The scorpion merchants descended into the Dark Tunnels. Their long trek has only just begun. The tunnels were narrow and the passages treacherous and infested with monsters. However, the scorpions were used to such dangers that’s why they had their pincers at the ready.

Cave centipedes dropped from the ceiling springing up an ambush.

The Scorpion HeadMerchant chittered in displeasure, “Ka!”

It seems they have just been had this time. Or maybe not, the spiders jumped with their Fiery Axes at the ready. Of course, the scorpions did have all of this under their control, or pincers; just that spiders made it ever so much easier.

“Good meat. No need to waste.” The scorpion harvested the centipedes.

They traversed through the Dark Tunnels never failing to persevere. Later, the darkness ended and they emerged into the familiar fluorescent glow. They were closer to the surface now and the Glowing Moss will illuminate the path.

They went through tunnels, caves and caverns. It all seemed like an endless maze. They emerged into a large cave, once it was full of FungiWood, but now only stumps remained.

“We close to the Surface. To Scorpion Desert.” The merchant informed the spider escort. “We’ll be safe from here on.” In other words, the spiders didn’t need to give them protection anymore.

However, the spiders insisted on following.

“We want to visit the Scorpion City.” The lead spider chirped.

The scorpion clacked its mandibles slightly confused. The merchant wasn’t versed in the spider chirps but it did understand the Scorpion City part.

“They're curious about our Klan.” It translated to its scorpion companions.

“I say they can come.”

“They’ll be welcome.“

“Just another curiosity.” The last one chittered.

The scorpion merchants all agreed. The HeadMerchant nodded, “Come spiders, as thanks for protection we’ll show you to our Klan. Scorpion City as you called it.”

“Scorpion City. Yes.” The spider clicked his mandibles in imitation of the scorpion dialect.

As they were nearing the surface the scorpions stopped abruptly and began rubbing their chitin with a strange strong-smelling oil. The spiders looked at the ritual with curiosity.

“Sand Worm Repellent.” The scorpion explained.

Yeah, if they wanted to come the spiders needed that too or else they would be just gobbled up by a massive Sand Worm.

“I’ll sell it to you.” HeadMerchant chittered.

Even if the spiders needed the protection they did drive a hard bargain, and continued to haggle; the scorpion could only respect that. With some effort, the scorpion wrangled some fruits off the spiders and handed in the Repellent. The spiders rubbed it in their chitin and light armour.

Soon, they emerged out of the rocky hole and into the rocky patch of the desert. The sun was high and blasting the heat at full power. The rocky patch was short lived only and soon was drowned by the sea of sand. The spiders looked in amazement. They have never seen anything like this. No trees, no grass, no plants at all, only endless dunes of sand.

[You have entered The Scorpion Desert], everyone was greeted with a message.

The heat was blazing, but the light armour the spiders wore had Fire Resistance: Low, so it wasn’t at all too bad. They spent days walking through the empty desert, it seemed endless. Strangely, at night when it was the coolest the scorpions refused to walk or make any sound at all. Thumper or something like that was mentioned a couple of times. Even if they were curious about this Thumper, the spiders chose to imitate the silence of the scorpions unwilling to risk it.

Finally, they were met with a blurry and floating visage of a city in the distance, the heat distorted the image.

“Klan 6, our home.” The HeadMerchant informed proudly pointing at the structure with its hand.

Klan 6 was surrounded by a massive and thick wall, the stone was bleached yellow blending well with the desert. In the wall, there was a massive hole and that hole was shut with a dark metallic disk. Well, not quite, because the disk was rolled partway open leaving a small gap for people to come in and out.

There was a group of menacing scorpion guards protecting the entrance. They were easily double the size of the merchants, each having thick pincers able to cleave a man in half and probably snap even metal.

One of the smaller guards approached the spiders and clacked its pincers threateningly.

“Where from? What business?” It chittered.

“People from the UnderMountain. Sightseeing? Maybe to buy some trinkets.” The scorpion merchant replied to the spiders.

“To buy? Then they can come.” It stepped back placated letting the group of spiders pass.

The spiders walked through the hole and emerged into the city. The inside of the walls was densely packed by nested cubic structures, likely the houses of the scorpions. It was a bit of a mess, leaving the streets narrow and with many turns.

“Spiders, we must part ways. You’ll find many things to buy here, may the desert sun be kind to you.” The Scorpion HeadMerchant chittered a farewell leaving the spiders to their own devices.

The spiders chirped between themselves deciding to stay in one group so that not to get lost. And so they explored the city. No matter which turns or streets they took ultimately they all ended in the Scorpion Bazaar, as if designed to be like that on purpose.

The bazaar was buzzing with activity. There were a lot of people doing trades here, its visitors weren’t just the scorpions. The spiders wouldn’t know, but there were Antmen, Armourbeatles, Scarabs and even some furry creatures of unknown origin. Naturally, the scorpions dominated the Scorpion Bazaar and the foreign visitors were only few in number.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The spiders went from one stall to the other inspecting the wares. It was similar to what humans had: clothing, tools, armour, weapons, foodstuff and livestock. But different in a sense: the armour was made out of chitin, the tools odd with their purpose unknown and the weapons exotic. The livestock was mostly bugs or worms of different kinds, most were very large, others very small, and some plainly just decorative.

Spiders used small blocks of wood to barter for the goods, it seems that the King was right, the wood was a desired commodity here, so they had no problem at purchasing and sampling the goods.

Unfortunately, the spiders had no desire to taste the fat bugs and grubs. There was no way they could taste better than TomGrape. Despite their nature, they did try some bulbous fruits, but even those were only so-so. However, they were curious about where the scorpions were growing those, as far as they saw the spiders detected no farms during their journey or around the city.

The decorative bugs were interesting. They either were coloured in one vivid colour or reflected a shiny rainbow when exposed to direct sunlight. There was even some jewellery made out of their shells here and there. Without knowing how to care for the bugs the spiders purchased the decorative shells knowing that the spider crafters will find a good use for them.

Also, they ended up buying quite a lot of metal triangles known as Glem. It was many times cheaper here compared to the price the Scorpion Merchant was asking at the Drow Village. Unfortunately, they couldn't find any empty Bottles, those must be made or purchased somewhere else. But they did buy a lot of other drinks. Somehow Humans found interest in Scorpion Spirits, like Grupp-Grupp; so they bought that knowing that it will sell at a high price in Human Capital.

While the spiders and scorpions couldn’t quite understand each other, buying stuff was still simple. A spider would point a spindly hand and the scorpion would chitter the name of the item. When they would go through the bartering, the spider had to judge the scorpion's expressions like the tension in the mandibles and pincers, jitters of the eyes and tone of the chitters; the scorpions did their own reading to gauge what spiders could pay.

In the end, they bought more spirits. Like Mashig, Blaberg’amesh and Scrippity-Boop. Each smelled different and was very likely made out of different stuff.

There were also potions. The spiders weren’t interested in most because they were the general Hp, Mp or Stamina potions or even Fire Resistance Potions. They had the equivalents at home anyway. But they bought some of that Repellent since it seemed to be important.

Later they casually bought some other random stuff and trinkets which picked their interest, like those merchant backpacks, the ones half shell half cloth. They bought those to put all the stuff in, and plus the large shells which turned out to be Sand Crab Shell. While at it they further tested the idea that the wood was the most valuable. They tried bartering with metals, fruits and cloth, they even tried gold and gems, but indeed it was the wood which was the most priced. Especially wood with special properties, namely IronOak and LivingWood.

The scorpions in general didn’t seem too bothered by the spiders' presence, it was the other visitors who displayed the most curiosity. The large group of spiders made the visitors to chatter and chitter wondering exactly where such creatures had come from. But few dared to approach and even if they did the spiders couldn’t understand what they were saying.

Later, just after a spider tried trading with gold coins a furry thing approached the spider. It was short and half hidden under a brown cloak, massive furry ears poked out of the hood. It was pointing at the human gold coin the spider tried to peddle just minutes ago.

Interestingly, the scorpions didn’t value gold at all, but this creature was different. Just to tease the furry critter the spider showed it a large pouch filled with nothing but gold. The critter began jumping enthusiastically and dragging the spider by the hand.

“Maybe. It has. A deal. For us?” A spider chirped it to his friends.

The spiders followed the cloaked fuzzball as a group.

The entire time, ever so slightly out of sight, the Scorpion HeadMerchant was shadowing the spiders. Yes, he hadn't quite left the spiders on their own. He was observing the spiders with his own two beady black eyes and taking notes diligently. He was conducting a study of his own, seeking the items the spiders found most value in.

“Ke-Ke-Ke.” The scorpion chittered happily. “Now I know what they desire.” Now he’ll be able to bring these items to the spiders and sell them for profit. There was profit in empty bottles, but there could even be more profit. As he already predicted they wanted more Glem, but the purchase of decorative shells was a surprise. He’ll make sure to send them the next time he made a trade caravan.

Ever so suddenly, a fuzzy Fennec jumped right under the scorpion.

“Hey, hey, buy this!” It was showing him a trinket of no interest.

“Scram you Fuzzball.” The scorpion clapped at the face of the Fennec wishing it to disappear. “Ka! Scorching sun.” It cursed. “The spiders. They disappeared.” It lost sight of them.

The spiders were escorted further away from the Bazaar by the cloaked fuzzy creature.

“There is it taking us?” A spider wondered out loud.

They stopped by a narrow hole. It was quite small. The fuzzball darted into the hole and then back out. It yipped something dragging the spider by the arm.

“It wants us. To come. I think.” The spider chirped.

One by one the spiders ever so barely squeeze through the hole, a curtain was shut right behind them.

“Oh, this is. Like a cave.” The space was much larger than the hole would make one to think.

They emerged into a carved spacious cavern. It looked like it was the den of these creatures.

“Why did it. Bring us here?” One had to wonder.

The fuzzy critter dragged a spider to a larger gathering of its kin.

“They have. Stalls here?” All of the spiders were surprised.

This was like a secret market, and this one was staffed by creatures known as Fennec. They were short and fuzzy-furred people with enormously large ears poking out of their otherwise cloaked and hooded forms.

On the floor, there was a long carpet, and on the carpet were various items. They mostly were various monster parts.

“Isn’t this…” The spider chirped with worry. “A scorpion man claw?” It was ghastly.

“I found. Something interesting. Sand Worm Scale.” The spiders left the morbid item section to look at something more promising.

“Thumper Leather.”, “Thumper Fang.”, they found more high-grade monster parts.

“Desert Wyrm Egg?!” The spider chirped in alarm. The Fennec slapped the spider’s hand and yipped protectively clutching back the egg.

“Why aren’t they. Selling these. In the market?” A question was raised.

They looked at the morbid section of the wares and the concussion was obvious. It wasn’t quite legal. However, they couldn’t just pass the samples like these. They tried buying it with wood blocks, but Fennec just frowned and drooped their ears at that.

“Might it be… Gold?” A spider tried and the fuzzball merchant perked up instantly.

Too bad they didn’t bring much gold, so they couldn’t buy as much as they wanted. However, even with scarce purchases the cloaked furries seemed ecstatic. They showed the gold giddily to their friends and presumably family members. They were positively happy at the trade.

The spiders saw what they wanted and turned to leave; it was time to return. They walked back to the narrow hole but the small critter stopped them and guided them to an opposing direction. They were led to a cluttered dead end, leaving spiders confused. The Fennec strained and pushed a large pot out of the way revealing another hole. It jumped in it and waved its paws to follow. The spiders fit but barely so.

“Another exit?” A spider chirped hopefully.

The tunnel was straight and had jagged walls, a sign of the use of tools to dig it out. Ever so often there would be a small glowing stone slotted in the ceiling to illuminate otherwise dark passage. It took a while but they emerged.

“We’re out.” A spider poked his head into the air. The sky was filled with reds, the sun was descending.

They were just outside the walls of Klan 6, it seems that the furry creatures had an entrance of their own. The fennec waved its paw again said the already familiar phrase of, “May the desert sun be kind to you,” and disappeared back into the hole.

The spiders did the equivalent of a spider shrug, they didn’t expect the whole shopping spree to go in this direction, but anyway, they’d seen enough. It was time to come back home and report.