As the chanting continued, the gathering spiders began merging together into a large ball, and the light from the rune seemed to be absorbed by the churning mass. After what seemed like an eternity, a smooth, sinister female voice drawled out, "You think I would allow you to go back so simply after I went through so much trouble to have my men get you out of the way, Slindis? I have plans in motion that would prefer if you were out of the way. I'm feeling generous though, so I'll allow one of your body parts to go through. Which one will it be?" After some laughter, the ball forms into a drow with the body of a spider.

Panic coursed through her mind. Even though this must be an aspect, she could feel the sheer power from here. Slindis hadn't felt this primal terror since she enraged Vulkoor. Her mind raced, trying to think of how to send her message to get some way to counter this..thing.

Slindis shouts, "Wait! I have chosen, and I have a small deal to make with you." She wraps the letter around one of the arrows, using some of her hair to tie it securely. "First off, your issue is with me, correct?"

The spider woman stops the assault on Rugal, then scornfully looks down upon her. "Your point?" Slindis sighs, then sits down. "I will never enter nor contact anyone in Eberron in my lifetime if you vow to kill a cleric of Aureon within Stormreach with this untouched arrow in the next three days."

The woman laughs. "What's the benefit for me?" After thinking about it for a minute, Slindis responds. "If you don't, I will keep trying to find ways to get back, and I will eventually succeed. Take a look at what happened to Lailat in the Menechtarun."

She paces the ground. "And your friend here?" Slindis stands up, and firmly states, "He will not go there as well. It doesn't benefit him at all, so he would have no reason to."

The Drider snatches the arrow from Slindis' hand. "Interesting... We have a deal. However, do not fall back on your part of the bargain, mortal. I have a very long memory." After that, the woman vanishes.

She closes her eyes, breathing heavily to regain her composure. "That is what I was worried about when I started my investigation into the cultist's temple. Still, it'll be interesting to see what my allies do when they see the message on that letter."

Slindis paces the ground, thinking of where she would go from here. She obviously couldn't head home now, but the rest of her team should be able to find a way to counter the machinations of that goddess.

"Rugal, it's obvious that I won't be able to make it home now. So then, where should I go from now? This cave will only work for so long." She laughs, and a small tear rolls down her face.

"Don't you realize what this is? Rugal, that was an avatar of a goddess, and a powerful one at that. I can trust well enough in the rest of the Torchbearers to try to do what needs to be done, but I can't afford to tip this Lolth off at all." She keeps her eyes closed, trying not to think of what this meant for her.

A small smile comes across her face. "Look at me crying like a child here. Real paladin, huh?" She starts laughing with tears rolling down her face. "I'd like to head to this universe of yours to get stronger so something like this can't happen again." An air of determination seems to surround her. "Take me to your world, then. I will work alongside you, no matter what will happen."

She charges through the portal before it closes again, quickly grabs her arm and summons an extremely slick grease under the feet of the guards, causing them to fall. As they try to get up, she touches her arm again, producing an extremely dense fog. As the guards try to regain their bearing, she charges them with her rapiers drawn, stabbing them in the gut and throwing Rugal over her shoulder before fleeing from the scene.

"Didn't you hear me? I told you I would stick with you, no matter what happened." She grins. It was unpleasant being stuck here, but her main goal was complete. All she needed to do was find out what to do from here.

"Agreed. For now, though, I'm going to recuperate while I can." She sits down next to the cave wall and quickly falls asleep with a content look on her face.

She decides to head up the mountain, jumping up broken eggshells and bloodied nests along the way before finding the corpse of one of the enormous birds to sit on. However, the airship from yesterday dominated the sky, as it was on the edge of the forest about one hour away. The intense sun nearly blinded her, so she used her arm to block it out. This blocked out the glare, but the plate covering her arm started to warm slightly in response. That airship can cover ground far faster than we can on our own. It's a shame that we don't have one of our own.

She pokes the corpse. "Unless you can find one of those that wouldn't want to snack on us, we're going to have to use these." The birds had been long gone, only leaving two young griffons for them to fly. They warily approached Rugal and Slindis, having lost their entire families to the attack.

Slindis slowly pulls out a piece of jerky from a small pouch and feeds it to the griffon. It slowly chews at first, then quickly scarfs it down, and nudges her hand with its beak, expecting more. "You like this, don't you? I only have a little bit more, so make sure to savor it." The griffon swallows the large chunk of meat in one bite, ignoring her completely. However, the griffon seems to have been won over.
The same could not be said with the griffon that Rugal planned on using, as it seemed to want to have nothing to do with him.

"Rugal, unless you want one of our griffons to carry Rodem under them, we may have to leave him. I need my arms open in case we need some archery, and I doubt you want him on your back the whole time we're in the air." She mounts the griffon somewhat clumsily, but eventually finds her balance. "So, boy, ready to help us out? I'll try to get you some fresh meat today, so don't complain too much."

"So then, where should we start our search?" Slindis takes a look around, wondering what would be a good first move.

"You seem to know a lot more about this than I do, so you can take the lead on this one. Want me to act as our defense up here? Flight doesn't lend itself well to close-quarter combat all too well, so you'd have some issues with that." She draws her bow, watching for anything that could cause trouble. How in Khyber am I supposed to know what these factories are supposed to look like? I never dealt with Cannith all too much, and Shieldwarden was never upfront with what they're supposed to look like.

At this point, Rez had decided to stop building out. He built up. The lowest point in the complex was 4 stories tall, and the highest was 37. There was also a repulsion field forming a dome around the entire area, and every open space was patrolled by some form of android. And all of this was controlled by Rez's brain.

"Wait, something's off about this. Why would he build this with no defenses?" She looses an arrow, which bounces harmlessly off a slightly shimmering barrier. It's never easy, is it... "We need to find a way to draw this person's attention!" She lands outside the city limits.

A hole opened in the barrier large enough for the two of them to enter. On the inside there was an entire population of various kinds of robots performing different tasks.

"Well, have you come to apologize for breaking my scanner drone?" Rez's disembodied voice said jokingly.

"Welcome to Genesis, my latest experiment. Don't worry about the robots. Also, don't try to break anything or otherwise 'misbehave', partially because you have no reason to, so doing so would just be immature on your part, and partially because every square inch of metal in this city is virtually an extension of my body. So, do you have something to contribute, or did you just want me to lend you my knowledge?"