-black, I could see perfectly.\u00a0 I walked through strewn bits of corpses \u2013 mostly elementals, froglike slaadi and the occasional bits of unidentifiable things.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Until I reached the bottom.\u00a0 Beneath the corridors, a round room, choked with blood and lined with tables.\u00a0 On the center one was an enormous stone dragon\u2019s skull.\u00a0 Standing before it was a human, pale of skin and thin of build.\u00a0 He stood with his arms crossed, facing me.\u00a0 From a hole in the center of the floor, black iridescent fluids roiled up like amoebic tendrils.\u00a0 Their ropy strands coiled around the man\u2019s feet, up his legs and around his shoulders.\u00a0 They crept up into the skull, pulsing it full of their dire substance.\u00a0 They flowed slowly up onto the tables\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2026and into the open mouths of the severed heads of every member of Fellbane.\u00a0 They were there, arranged haphazardly upon the tables lining the walls.\u00a0 Their own blood \u2013 red as it should have been \u2013 was crusted in places, as though the heads had been resting there for days.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The stench was unbearable.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The thing I\u2019d thought was a man faced me, and opened his mouth, revealing the sharp and extended eye-teeth characteristic of a vampire.\u00a0 His eyes saw me, despite the darkness.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cCome join me, or join them<\/em>,\u201d was all he said.\u00a0 Beneath, deep down, I heard a basso rumble that escalated in volume to become a tremendous roar.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I sat up to the sounds of screaming.\u00a0 I could not at first place it, but in moments realized Kineta was sitting up beside me, eyes wide open, panting frantically.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The screams had been mine.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For an emissary to the Lord of Nightmare, I certainly had some unexpected weaknesses.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kineta looked over at me, the fear on her face clearly legible.\u00a0 \u201cWhat was that?\u201d She nearly burst into tears asking the question.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cA nightmare, I\u2019m sorry I frightened you.\u201d\u00a0 My voice was a dry croak.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWho was that man?\u201d Her hand clutched mine.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat man, who was he?\u00a0 And who were all those dead people?\u201d Her nails were biting into my skin.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWait\u2026I just had a nightmare.\u201d\u00a0 I shook my head to clear it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYes, I saw you \u2013 I was right behind you, we were there together.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Okay, this was trouble.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Only minutes passed before I heard the knocking on my door.\u00a0 The others had all had the same nightmare, and all had seen me in it.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know what to say \u2013 I explained to them who the heads belonged to.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAre they dead?\u00a0 Did they die in there?\u201d\u00a0 Nemmy was particularly agitated.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Other than who they were, I have no idea what that was.\u201d\u00a0 I held the cup of coffee in my hands, feeling the warmth eat into the chill I\u2019d brought back with me from the nightmare.\u00a0 My legs were still shaking.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDo you know who Liliandra is?\u00a0 What the Earth\u2019s Boil is?\u201d\u00a0 Lotonna rumbled from the far side of the table.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo, but they must be related to the place they were going before.\u00a0 When we parted they left Banner heading North-West.\u00a0 Some place called the Deadweld.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kineta looked at me over the steam rising from her own mug.\u00a0 \u201cWhat are you going to do?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u00a0 If they\u2019re in trouble, I have to try to help.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI thought you said they weren\u2019t your friends,\u201d Horace didn\u2019t look up from his bowl of porridge.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMaybe I was wrong.\u00a0 I guess I have to.\u00a0 After all, it\u2019s what I\u2019d hope they\u2019d do for me.\u201d\u00a0 I tried to feel good about the idea.\u00a0 I failed.\u00a0 \u201cI might not like it, but it\u2019s true, I think I should try to help.\u00a0 Even if they are dead, maybe I can find some remnant of them, something to take to their family or priest or something.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201d She pressed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I just feel I should.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t you do it if these three had been in your dream?\u201d\u00a0 I waved around the table.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She thought about it, and they all traded glances among each other.\u00a0 \u201cMaybe.\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 I suppose,\u201d she stuttered out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTry not to sound too enthusiastic, Kineta,\u201d Horace said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou know I would, you sack of lard.\u00a0 It\u2019s just tough for me to imagine you all\u2026like that,\u201d she finished so quietly I wasn\u2019t sure she\u2019d said anything.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nemmy sipped at his cup.\u00a0 \u201cSo, when do we leave?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I sat back.\u00a0 \u201cWe?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He looked over at me.\u00a0 \u201cAnswer quick, before Horace changes my mind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve never met them,\u201d I pointed out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lotonna stood up slowly.\u00a0 \u201cIf they are companions of yours, and you value them, then we can do no less than to offer our help.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBesides, we don\u2019t know half the people we end up helping,\u201d Horace added.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s better that way.\u00a0 Keeps our illusions going that we are doing the right thing.\u201d\u00a0 He smiled slightly at this.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cExcept we don\u2019t know anything about this place, where they are.\u201d Kineta said with a slight falter.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI do,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cThe Earth\u2019s Boil<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s a place in the upper Northwest, in the Deadweld.\u00a0 Some kind of cave or fortress built by a group of mercenaries, a long while back, some time after the fall of Bael Turath.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lotonna looked interested.\u00a0 At least, his eyes widened and he turned to face me, which I took to mean that.\u00a0 He could have been lining up to charge me, though, in which case I had said something that probably offended his mother.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWhere did you learn this?\u201d\u00a0 I guess interested was the right idea.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cJust before we parted ways, we found an old book of history in the library of the Jessil Kerith, beneath Banner,\u201d I sipped at my coffee in between thoughts.\u00a0 \u201cIt told us of an ancient dragon who\u2019d compacted with the Abyssals to become a vampire, and who then went on a rampage for decades before a mercenary group took it down.\u00a0 I think they were called the Lilies of the Valley<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 I tried to remember the book that Bad Dray had read out to us that night in the inn, but the details were a bit fuzzy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a bit of a pansy name for a pack of mercenaries,\u201d Horace volunteered.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI think that was our thought then, too.\u00a0 But if they can take down a vampire dragon,\u201d I shrugged to finish the thought.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThen the can call themselves whatever they damn well please,\u201d Nemmy finished it for me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cJust so.\u201d\u00a0 I plucked a roll from the center basket, breaking it openand swiping a little butter on it from the pot.\u00a0 \u201cWell, if you\u2019re decided, then I guess the question is how can we get there fastest?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kineta thought for a moment.\u00a0 \u201cI have the sigil combination for a circle near Banner, if you\u2019d prefer to port there and then continue on.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I nodded.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll buy some reagnets for you today, enough for the port and let\u2019s talk about how much it\u2019ll cost us to either use your steeds, or if you have any other traveling rituals like shadow walk<\/em> or similar.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t, but I know where we can probably find them in the Market.\u00a0 Probably not here in Overspill, but if we cross into the City, we can probably pick something up there.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFantastic. I\u2019m ready when you are.\u00a0 The rest of you?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lotonna looked at Horace and Nemmy, then back.\u00a0 \u201cWe will provision up for a lengthy trip.\u00a0 We\u2019ll need ammunition, food, water,\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBooze.\u201d Horace interjected.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I kicked myself again for forgetting my cask.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOkay \u2013 meet back here after noon?\u201d I suggested to them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo, let\u2019s meet at the place where we departed for Al\u2019Veydra,\u201d Nemmy said.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re all down there anyway, we can leave from there for Banner.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cGood call.\u00a0 Let\u2019s break, then.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I didn\u2019t feel depressed or wrong any more.\u00a0 Looking over at Kineta, she seemed more driven, as well.\u00a0 I guess we\u2019d figured out what we were supposed to do.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We appeared in the circle in an underground space, probably thirty feet on a side, and held up by large brick columns.\u00a0 My ears popped as soon as I crossed the threshold, making me yawn reflexively to get them to readjust.\u00a0 This was a different complex than the one I had entered with Fellbane, much more open \u2013 and this time, no armed greeting committee.\u00a0 Instead, it was empty and quiet, the place festooned with old cobwebs that drifted lazily in the breeze that passed lightly through the portal.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThrough here,\u201d Kineta pointed, indicating an archway leading out.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s West,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We followed a set of tunnels for a few hundred yards before passing through what was probably someone\u2019s old potato cellar and emerging in a ruined building on the outskirts of Banner.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHow did you ever find that place?\u201d I asked when we finally reached the sunlight.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cUsed to be a small tribe of goblins lived in there,\u201d she gestured back over her shoulder.\u00a0 \u201cThat was their shaman\u2019s ritual room, he\u2019d appropriated it for his own use.\u00a0 I and some companions were hired to clear them out.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNice, good memory.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMemory is untrustworthy,\u201d she patted the little book she kept.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t want to end up in the wrong place.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Banner was busy \u2013 even from this ramshackle neighborhood, I could see many people moving around, more than would be normal, I felt.\u00a0 \u201cSomething\u2019s up,\u201d I pointed out.\u00a0 \u201cAnd I\u2019ll bet money they\u2019re getting ready for the arrival of Kaenig\u2019s army.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cKaenig \u2013 he\u2019s the other Shadrim, isn\u2019t he?\u00a0 The one you said had also visited Vor Kragal?\u201d\u00a0 Nemm\u2019s curiosity was plain, he wanted to know more.\u00a0 I\u2019d never shared my earlier connections with Kaenig, nor why he was trying to put me out of the way.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYes, that\u2019s him.\u00a0 Traveling with an army, he\u2019s still a long ways off.\u00a0 I think he was still down south in Arkhosia when we were there in Vor Kragal ourselves, but we didn\u2019t exactly do a lot of snooping around.\u00a0 He could have easily led them past us and we might never have seen him.\u201d\u00a0 I considered that.\u00a0 His spies had been there at Vor Kragal previously, perhaps I\u2019d have seen them again and just didn\u2019t know it.\u00a0 The outriders would have been near, at least, I was sure I\u2019d have recognized scouts if they\u2019d been present.\u00a0 Or would I?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n No matter.\u00a0 In any case, Banner knew something was up, Andelyn probably had sources of information that outstripped mine at this point.\u00a0 \u201cNothing for it, really,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t have anything here that needs attention.\u00a0 Unless any of you needs something, let\u2019s move on.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We got our bearings and took a few moments to check ourselves before Kineta threw us into Shadow Walk<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019d forgotten how easy journeying was with that ritual, how the terrain slipped past so quickly.\u00a0 It almost made me want to drop everything and just walk for weeks, just to see where my feet took me.\u00a0 Trees floated by as though we were drifting on a strong river current, and I couldn\u2019t help but think of the journeys I\u2019d taken as a member of the Cairn Jale.\u00a0 It was a thrill to me, to see all this go by.\u00a0 It still took us several days\u2019 travel, but the call of the road made the journey a pleasure.\u00a0 No dreams plagued us beyond that one night \u2013 at least, none of a bad sort.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And yet, the foreboding of the dream still held me \u2013 who was that man in the dream, and was I seeing things clearly?\u00a0 Were they already dead, or was it some kind of foresight?\u00a0 It bothered me greatly to dwell on it, so I did my best to avoid the subject.\u00a0 It was only as we drew near to the Sword Weld, and the town of Shaded Hollow, which sat directly on the edge of the forest.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Sword Weld is an enormous forest, thousands of square miles, which runs roughly North-South along the Ridgeback Mountains.\u00a0 Over thousands of years, weather coming over the mountains dumps great deals of snow (at higher lattitudes) and rain on the forest, which itself stretches for almost two hundred miles from the foothills.\u00a0 Even in the time of Bael Turath, we risked the defense of roadways carved through Elvish territory rather than waste the time circumnavigating its thousand-mile length.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n West of Banner, some two weeks as the horse walks, the edge of the wood cuts inward deeply and almost straight West, for perhaps a hundred miles or so.\u00a0 It then curves back out to return to its normal border, and at its widest the open meadowland is about ten miles North to South between the borders of the wood.\u00a0 Through the center of this divide runs the trade road to Orrifest, a city nearly the size of Banner, and perhaps with a slightly less jaded history.\u00a0 Turathian caravans used to ply this route, and further west, through this naturally thinner slice of the Elves\u2019 forest.\u00a0 Orrifest of course benefited greatly from being the stopover point.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The trade road curves now, and passes northward closer to the border of the forest than it used to.\u00a0 Halfway in, Shady Hollow sits perhaps a mile off the main road, a natural stopover for modern caravans working the old routes.\u00a0 It is small, perhaps 300-400 people, and mostly human.\u00a0 Although it has an outsized inn for the town\u2019s size, it survives on woodwork as well as the caravan trade.\u00a0 A small river cuts through the countryside along the Western border of the town, traveling from the mountains out and Southward.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Deadweld is a place few ever enter.\u00a0 A section of wood perhaps ten miles inside the border of the Sword Weld from the town, it is best guessed to be some several hundred square miles itself (if it were a perfect circle, it would probably be of a 30-mile diameter).\u00a0 It is plagued by all manner of deadly creatures as legend would have it, but few of those ever emerge to threaten the locals.\u00a0 The locals, as well, tend to avoid it like the proverbial plague.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t stop adventurers from entering, and certainly doesn\u2019t stop them from buying gear and supplies in town, which of course is another slight boost to the local economy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When we arrived at the edge of Shady Hollow, I was struck by the immensity of its barricade \u2013 sharpened logs made up the bulk of it, with occasional stone towers, and steel-reinforced gates that could swing shut.\u00a0 For all this, only two men were posted at the entry gate when we arrived, and they were both long in years.\u00a0 On our emergence from Shadow, they were engaged in a game of chess, each with a tankard, weapons leaned against the wall beside them.\u00a0 Both gave a fitful start when they saw us approaching \u2013 our speed, and the half-material nature of our appearance must surely have been somewhat unexpected.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPass not!\u00a0 Who are you?\u201d The shorter of the two stammered while the taller donned his helmet.\u00a0 Both were easily over sixty, although well-fed and in reasonable shape to use a spear.\u00a0 The old man had a voice like a millstone had been at work on his vocals, and I half expected him to spit a piece of gravel on the ground in the middle of his words.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis is Lion\u2019s Lunge, and I am Azrael, recently of Fellbane.\u00a0 This is Kineta, Nemmy, Horace, and this is Lotonna,\u201d the minotaur removed his hood as I introduced him.\u00a0 Both men took an involuntary step back, which engendered a grin from the big horned ox.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2026what\u2019s your business?\u201d\u00a0 The taller had managed to get his helmet on, and gave up fumbling with the strap.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI come seeking my companions, Fellbane, adventurers who would have possibly passed this gate some six or eight weeks ago in pursuit of another.\u00a0 We wish to stay at the inn.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cJirko, I remember that group \u2013 the nasty ones, followed a few days later by those others who didn\u2019t even stay in town overnight.\u00a0 Remember them?\u201d\u00a0 The short one tugged at the elbow of the one I assumed to be Jirko.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMmm-hmm, sure do.\u201d\u00a0 He looked me up and down, with an expression that implied a mild dislike.\u00a0 \u201cYou may pass, but you won\u2019t find what you want in there.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d\u00a0 I eyed him with a similar expression.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThey left the morning they arrived, your pursuers.\u00a0 The first ones, they came in and stayed a day, and a small detachment of them went in.\u00a0 Your fellows, they got here, talked to the leftovers, and went in right after them.\u201d\u00a0 He motioned generally North with one hand while he said this.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWent in?\u00a0 What does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFirst one was after the Deadweld, they went after him.\u00a0 It\u2019s been two months time, now \u2013 I think you\u2019re going to find the forest lived up to its name.\u00a0 If we haven\u2019t seen them in two months, chances are the forest claimed them.\u201d\u00a0 He didn\u2019t seem particularly\u00a0 upset at this thought.\u00a0 I was growing steadily more so.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThank you, you\u2019ve been much help to me,\u201d I said.\u00a0 I turned back to the others. \u201cLet\u2019s get to the inn, someone there might be able to shed a little more light on the situation, perhaps even guide us.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We walked quickly into the small town, passing homes, most of which had small streamers of smoke rising from their chimneys that mixed thirty feet off the ground in a thin blanket before blowing away to the West.\u00a0 A blacksmith, hammering at a set of horseshoes, nodded to us as we walked by.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nemmy rapped Lotonna on the shin.\u00a0 \u201cIf you want, we\u2019ll wait while you check out this year\u2019s fashions,\u201d he jerked his head towards the smith\u2019s coal-fired forge.\u00a0 \u201cThose might look good on y-\u201c\u00a0 His continuation was interrupted when Lotonna\u2019s tufted tail slapped him in the face.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBe glad I haven\u2019t made leggings out of you, rodent,\u201d the Oxen-headed warrior said.\u00a0 It was the first time I\u2019d heard him use the pejorative, and I could see now a smile on his face \u2013 somewhat like a dog\u2019s snarl, the lips drawn back from the sharp teeth.\u00a0 It was no longer a mystery why few races ever have formal dealings with the minotaurs:\u00a0 their facial expressions are so easily mistaken for aggression, that a successful negotiation could quickly turn violent on false pretenses.\u00a0 In fact, it would not surprise me at all to discover that the minotaur think the various races with more human-ish faces were subtly and unpredictably insane, as such breakdowns in communication would seem all the more unreasoned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We found the inn, and it was genuinely too large for its town.\u00a0 There were no wagons around, so I suppose we found it in-between caravans.\u00a0 Smoke from two separate chimneys on either end of its length added to the blanket of haze separating the town from the blue sky above.\u00a0 There was also a smell in the air, one I hadn\u2019t really picked up on before.\u00a0 Flowers.\u00a0 The place smelled faintly of the flowers of the forest.\u00a0 Of course, it smelled of other, less pleasant things, as settlements often do, but the size of the town was not so great as to overpower the natural aroma of the forest nearby.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Entering the inn \u2013 which was called the Bale and Basket \u2013 we set ourselves down at one of its long tables.\u00a0 A small man came out from the kitchen, and recited the four plates and two beers available, from which we all chose our various leanings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWill you be needing rooms, then, folks?\u201d\u00a0 He finished.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The others looked at me.\u00a0 I turned back to the innkeep.\u00a0 \u201cYes, please, for tonight.\u00a0 We\u2019d like to get a night\u2019s rest before moving into the forest.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He leaned back, assessing us carefully.\u00a0 \u201cYes sir, wait here, sir.\u201d\u00a0 He walked back to the bar, called in the food and received an affirmation from an indistinct voice within.\u00a0 He then grabbed a beaten chair from another table and returned to us.\u00a0 Plopping the chair upon the floor next to me, he sat and leaned in on his elbows.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d not be thinking to go into the Deadweld on the morrow, would you be?\u201d\u00a0 His expression was one of consternation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kineta also leaned onto the table.\u00a0 \u201cThat was indeed the idea, kind sir, and we were hoping to gather information from you regarding its nature.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe advice I\u2019d give you then, is: please don\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0 He straightened his back.\u00a0 \u201cWe get groups every year or three that come in, buy us out of supplies, and venture in there, hoping to find the source of its curse and put it right.\u00a0 They never <\/em>return, sirs and ma\u2019am.\u00a0 This year the place has taken two groups already, unusual in itself.\u00a0 I\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t try to avoid it being three.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cCurse?\u201d Horace asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat else can keep a forest of dead trees standing for centuries, son?\u201d He responded. \u201cThe place is evil, it is bad, oh indeed that.\u00a0 But it keeps to itself, it does, and long as it doesn\u2019t cause harm to them what\u2019s around it,\u201d his gesture encompassed the town here, \u201cthen there\u2019s no point in throwing yourself down a hole chasing its badness.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He looked around at us, and at our gear.\u00a0 \u201cTwo other sets, equipped at least as well as you here, went into that place two months ago, and they never came out.\u00a0 They aren\u2019t going to come out.\u00a0 They are gone.\u00a0 Would you yourselves want to join them?\u00a0 Spring\u2019s coming on, and it\u2019s time to enjoy the sunlight.\u00a0 Please don\u2019t make it a time of mourning for your loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I sat up straight. \u201cSir,\u201d I started.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBartholemule,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBartholemule,\u201d I continued.\u00a0 \u201cWe don\u2019t have any desire to die there.\u00a0 But one of those two groups contained my friends, and if they are in trouble, or have died, then it is my duty to see them aid, or recover some part of them that can be returned to peace.\u00a0 Whatever evil is contained in this Deadweld, it is not my intention of opposing it unless it stands between myself and that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBe that as it may, and forgive me for saying so, sir, but them folk is gone.\u00a0 They are dead.\u00a0 Food for worms, if you\u2019ll forgive me being so impolite before your dinner, sir.\u201d\u00a0 His grim expression described the sincerity with which he held these ideas.\u00a0 \u201cWhich ones were yours, by the bye?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if they were the first or second to arrive, probably second, among them were another Shadrim like myself, a dwarf, and a tall, blue-skinned deva.\u00a0 They also would have been traveling at the time with a human of some years, and an eladrin.\u00a0 Does that fit what you know of one of the groups?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYes, sir, the second to arrive.\u00a0 They were only a few days apart, then.\u00a0 Yours didn\u2019t even stay beyond lunch.\u00a0 Arrived in the morning, departed after their meal, trying to catch up with the first bunch.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThen I have to go, I have to try,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSaddens me to hear it, sir.\u201d\u00a0 He thought of what he\u2019d said.\u00a0 \u201cOh, not that you\u2019re going to help them, sir, but that they were your friends and that I have to be the one to give you such news.\u00a0 And,\u201d he added after a moment\u2019s thought, \u201cAnd that I believe if you do this, all of you, that you will join them.\u00a0 But I can do no more than warn you, I can\u2019t choose for you what your course will be.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kineta placed her hand on his.\u00a0 \u201cThank you for trying, Bartholemule.\u00a0 We do appreciate the thought behind your efforts, even if we do end up going through with this.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He nodded, standing.\u00a0 The remorse on his face passed, and he became stoic.\u00a0 \u201cThen your meals will be out shortly, and if you please, any needs you have, just call for me.\u201d\u00a0 He walked back into the kitchen.\u00a0 A few moments later, a kindly woman\u2019s face stuck itself briefly out of the curtain, gazing at us with some concern before ducking back out of sight.\u00a0 Occasional mumblings could be heard from back there, but I couldn\u2019t make out what they said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou know,\u201d Horace started up, \u201cI\u2019ve been warned off of things before, but I can\u2019t say it\u2019s ever been quite so\u2026thorough.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lotonna nodded.\u00a0 \u201cThis place seems more dangerous than we\u2019d first thought.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I considered for a moment.\u00a0 \u201cYou know, I\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYeah, yeah, we don\u2019t have to come along, this is your choice, not ours, they\u2019re your friends, not ours, la la la.\u201d\u00a0 Nemmy said with some exasperation.\u00a0 \u201cGive it a rest, we heard all that back in the Overspill.\u00a0 I thinj we made our minds up back there, we\u2019re not going to change them just because some old man says we oughta.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHmm.\u00a0 Thank you, I think.\u201d I said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re right.\u00a0 Thank us.\u201d\u00a0 He agreed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The meals arrived, and we retired to our rooms a little while later, to rest before our departure.\u00a0 Horace and Nemmy quizzed the innkeep about the forest a little more, and later went outside to speak with a few people he\u2019d recommended would be useful sources on how to find it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We supped together downstairs, joined in the common room by about a dozen locals, all of whom kept a respectful distance from us.\u00a0 Bartholemule stayed somewhat distant the whole time, but very helpful.\u00a0 I\u2019d seen behavior like this before \u2013 you don\u2019t get close to someone or something that\u2019s about to go away, particularly if it\u2019s going to die.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Still, we had a quiet meal, enjoyed the fire, and enjoyed ourselves in the way we liked.\u00a0 Lotonna got caught up talking to the locals, who\u2019d only ever seen one other of his kind (a member of the group Fellbane was chasing, as it turns out).\u00a0 He told them a great many stories of his home, and a few of the braver ones tried to arm-wrestle him.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t hurt anyone, thankfully \u2013 in fact, he showed a somewhat remarkable delicacy in handling them.\u00a0 His finesse was admirable.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n No dreams at all that night \u2013 at least, none I could remember.\u00a0 The others were the same, a dark void where our minds might have otherwise bent the walls of the real and experienced the mish-mash of the real and fantastical that occurs there.\u00a0 I found I missed my conversations with Voedle, his advice and presence had become second nature rather easily.\u00a0 But then, that\u2019s a specialty of the infernals, they insinuate themselves into one\u2019s life as if they\u2019d been there all along.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I could feel the bronze seeping into me, though, into every nook and cranny and fiber of me.\u00a0 My eyes still showed my pupils to be different, but few enough people look in the eyes of a Shadrim to begin with to ever notice that mine were different from the rest.\u00a0\u00a0 I was somehow stronger, not as though I could lift great things, but I could endure more.\u00a0 I also noticed that my night-vision had improved, greatly.\u00a0 The Shadrim are gifted with excellent night-vision to begin with, but we have to have some<\/em> light to work with.\u00a0 Total blackness will blind us as easily as it will a normal human.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Somehow, I\u2019d become different \u2013 I suppose it was the bronze from the pool, a remnant of its enchantment that bound into me.\u00a0 I could see perfectly<\/em> in darkness, as easily as if it were full-on daylight.\u00a0 The first time I noticed this was going to the water closet out behind the inn that night \u2013 clouds had settled in, and the darkness was absolute out there.\u00a0 I had been carrying a candle, which unfortunately was extinguished by a gust of wind.\u00a0 However, rather than be blinded by it, I could still see just fine.\u00a0 I could tell it was dark, there wasn\u2019t any light around, but I could make out the finest detail near and far.\u00a0 The air of discomfort quickly became one of subtle happiness, and I ended up taking a walk that night for the sheer joy of appreciating its beauty.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I returned to my room and slipped back into bed without waking Kineta.\u00a0 I think I fell asleep counting the grains on the wood of the ceiling, but I can\u2019t recall that closely.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Morning dawned soon enough, and although I was a little tired from my jaunt, I was anxious to get back on the trail and locate the place where Fellbane had gone.\u00a0 I found myself whispering prayers to the Black Queen, something I hadn\u2019t done in months, and felt a little guilty doing so.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Horace and Nemmy had acquired a roughly-drawn map showing the path to take and the direction we were headed \u2013 the Deadweld was only about ten miles inside the border of the wood.\u00a0 From what we were told, no elves worried about this area, and we\u2019d be of uncommon luck to see any animal larger than a housecat once we got close to the place.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Once we got inside the Deadweld, though, all bets were off.\u00a0 As no one in town had ever had the slightest intention of entering it, and no one had ever to their knowledge returned from it, there were no maps of the interior.\u00a0 We\u2019d have to figure that all out for ourselves.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The boles of the trees at the border of the forest were huge \u2013 each at least three feet, some as much as twelve or fifteen feet across.\u00a0 The loggers of Shady Hollow had taken three or four at a time from various places, having arranged clear paths to reach their felled trunks.\u00a0 We walked through a mix of living monuments and enormous table-like platforms carved before us.\u00a0 The mosses and lichens lining the northern sides of the trees gave us the indication of direction we required, and at least at first the forest provided some patches of mushrooms and small scrambled-egg fungi.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t recognize any myself, so avoided the temptation of harvesting them, though the thought of wild mushrooms to augment our trail food was a strong one.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was mid-day of our second day when we reached the Deadweld.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t so hard to find, in the end \u2013 it was as if a truculent god had drawn a line in the earth and said \u201cbeyond this point, nothing lives.\u201d\u00a0 It was a stark demarcation point, for looking about even the branches of the forest that crossed the borderline seemed to die in mid-air.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The trees on the opposite side were twisted, bare relics of their living counterparts.\u00a0 Where the bark remained, it was covered with wart-like boils, black fungus, and scabrous growths of lichen.\u00a0 In places where it had sloughed free, the interiors of the tree were charcoal-gray and smooth, as if all memory of life had been erased leaving a blank and dead slate ready to accept whatever writing fate would put upon them.\u00a0 The ground beneath the trees was littered with dry, dead leaves.\u00a0 In a normal forest these would likely have rotted to mulch, and in fact where they crossed into the living forest that was indeed what occurred, but around the bases of the dead they seemed untouched by time, simply drained of color and life.\u00a0 The entire place gave off a smell of rot, reminding me of the slops behind a particularly bad inn.\u00a0 Nothing stirred inside the border, at least nothing visible to us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Looking up and down this dividing line, I could see two, perhaps three places where the Deadweld reached into the living, like tiny cancerous streams into the prospering forest.\u00a0 Perhaps it was my imagination, but I could almost sense the living trees recoiling from the encroaching veins of necrosis.\u00a0 It was truly a terrible place.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat could cause this?\u201d Kineta whispered beside me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I shook my head and did not speak.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Horace sniffed the air distastefully.\u00a0 \u201cDunno.\u00a0 Just don\u2019t die here, I got a bad feeling about this place.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lotonna turned his head to look at him.\u00a0 \u201cI had not planned on dying at all, but thank you for that observation.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nemmy surprised me by being first to step foot over the line.\u00a0 He walked in some six paces, and turned to face us.\u00a0 \u201cSeems safe to me, I feel ACK!\u201d\u00a0 His hands shot to his throat as he fell to his knees.\u00a0 Pitching forward, he supported himself on one extended arm while raising his head back to us.\u00a0 Choking noises escaped his mouth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNem!\u201d Horace and Kineta shouted in unison.\u00a0 Lotonna was already unslinging his pack while I prepared to lurch forward.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nemmy fell over on his side, and the choking sounds quickly dissolved into hysterical laughter.\u00a0 \u201cOh for the love of Tymora\u2019s dice!\u201d\u00a0 He took a huge shuddering breath while cackling like a banshee.\u00a0 \u201cYou should have seen the looks on your faces!\u201d\u00a0 He slapped at the ground with both hands while laughing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lotonna let out a roar that startled even me, standing roughly behind him.\u00a0 Brandishing his axe, he charged the tiny man and closed the distance at a sobering speed.\u00a0 I felt the tremor of his stamping feet, and apparently Nemmy did, too, for the little Halfwise looked up over his shoulder to see the oncoming fury of horns and fur and axe.\u00a0 With a squeal that probably had earned him his nickname he rolled to stand and flee.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Not fast enough \u2013 Lotonna had a hoof on his back before he could rise up, holding him face-down in the leaves.\u00a0 The axe swung with a flickering whistle down before I could even try to stop his rage.\u00a0 The Halfwise shrieked in terror, a shriek that cut off abruptly with the halt of the axe.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Quivering, Nemmy craned his neck and stared at the gleaming steel that was resting against the side of his head.\u00a0 His breathing was rapid and shallow, and his eyes darted from the steel to the other leg of the huge minotaur standing over him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lotonna leaned way down, pushing a bit of his weight onto Nemmy\u2019s back, causing the halfwise to strain for breath beneath his hoof.\u00a0 The oxen-headed creature leaned in close, and chuffed a few times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cShould see the look on your face now, Rodent.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With that, he raised the axe back over his shoulder and stepped off Nemmy\u2019s back.\u00a0 The beleaguered little man scrambled away as fast as his hands and knees could carry him.\u00a0 He drew himself up against a tree, breathing heavily and staring at Lotonna, one hand testing the red line of a cut that the minotaur\u2019s axe had left him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDid you see what he did to me?!?\u201d Nemmy called out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYes, and you\u2019re lucky it wasn\u2019t me, rodent, I\u2019d have burnt you to ash,\u201d Kineta was frowning and holding the wand I\u2019d given her.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I nodded.\u00a0 \u201cYeah, Nem, not a good plan to cry wolf in the wilds here.\u00a0 Someday seconds might count, and if we mistake you for joking, you might be dead before we realize.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nemmy collected himself and stood up, brushing off the clinging leaves.\u00a0 \u201cThis place smells,\u201d he said half-heartedly.\u00a0 \u201cLike it\u2019s waited too long in autumn, and winter never came.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Horace stepped over the line and into the Deadweld.\u00a0 \u201cYeah, something isn\u2019t right.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The rest of us gathered up, Kineta shaking her head.\u00a0 \u201cLeave it to you two detectives to figure out there\u2019s something wrong with a forest of dead trees that begins with a clear line and in spite of being dead, none of them seem to have fallen.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nemmy grinned up at her. \u201cNothing to it, all that training in the arcane arts, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She huffed slightly.\u00a0 \u201cIsn\u2019t there a Lollipop Guild somewhere missing a member on its roles?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHah, hah, hah,\u201d heresponded lamely.\u00a0 \u201cAlways with the short jokes.\u00a0 You guys really need to up your game.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAll right, enough.\u00a0 We know we\u2019re looking for something called the Earth\u2019s Boil, I suspect it\u2019s roughly in the middle of this place, so let\u2019s get started.\u201d\u00a0 Lotonna urged us all on.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Horace remained silent through most of this, just staring at the trees.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t speak when we moved out, either.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Trying to stay quiet was pretty much impossible in the forest, the dead leaves beneath our feet crunched louder than most logging trains, I would imagine.\u00a0 We kept moving roughly perpendicular to the edge which we entered, breaking stride only from time to time in order to eat a bite or drink a little.\u00a0 The smell of the wood permeated everything, and the absence of any kind of animal life actually became slightly disturbing after a few hours.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Within the tangle, as well, light simply didn\u2019t make it down to the floor easily.\u00a0 Much as in a living old-wood forest, the canopy blocks out all sunlight, here no shaft disturbed the ground.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t figure out how, at first, since there were no leaves on the branches above.\u00a0 The closely-packed boles and the tightly-woven branches were a lot to get through, but the gloom remained unbroken.\u00a0 I realized after a while, that a thin mist hung in the branches.\u00a0 Not enough to call it a fog, but it was pervasive and just barely thick enough that it would scatter any light trying to find its way to the ground.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDoes anything live in here at all?\u201d I asked of no one in particular.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n No one responded to me, though I did see Horace and Kineta conferring a little distance back.\u00a0 She nodded and came up.\u00a0 \u201cWe should consider making camp somewhere along here, night will be on us soon.\u00a0 If this is daylight, night will be impossible to see through.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I refrained from discussing how this might not bother me so much these days.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t see anywhere flat enough to put up a tent, but we can at least string a cover up.\u201d\u00a0 Nemmy said.\u00a0 He started to rummage in his pack for the overhang, but Lotonna put a hand on his shoulder.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t,\u201d the mino said.\u00a0 \u201cThere probably won\u2019t be rain tonight, and I think we might need to see above us.\u201d\u00a0 He looked around cautiously.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOh, that\u2019s reassuring.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll get a lot of sleep thinking about that,\u201d the halfwise shoved the tarp back into his bag.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHorace, a fire please.\u00a0 Everyone, start bedding down.\u201d\u00a0 Kineta was a bit more authoritative than usual, though I didn\u2019t question her mood.\u00a0 This place was enough to set anyone on edge a little.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We cooked a little food, and settled our blankets in crooks between roots around the fire.\u00a0 As predicted, the night\u2019s darkness wrapped our camp up like a curtain of black.\u00a0 Kineta didn\u2019t even bother concealing the fire, since more than six paces in any direction led to an interposing tree trunk.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf anything is going to find us, it\u2019ll do by smell, not sight,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cNow rest, I\u2019ve got first watch.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We did as instructed, each of us chasing whatever inner confusion or joy that would dominate our minds for the evening.\u00a0 I dreamed of Voedle, though this time it was just a dream.\u00a0 I burned him in the fire this time, separating pieces of his infernal form and hollowing them out in the fireplace before sliding them on like armor.\u00a0 It was somewhat disturbing to look in the full-length mirror of my library, and see myself fitted out in the spiked hide of a devil.\u00a0 I saw the nightmares I\u2019d invited to stay as well, they were playing cards in the parlour next door, and each greeted me when I walked by.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I am particularly glad that dreams are not generally the measure of one\u2019s sanity.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kineta woke me for second watch, and I stoked the fire a bit while adding a large log to it.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t say anything, just smiled and rested her hand on my shoulder longer than usual before settling down and wrapping herself up against the cold.\u00a0 The chill here was pronounced, in spite of it being springtime.\u00a0 There was a bite in the air that gave the impression of winter onset, as though to say \u2018this chill is here, it is part of this place, and it will not falter.\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I sat beside the fire on a large tree-root, and warmed my hands.\u00a0 Yes, in spite of my proclivity for chill, I do feel cold at times, and appreciate warmth when it is available.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After a while I leaned back to look up, hoping to see some break in the roof of branches that might grant me a star.\u00a0 I was surprised when it seemed that luck was with me.\u00a0 At first I made out a faintest glimmer overhead, a tiny glint of light above.\u00a0 Before too long I had traced a different darkness above us, a long, thin cut in the pitch of the roof.\u00a0 Tiny glimmers along its length shone from time to time.\u00a0 When I squinted, I could make out a larger dark there, also shining faintly from time to time in small points.\u00a0 From this large area above, it appeared that many thin breaches in the perfect blackness radiated out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I thought it must have been a clear night in the sky above, for the soft glints that came to me were so very faint that they could never have punched through the mist I\u2019d observed earlier without brightly shining. While I considered this, I made out a small constellation, eight stars arrayed in a rough \u201cV\u201d shape, four to a side.\u00a0 They gleamed all similarly, and I thought I could make out a faint bit of color, the slightest hint of red, shining from them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Then they all winked at me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Time seemed to slow, and I tried to shout a fast warning, but as if in a nightmare I was too slow.\u00a0 What I had thought to be breaches in the roof of branches above us folded in and speared down, the eight spear-tipped legs of an enormous spider form.\u00a0 The glints along its surface \u2013 which I could now see were reflections of our firelight on its armored hide \u2013 danced wildly as it moved.\u00a0 In mid-shout, one of the forward arms swung scythelike at me, catching on my armor to lift me cleanly from my seat and hurl me into the tree across the camp.\u00a0 I heard my own breath whuff out of me and for the second time that night saw faux-stars.\u00a0 Thumping to the ground in a heap, I looked up just in time to see a flaming blob of viscous goo arrow my way across the small clearing.\u00a0 With a splat it stuck me solidly to the side of the tree and managed to burn me, singeing the skin on the back of my right arm where a particularly thick rope of the stuff clung.\u00a0 It all continued to burn while I struggled to free myself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I heard the others shouting while I struggled, and the clang of weapons was clear.\u00a0 Nemmy let out a particularly loud yell which I took for injury, and this was enough to energize me into ripping roughly out of the clinging mess.\u00a0 I stood and whirled, gobbets of incendiary slime falling away as I did, and I drew Dreaming Fire<\/em> and Riftspar<\/em> together in a flash.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The sight that greeted my eyes was not pretty \u2013 a confused battleground, with the enormous spider-thing (a Bebilith, I now know) sweeping its claws across one after the other of my companions.\u00a0 It was fully twenty feet from the tip of one claw to the tip of its opposite, and encased in a steely black chitin that possessed an oily sheen.\u00a0 Its eyes burned red \u2013 what I had mistaken for a constellation before \u2013 and each had a curved, elongated pupil with two triangular members at either end resembling some perverted form of punctuation.\u00a0 Each of its legs was tipped with a spear-point claw, and the front four extended and flaired theirs to become something more akin to a halberd.\u00a0 I could see now in the firelight that it had markings on its carapace, silver and red lines that came together like an arrowhead.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nemmy was crumpled at the base of one of the trees, his right hand clutching a bloody gash across his belly.\u00a0 Horace stood beside one of the trees, firing arrows at the lurching dark form above us, while Lotonna hewed at a blade-like leg beside him that was supporting the creature.\u00a0 In the dark, his axe struck sparks as it passed through the spider-form\u2019s appendage, severing its tip and engendering a hissing screech from the creature above.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n None of them were wearing their armor.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We\u2019d been surprised as we slept, and this crucial weakness was showing \u2013 Nemmy\u2019s fall, Lotonna continuing to take gash after gash, blood glimmering on his black fur.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With a crack of thunder, the darkness around the bebilith ruptured and sprouted. An enormous maw, filled with serrated, gnashing teeth and surrounded by whipping frilled tentacles, emerged from the tear and immediately lashed out at the demonic spider.\u00a0 They wrapped around the monster\u2019s middle left legs, and its teeth slashed at the carapace of it, cutting severely into the side of the thing\u2019s body.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The trailing smoke-like emanations of the rupture trailed back to the base of one of the trees, where I could see Kineta now, leaning out from behind the huge gnarled trunk.\u00a0 Wand in hand, she focused her concentration on the enormous aberration she had summoned up, barely keeping it under control while doing her best to remain clear of our arachnid assailant.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I grabbed hold of the creature\u2019s soul with my trained curse, and gripped with a concentration that sent sweat immediately cropping up on my face.\u00a0 Taking inspiration from Kineta, I focused my will through Dreaming Fire<\/em>, reaching into the space in and around the enormous spider, and locked hold of its mind \u2013 if one could call it that.\u00a0 The vision of horror that thing called a psyche was disturbing even to sense, and I was certainly glad that I could not see further into it.\u00a0 I felt the vibration in the blade as the orium and bronze added their own resonance to the spell I was calling up, turning my solo song into a melodic symphony of carefully-architected fear.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I used the same method I had used on myself \u2013 I ripped open a path to Taer Dian Loresh directly inside its mind.\u00a0 Tearing and worrying at the ripped edges with my curse, I also ignited the leaking strands of power, which sent fire dancing over the forebody of the great spider.\u00a0 Visibly I could see viscous phantom vapors puffing from chinks in the creature\u2019s armored shell, and its forelegs flailed miserably at its face.\u00a0 I laced the spell and my curse both with weaknesses between this realm and that of the Stygian pressure depths, setting a trap that would erupt with an explosion of ice as soon as the beast shook off my other effects \u2013 a rude surprise to finish with.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It took a lot out of me, but it seemed that if ever there was a time to go for the guts, this was it.\u00a0 I ducked through a small opening I made with Riftspar<\/em>, and emerged some distance away, gathering shadows about me as I ran.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I must have done something right, because almost immediately the beast turned on me.\u00a0 The flames I\u2019d ignited went out with a loud crack <\/em>reminiscent of lake-top ice, and a small shower of frost fluttered to the ground beneath it.\u00a0 I could still see my summoned nightmares leaking from its edges, and by the way it twitched its face, there was still some damage being done there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Neither the fire nor the ice seemed to cause the creature any great concern.\u00a0 Both, however, appeared to compound its foul disposition.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Uh oh.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It charged at me, all four of its forelegs pointed at me, as though to impale and segment me like a pinned insect on some sage\u2019s workbench.\u00a0 I moved with the intent to dodge, but I was nowhere near fast enough.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kineta\u2019s aberration was.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Those tentacles whipped down and pulled the rearmost left legs out from under the bebilith, throwing their stilted lengths skyward and sending the beast tumbling to the ground in a mass of gyrating blades.\u00a0 Even as it landed, Lotonna took a measured step, watching the body fall, and met its rebound with the blade of his axe.\u00a0 It tried to shove itself clear of his maneuver, but the tightly-packed forest denied it the movement necessary.\u00a0 His weapon sank deeply into the body of the demon, spraying a shower of black and purple ichor into the air.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From behind kineta\u2019s tree, a flicker of greenish iridescence flew across the campsite to splash against the side of the bebilith, raising an acrid steam where it hit.\u00a0 The beast appeared to take no harm from this, but Kineta was yelling even before it hit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIce will harm it again!\u201d\u00a0 That was all she said, but it was enough.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Observing its mobility even while thrown down, I snapped my hand through a rift to Levistus to harvest its growing ice-fields and flung a spray of shards at the creature, freezing the claws supporting it into place and adding a great deal of razor-sharp reasons why it would not want to strike out recklessly for a moment.\u00a0 I again ducked away, trying to keep my cloak of shadows intact and continue to confuse the thing\u2019s attempts to follow me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Summoning up a little extra burst of reserves, I threw myself into action as I emerged from the teleport.\u00a0 I had retained my grip on the creature\u2019s spirit, and through it wove a spell of prescience that permeated my friends and their own movements.\u00a0 Tying it to the chill of Fey winter, I grabbed for the strands of destiny that bound this demon and our own lives together.\u00a0 The spell sank home, and I tore at the bebilith\u2019s animus with my curse, while taking assurance that my companions\u2019 own strikes would find themselves augmented by my short enchantment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It certainly worked \u2013 Horace\u2019s two arrows found their mark, and the thing shrieked so loudly I thought my ears would burst!\u00a0 Kineta\u2019s creature also sank its teeth into the warped spider, spilling more ichor into the air, while she blasted an arrow of blue-white at it that impacted it\u2019s shell with a resounding thwack<\/em>.\u00a0 Lotonna laid in with a reprise of his axe, slicing off a thick chunk of the creature\u2019s thorax.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It took two slices at Kineta\u2019s creature while righting itself, the tips of its claws ripping through the ground with a rattling echo against the trees around us.\u00a0 I watched in a sort of detached fascination as the sharp edges of the ice crystals I\u2019d plastered it with dug in, their tips shattering and scraping against the thick skin of the spider, a great many of them sinking through the tough shell.\u00a0 It turned to me, its\u2026I guess you could call it a face, all eight of its eyes blazing at me.\u00a0 The leaking shades of nightmare were finally slowing to a stop \u2013 and the demon jerked in a brief spasm as the link I\u2019d set to the Stygian wastes sent a jolt of frost through it as the previous rift sealed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It saw me again as its head settled back into place, and from a strange orifice above its eyes sparks began to burn.\u00a0 A bulge of purple emerged from the hole, the sparks playing across its surface as it welled up.\u00a0 It ignited and began to burn fiercely, and before I could react it seemed to sneeze, the head whipping in a snake-striking way as it flung the glob of flaming gunk at me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The stuff spread out slightly in flight, and I recognized the burning material as the same which had trapped me earlier.\u00a0 Recognition was little help, as the stuff landed squarely on my upper legs.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t run, the stuff seeping in and spreading down to my feet and up above my waist while it burned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With a shuddering crack, the creature ripped its legs free of the earth I\u2019d locked it in.\u00a0 One fast swipe sent Lotonna skittering back faster than I ever imagined his hooves could carry him, while a second claw singled me out and stabbed at me from across the remnants of our campfire.\u00a0 This claw found its mark, and although \u2013 luckily \u2013 it didn\u2019t punch through my armor, I felt an ominous creaking among my bones behind it.\u00a0 My breath was expelled forcefully from me, carrying with it a fine spray of my own blood.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It covered the distance between us almost patiently, and although it was grievously wounded it moved with a remarkable amount of grace.\u00a0 KIineta\u2019s summons tried to snag it with its tentacles again, but they only managed to slide off its polished exoskeleton this time.\u00a0 Although my inner self wanted to quail at this, a part of me was thoroughly furious.\u00a0 This hunter belonged Outside our world, not in it, and it was a hazard to those whom I was close to.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019d had quite enough of it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I stood straight and opened my arms in a fighting stance, calling up the anger I felt and channeling it into Dreaming Fire<\/em>\u2019s blade.\u00a0 I felt the bronze that was infusing my blood and flesh meet and combine with that embedded in the weapon.\u00a0 I focused on my link to the Land of Nightmare and laced my voice with dripping dread as I screamed a battle-cry at it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou will stand down and cause no more trouble here, or I will banish you to your homeland, follow you there, and rip your spirit from your body then and there.\u201d<\/em> I held up the saber, ready to cut.\u00a0 \u201cYou.\u00a0 Must.\u00a0 Surrender.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I readied my most massive spell, a gout of the primal forces of nature, to channel through my blade should it decide to ignore my warning, and stood fast.\u00a0 Dreaming Fire<\/em> dripped smoke an an occasional spark, and I could sense it thrumming in tune with my blood.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The bebility drew up, suddenly appearing directionless.\u00a0 The enormous claws danced fitfully, jittering as though in seizure, and its eyes squinted to slits, gleaming brightly at me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The others drew up for a moment \u2013 Lotonna readying a stroke with his axe, Horace drawing steady aim with a wicked arrow, and Kineta\u2019s summoned beast hovering directly behind with slavering jaws.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I held my stance.\u00a0 \u201cLook around you \u2013 you are beaten.\u00a0 We will send you to your home, screaming in agony.\u00a0 And that will only be the beginning.<\/em> I will<\/em> find you, and I will make you my slave<\/em>.\u201d The shadows slowly dissipated from around me as we stared each other down.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It held motionless for a long second, then anchored its long legs in the ground.\u00a0 The eyes flitted about, taking stock of the situation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I leaped forward, both arms reaching wide and set to swing, screaming at the top of my lungs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Without a moment\u2019s pause, the beast reached into the canopy and drew itself high above us, and vanished.\u00a0 A great cracking of straining branches sounded overhead, receding rapidly into the distant air.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Horace shouted something indistinguishable and threw his bow to the ground beside the fire while he raced to Nemmy\u2019s aid.\u00a0 Lotonna kept hold of his axe and positioned himself between the fire and the rapidly-vanishing sounds of the enormous beast\u2019s departure.\u00a0 Kineta\u2019s creature returned through its rift to wherever she\u2019d summoned it from, and she ran to assist Horace in his bandaging of the downed halfwise.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I took stock of my condition, painful as it was, and realized I would survive.\u00a0 I trotted over to where Nemmy was being tended, looking closely at the bandage.\u00a0 It was deeply blackened in the faint firelight, not a good sign.\u00a0 I turned and built up the fire, getting a roaring blaze going with the wood we\u2019d gathered.\u00a0 It had a faint odor, the smoke from this wood, that was different from regular dead-fall.\u00a0 It was dusty somehow, more rotten.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I returned to Horace and Kineta.\u00a0 They had opened Nemmy\u2019s clothes and applied a new bandage to his stomach.\u00a0 The new cloth was staining rapidly as well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis doesn\u2019t look good,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019ll be fine,\u201d Horace didn\u2019t even look at me to say it.\u00a0 Kineta turned to me, her face set grimly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She added, \u201cIt\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I pulled my lips back in a grimace.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll fetch more bandages from my pack.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She nodded and turned back to Nemmy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Retrieving the promised cloths, I returned and pressed them to her.\u00a0 \u201cI have no other means of healing, I\u2019m sorry.\u00a0 I thought you all carried potions for this?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ll do him no good \u2013 you need some residual strength for them to fuel themselves,\u201d Horace said.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s barely breathing, and his heart, I can barely tell it beats.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThen make him warm, we can at least keep him comfortable and do what we can to encourage him to return to us.\u201d I suggested.\u00a0 \u201cLet me see the wound, please,\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Horace pulled away the bandage, to reveal five deep punctures across Nemmy\u2019s abdomen.\u00a0 Three of them oozed a rich, dark blood that I could smell from where I stood.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019ll attract nothing good, I think.\u00a0 Perhaps though, in this place, we might actually be luckier than were we in a living forest \u2013 no wolves.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kineta was neutral.\u00a0 She whispered something in Nemmy\u2019s ear, and placed something in his palm before closing his hand around it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe will survive,\u201d she stated without emotion.\u00a0 \u201cWe can\u2019t afford to lose him.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I didn\u2019t believe her, but I stood and nodded.\u00a0 \u201cGet him close to the fire, keep him warm.\u00a0 If you are one to pray, now would be the time.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I stepped away and muttered a request to the Black Queen.\u00a0 Of all the times I\u2019d prayed to her, this I think was the first in which I didn\u2019t ask her to spare someone \u2013 just that she take him painlessly if that was her intent.\u00a0 I joined the minotaur on the other side of the fire.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lotonna still stood where he was, unmoving.\u00a0 His axe still had mess on it from his strokes against the bebilith.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I didn\u2019t speak, but instead pulled a cleaning cloth from my leg-pocket and offered it to him.\u00a0 He looked at it, then at his axe, then back into the far distance.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pressing the cloth into his hand, I drew Dreaming Fire<\/em> and stepped in front of him, facing into the dark.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Over my shoulder, I could hear him settle to one knee and begin wiping his weapon clean.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHow did you do that?\u00a0 How did you send it away?\u201d He asked quietly.\u00a0 \u201cI am fierce, but I have never been so frightening as that.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAre you serious?\u00a0 Have you seen how ugly I am?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Heavy laughter came over my shoulder, relieving the tension I knew had been building in him with the fight.\u00a0 I could feel my arms shaking as well, the adrenaline passing and leaving my limbs locked in the memory of action.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou are not ugly, Shadrim.\u00a0 Kineta would not share her bed with an ugly man.\u201d\u00a0 He stood and took stance beside me, and looked down at me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHmm.\u00a0 Perhaps her judgment has been\u2026obscured of late,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I raised Dreaming Fire<\/em> as if to strike him, then laughed while lowering it.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know how to answer your question, Lotonna.\u00a0 I am who I am.\u00a0 I like to think I am not trivial to deal with, but I also do not consider myself invincible.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He nodded.\u00a0 \u201cYou have never revealed much about you to us.\u201d\u00a0 He looked down again.\u00a0 \u201cI am not asking, I respect your choice.\u00a0 Your actions with us show you to be honorable, your choices are generally good.\u201d\u00a0 He chuckled at my quick glance on the use of \u2018generally.\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBut that, that was a demon of the abyss, Azrael.\u00a0 Not an inconsequential one, either.\u00a0 That was a hunter.\u00a0 He felled Nem in seconds, pierced him like a rabbit digging out vegetables.\u00a0 I took a chunk of it, yes,\u201d he gestured to the clump of rapidly-decaying flesh that he had carved away.\u00a0 \u201cBut it would have felled us four.\u00a0 We would have hurt it, there is no doubt, but it would have killed us all.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps we work well together,\u201d I offered.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not what I was talking about.\u00a0 As five, we had it and it would have lost.\u00a0 But you frightened <\/em>it, Shadrim.\u00a0 You frightened<\/em> a demon.\u00a0 That\u2026my people worship demons, and that one ran in fear.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI had help.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYes, that\u2019s true.\u201d\u00a0 He sighed long and heavily.\u00a0 \u201cWhere is it that you take us, that such creatures hunt its outskirts?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I looked back out into the dark, and gave him the only answer I knew for sure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t really know.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The night closed back in on us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We angled for the Overspill as a place to pause, restock, and quite frankly to appreciate some food and proper refreshments before getting back on the road.\u00a0 When there are weeks ahead of you, you want to get in as … Continue reading