Session 13, Ejja Vonan and Sandworms!
Coins End
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Session 13 – 2023-12-16
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They began the session by estimating the diamond they had gathered to be worth about 5,000gps. They had determined after the last session, what items they'd found that were magical but had not yet identified. They had determined that two of the rings, the hat, and the amulet were all magical. They took a moment to identify one of the rings and the amulet. The ring was a ring of water walking. The amulet was unidentifiable at this time. Not sure why, but at this time, it is unsafe to use. They'll have Geolain look at it when they get back to town. They rested just inside the door of the crypt, out of the bitter cold of the desert night. Pyreece healed Brandy and Audra of some damage. That evening, the slept with a watch but had no issues. The next morning they set out for Calimport. It was late in the day when they arrived. They used the same technique going in as the did on the way out. Two by two they entered and made their through the town.
When they arrived at Geolain's they found things had changed. The gate was closed and a very nervous Joah came to the door when they rang the bell. He rushed up to the gate and opened it and hurried them in, being very watchful as he did. He told them he'd already been shot at once. A crossbow bolt had barely missed him. Once inside, they made their way to the main room. Geolain was their. He caught them up. Fred, Freddie, and Fredrick were there as well, though no one could explain how they got from Paldegora to Calimport. He was happy to see them. They gave him the diamond. He told them that Halaan had rented a forge and was living there while working on the coin. The next two items they needed to get were a pint of devils blood spilled by a coward and blue dragons breath. Geolain said he didn't know about the devil yet but thought he could find one given some timel. As-far-as the blue dragons breath though, there is rumored to be a blue dragon in the Calim Desert in the south west part of the Marching Mountain's mountain range. It is a hilly area that he was able to show them on a map.
He marked Dalabad Oasis and Ejja Vonan. The village of Ejja Vonan is an oasis as well, not very large but from there, the dragon should be about 25 miles northeast in the foothills. He also told them to be careful as the sentinels had hired bounty hunters to come after them. Specifically, they'd hired Krog the Bounty Hunter and his group. He was a big person, with long blond hair. He and his son's make up most of the team. Audra knew of them as she knew his team also consisted of a big breasted blond woman, who acted mostly in an administrative capacity. Geolain was impressed that she knew of Krog. Elenor showed Geolain the amulet and he asked Joah to identify it, the remaining ring, and the hat. Joah identified the ring as a Ring of Animal Friendship. He was unable to identify the amulet as well. Geolain didn't like that. He wanted to study it some more. He said, if the enchantment on this item is so powerful that an identify doesn't work on it, then it is a very powerful item. That doesn't mean it's a good magic item. It could very well be cursed. He suggested not doing anything with it. The hat was a Hat of Disguise.
Brandy asked the next obvious question, “How do you bottle blue dragon's breath?”. Geolain didn't know of a way to do that but believed that Halaan had an idea about that. He suggested that they go see him about that. They broke up into pairs again made their way down to the building where he was living and working. The Hat of Disguise seemed to be able to be used over and over with no limitations on it's use. They determined that on the wanted poster, Oglesby's likeness was the most accurate of the group and that maybe he should be using the hat while they were in town. Oglesby put on the hat and changed his appearance to that of a short older man. He'd hoped he would maybe look like Brandy's father. They split up and moved as pairs through town. They used different parings to help keep people from recognizing them.
They navigated their way to the forge, being watchful and even a little paranoid. Everyone looking in their direction almost appeared to be scrutinizing them more than they were comfortable with. They made it to the forge without incident though. Outside the building, at a building close by, there were people moving furniture and belongings out of a house nearby. They did seem a little more attention to them as they passed, in pairs, to enter the forge. It was a little unnerving but they weren't sure what to make of them. Once inside, they showed the diamond to Halaan. He showed them his progress as he was smelting the mythral. Halaan gave them a rod and told them that to capture the blue dragon's breath, the needed to put this in the path of his breath weapon, which is lightening. It seemed like pissing off a blue dragon to get it to use it's breath weapon on them was a very bad idea. Halaan suggested that the dragon's arrogance or greed could be used to acquire the strike. Perhaps they could barter for it, a trade of sorts.
Halaan told them that if they wanted him to, he could possibly fashion something for the trade. He also suggested that if we had a powerful magical item to trade, that might work as well. Brandy mentioned the amulet. Halaan asked to see it. It was still at Geolain's. Meanwhile, Audra looked out a side window to see what those guys out front were doing. They were finishing up loading their wagon. They were talking amongst themselves and as they did, one of them looked back at the forge building several times. They eventually climbed up on the wagon and began heading off to the north. She told everyone else what she saw. Halaan came over to look out of the window but thought that maybe we were being a little too cautious. They decided that there was nothing else left to do here.
They slipped back out with Elenor wearing the hat and disguising herself. She and Brandy went off to Geolain's home to fetch the amulet. They didn't observe anyone paying special attention to them. Geolain didn't have any other ideas for getting the lightening strike from the dragon. He did remind them that the older the dragon, the more powerful. He is reputed to be quite old. Young dragons are quite dangerous but an old dragon, would be very difficult, if not impossible, to defeat in combat. He wished them safe travels on their journey. He told them that the people of Ejja Vonan were said to be quite hospitable. “Make sure you have plenty of water. The desert heat won't be a big problem, it's not too hot right now. The night time will be cool but not too cold.”, he added. Geolain made arrangements to finish healing everyone before they left.
They all regrouped and then made their way out in pairs again, heading north. They moved up the main road. Kipp took the Ring of Animal Handling. The Ring of Water Walking was still in the bag of holding. They went about 10 miles up the north road. It is a busy trade route with lots of traffic. They reached an area where it was clearly marked as the Dalabad Oasis. There were several caravans at the Oasis including vendors selling their wears at the sight. Nothing struck them as being particularly valuable. They continued on toward Ejja Vonan for another 10 miles or so. They stopped and camped. They could see a good distance in all directions. Kipp set up the tent so as to block the light of their small fire from anyone back at the road. Brandy, Audra and Kipp took watches. The night passed without issue.
They finally made it to Ejja Vonan. The desert was the flat, scrub brush, rocky sort of desert, not the type with big sand dunes. Ejja Vonan was set into a sort of box canyon. They lightly disguised themselves with Oglesby donning the hat and his Barry disguise. They arrived to find a village of simple tents and buildings with curtains for doorways. There were probably a couple of hundred people. As they arrived, the people they encountered seemed to be a little shy and cautious about them. There wasn't much in the way of trade there but there were craft people here such as a blacksmith, a weaponsmith, a rope binder, etc… There were camels about. One of the tents appeared to be a tavern. Audra looked for a bulletin board where fliers or news might be posted but didn't find anything. The tavern tent was called The Spitting Camel. A large green tent appeared to be a council house or a tent where official business was conducted. There was not a lot to purchase. They had hardtack and jerky for food to buy. They had water from an underground cavern. The weaponsmith seemed to specialize in scimitars and falchons. They made good slings here as well. There was a temple to the god Anhur, the Ever Vigilant Lion. They refilled their water bottles and water skins.
As they were filling up, a couple of locals came running in and ran to the big tent. Within a moment or so, a bell started ringing out. The two people came out of the big tent and ran back out of town. Meanwhile, several people came out of the main tent. The locals closed up their tents covering their wares. They pulled out their weapons took off running out of the village. Kipp stopped someone and asked what was happening. He was told that they were under attack. They didn't say what by. The group pulled out their bows and armed up. They ran out of the village in the direction of the action. Not far from where they came in was a dune. They climbed the dune only to find two giant worms and several people fighting them. One person was already in the mouth of the bigger worm. Brandy took a shot at one of them as she approached and she hit it!
Elenor fired a magic missile at the large one and hit it. The big one finished off the man in his mouth, swallowing him completely. The smaller one attacked a local woman but missed. Oglesby used his sling to hit the big one and did. Brandy fired on it again and missed. Pyreece fired at it with her sling as well and missed. Kipp ran up to the little one and attacked it and hit it with both attacks. Audra ran up to the big one and attacked it with her sword and hit it. Second attacks, Oglesby missed, Pyreece missed. The locals took shots at if and also hit it. The big worm retreated back into it's hole. The little worm did the same. The villagers that were out there cheered and they seemed especially happy for the help they received from this group that had only just arrived. One of the girls that had been fighting ran over to hug Kipp. They moved back into the village where the villagers cheered them some more. Audra was thinking, this is not the way to remain discrete and invisible to bounty hunters.
They had lost one of the villagers and for that, they took a moment to reflect on their loss. The Senojy or Mayor of this village came out to greet them with two others. His name was Shajja Dnarson. He thanked them for their help. They began preparing a feast in their honor. The guy that came out with him was his personal body guard and the woman was likely his consort. He invited them into the big tent so he could get to know them. The tent was very well appointed and comfortable. He explained how creatures like the ones they'd just fought seemed to plague them and they don't have people like the Screaming Monkee's to fight them off. He thought it was amazing how they fought them off and hoped that the worms would not return for a long time. He pointed out that it was rare that they receive visitors out here.
Brandy spoke up and explained that they were on a quest to learn more about the blue dragon in the hills north of here. She asked if the rumors of the dragon were true. Shajja had heard stories about this dragon but as far as he knew, no one had ever seen the beast. Brandy asked if he knew of it's name. He told her that as far as he knew, no one had ever interacted with it enough to learn the name. He knew that it was rumored that there was a great blue dragon living somewhere in the southern region of the marching mountains. He offered camels and a couple of guides to lead them that way, if that would help them. Brandy thanked him and said, “That would be a great help!”. She asked again, “So there is no one that you know of that has ever seen or been attacked by it?”. Shajja told them again, that as far as he knew, no one has ever seen it. They've not seen a dragon flying in the area nor have they lost camels to one. If it's there, it's hunting grounds must be more into the mountains or north into Tethyr. Brandy told him that their task was to find it, not to make it mad, but to find it. Shajja replied, “Yes, we would prefer that you not provoke the one creature near here that could ruin Christmas for us.”. Brandy told him that no, we have no intentions of provoking it.
Brandy asked him if he knew anything about the Hyreed estate that was abandoned. He didn't know much, only that the Hyreed family was very into the arcane. He thought they were a family of mostly wizards. They did a lot of trading on the tradeway between Calimport and Memnon. The exact nature of what they did or were doing, he didn't know. There was a great fire that destroyed the estate. Whether it was accidental or from use of arcane power or perhaps something more sinister, no one really knows. The legend is that they had some sort of arcane accident at the sight and it basically wiped it out. He'd heard that he was dabbling in dark magic, possibly occult magic, but no one really knows much more than that. He said that they summoned beasts from other worlds and things like that.
Brandy told him that the camels would be appreciated and that they would resupply themselves from here and in the morning, they would set out north. She asked if he had any advice on traveling across the desert that way or was there anything they needed to watch for. Shajja told them that the desert was full of many perils as they witnessed earlier. He thought the guides would be a big help in that regard. Camels can go a long time without water however they do have to drink and they still have to eat. They don't need anything special as long as they can graze and there is brush to graze on. On average, they need water every four days but theirs are trained and do well for longer periods than that. We'll equip them with food and some water. The direction they're going, there would be little water on the way there but once they are to the mountains, they should be able to find water there. There are nomads in that area and though there are no official roads, there are “sort of” roads. In the area. The guides can help them avoid the deep sands, it's very difficult traveling over that and would greatly slow them down. Brandy asked what was good at the Spitting Camel. Shajja told him they have a their version of beer made from cactus and other plants.
They shopped some more through the day. When asked about purchasing a magical footmans mace, they were told that they wouldn't find anything like that here. They did suggest that they talk to the priest at the temple. They might have something but if so, it's never been seen. Pyreece went to the priests and talked to Abdul Azahm. He told her that they had some bludgeoning weapons and showed her some hammers and a mace. The mace wasn't a high quality weapon but he offered it to her for free. She told him that she was looking for something with some sort of enchantment that would improve it. She told him that she needed something that might actually be able to hit the blue dragon, should it become necessary. She thought that nothing she had would do that. He laughed at first thinking she was joking but quickly realized that she wasn't. He told her that the dragon was a legend that nobody had ever seen. She asked him if he knew the dragon's name. He told her, The Great Dragon of the Marching Mountains is what it is called. He didn't know it's actual name. He said that legends say it is there. Ancestors have attested to seeing it but no one living here has ever seen such a thing. He agreed the mace he had would likely not help her in a battle against such a beast. He did offer her a couple of potions of cure moderate wounds which she thanked him for.
They tasted the beer and though they are not sure how they did it, it ended up tasting a little like fish. They passed the time away at the Spitting Camel and later that evening, the village through a great feast celebrating the newcomers and their assistance that day. There was a big fire and much tribal music, food and drink. They honored the Screeching Monkee's and remembered the merchant that was lost in the exchange. They offered up prayers to the Watchful Lion for protecting them from the sand worms and such. They put them up in guest tents that night and offered healing should it be needed. The next morning they had a nice meal and met the guides. There were three of them. One was named Naraf, another was named, Jevvan, and the last was a younger girl named Ka Fansa. They had four camels. They paired up and road on them. The guides took turns walking along side. Naraf seemed to be the elder in charge of the group. The were heading out.
Exp's, 140 battle experience + 250 general experience = 390 + 39(10%) = 429.
Oglesby made it to fourth level. Elenor, Kipp, also made it up to third level.
They also collect 667 gold pieces.
Start the recorder!