Night had come over the Starlight Tower.  Wearing his human disguise in his quiet study, Egress sat, memorizing a spell, when the chime of a bell sounded, from a cloth-covered water bowl sitting among various sealed jars on a corner table.

Loray paused as she was carrying a box between rooms, and looked to see the source of the noise.  Egress told her to sit in front of the crystal ball.  When she had done so, he cast the spell of awareness, drawing her into the orb.

All her other perceptions were taken up, as they both saw Lucas with Fawnlum’s party again.  Lady Vwerlon’s concentration was gradually helping the uzruul spy find the barbarian heroine more easily; and this time their focus found the adventurers in nearly the middle of the Windsaeve forest.  She was in the heart of enemy territory!

He heard the bell again, and got up, leaving Loray completely engrossed.

He poured water from the bowl onto the floor, slowly, forming a small puddle.  Then he rhythmically spoke a few words with some dramatic intonations.  The water flowed inward, forming a perfectly-circular disc of liquid, and the form of the lich – an illusionary projection, albeit a very realistic one – rose up from it.  .

The first thing he did, was look around and spot the woman, her back to him.

“Who’s that?”

“A pawn,” Egress whispered, giving his best roguish smile.  “Her presence helps conceal my activities.”

The lich glared with his ghoulish features.

“Secrets are not to be shared.”

Calmly, Egress stood his ground.  “She doesn’t know what I’m about.  She’s a poor widow, gripped by grief.”

“I need the helper,” he added, a little more seriously.  “Some of the most powerful magic-users in the land reside in this tower, and she has helped keep me from discovery.  So, Master.  How may I serve you?”

<*>                                                          <*>                                                      <*>

They marched deeper still, with not an enemy to be seen, and the same trails visible, some not even a week old.

“With all this,” Sienna grumbled, “you’d think they’d come fight us!”

The thought was echoed by Halrick and Dreighton.

After another couple of days, Caitlyn came back to the main party, her eyes sharp, but bewildered.  “I found something.”

Fawnlum bade her to lead on, to be greeted by a most unusual and repulsive sight.

Every nose crinkled with disgust, and every eye stared in puzzlement.  Thankfully, Fawnlum thought to herself, the remains were not human.

It was taller than a man, with thin legs and a large lower body like a mantis’ thorax.  But neither was it an insect; it had distinctly reptilian features – those features that were intact.

She walked around the grotesque thing, seeing how it was covered with a strange, reddish substance that looked like pond-scum.  The slimy stuff killed the grass where it dripped down.  Skin and muscle were similarly dissolved from its touch.  Despite the decomposition, the body stayed erect, held up by twines tied to a stripped sapling.  And there was an aroma – foully sweet, with a hint of decayed flesh – surrounding the whole thing.

Lucas was the first to step forward.

He slowly reached out a hand to it, quietly commenting, “It’s warm.”

“If you get any of that on you,” Sienna said, “I’m cutting off your hand.”

Lucas ignored her, then looked back at Fawnlum.  “I know what this is.

“This creature comes from the deepway, but that’s not important.  The red stuff there, is the poisonous ooze of a giant deepway rukk-slug.  The stuff makes its own heat, which other tri-cleorps see.  They put bodies on display like this, to warn other tribes to stay out of their territory.”

“Why would they use that here?” Dreighton asked.

Sienna sarcastically answered him, “Nanny has to keep the children separated.”