Caravan through the Red Sea – 4
Synopsis
After finally refusing to give Shona the name of Tales' tribe Bruce managed to convince her to be the first approaching the water surface. Shona saw lichen but she was out of his reach and Tales and his spear went to the rescue. As soon as they touched the surface a monstruous crocodile with two heads flashed towards them. After the first round Shona betrayed the group by firing a lightning bolt towards the stairs destroying part of it and leaving her and Zandor on the upper side and the rest of the group and the crocodile on the lower side. In the subsequent rounds Zandor managed to keep Shona from escaping by using a combination of ghost projectiles and grease while the rest of the group frantically fought the savage crocodile who insisted on taking bites on them. After a few more rounds Zandor managed to push Shona off the stairs and down into the water where she promptly started diving. A few seconds later the group killed the crocodile and beheaded it. Regrettably for the group Shona used this opportunity to escape through the underwater river and when the group tried to get her it was already too late.
After bringing the lichen to the old lady to prepare the antidote for Hadi and healing him the group went to bed. Something awakened Tales that night and as he woke up in the middle of the night he saw someone going away from him and crouching among the caravan members. Further investigation didn't throw any light and they all went back to bed.
The next morning Hadi felt completely well and after packing everything the caravan left the temple and headed towards their next stop: the Oasis of Amja, a tiefling friend of Hadi known for its many parties and funky citadel. The group was invited to a party the night of their arrival and while Khairon and Tales set up a first aid samaritan stand in the resting place for caravans the rest of the group went inside the citadel for some partying. Feral lost all his money in two rounds of combat against a savage orc that offered all his money to whoever won against him on a one on one. However Feral later regained part of what he lost after winning a drinking competition by drinking 6 pints of strong beer straight. While Feral was endulging in some alcoholic induced happiness the rest of the group gathered information while something interesting started developing outside in the caravan area...
Podcasts
Caravan through the Red Sea - 4, Part 1 (3h21m, 193Mb)
Part 2 is missing due to GarageBand refusing to record more than 2Gb. Searching for an alternative recording program..
The three illusions
These are the three illusions that you saw while going down the temple:
You see some lights forming at the middle almost blending with the rays of light that come down from the top. Some men dressed in monk clothes are smiling, scenes of people constructing large structures appear in front of your eyes but, after a few seconds, they slowly disappear.
A young couple is seen together hugging. A few seconds later the man stands up, gets an armor and a sword and slowly walks away while the woman looks at him worringly. After the first few steps the man drops the sword, starts limping and begins to wither until he is a walking skeleton at which point a huge bestial pawn appears and crushes his bones. Then the scene fades away.
Something huge engulfed in flames is surrounded by 6 small humanoids. After a few moments the humanoids slowly morph into glowing symbols (a camel, a stone, a whirlwhind, an eagle, a dragon and a fox) that begin to grow while whatever is engulfed begins to shrink. The flames become smaller and smaller. Finally a white snake with some feathers sprouting from his head appear and start to move around the 6 symbols while his body becomes longer and longer and entangles all of them without crushing them. Finally she eats what remains of whatever was in flames and the scene fades away.
Caravan through the Red Sea – 2
Synopsis
A day after the halfling clan attacked the caravan, as the sun rose, a tiefling cleric coming from Al-aman approached and subsequently joined the caravan. The group didn't have a problem letting him in and the rest of the day passed without any incident as they travelled towards their new destination, the northern cursed temple. During that night someone seemed to be spying on the caravan but they flew before the group could see them. On the second day the kids started playing tag early in the morning in the dunes and they got lost. Luckily the group was able to quickly track them and continue the journey without delay. That night the mysterious spy approached the caravan again but they were also frightened away by the vigilant group. On the third day the caravan arrived to a big chasm surrounded by cliffs. And old bridge allowed them to overcome the chasm but not before almost making Feral fall to the bottom as he courageously guided the camels through it. The caravan prepared an ambush at that same bridge to try to catch whoever was following them but they were not careful enough. That night however they setup another ambush in the rocky area where they chose to set their campament. When later during the night a group of eight human bandits attacked the decoy they had setup the group surrounded bandits and killed them all taking no prisoners.
According to Tales's estimates less than a day separates them from the temple, enough time to save Hadi from its lethal illness.
Podcast
Caravan through the Red Sea - 2, Part 1 (1h, 57.6Mb)
Caravan through the Red Sea - 2, Part 2 (1h25m, 82.4Mb)
Random notes
- The cannibal halfling that travels with the caravan faints when he sees blood. They discovered that in the middle of the bandit assault.
- Bruce didn't feel too well that day and preferred to stay in the background.
- Feral is showing the githerai monks lots of love.
- Tales's fennec is proving to be a very useful ally at night.
Caravan through the Red Sea – 1
Synopsis
Bruce, Feral, Tales and Zandor started their adventures as mercenaries in charge of protecting a caravan that would get them from Al-aman to Tenari crossing the Red Sea, a desert known for its enormous sandstorms.
After meeting each other and exchanging a few words with some members of the caravan they started their journey. On the first night Hadi, the caravan leader organized a small dinner party to socialize and to try to get everybody a little bit closer together. That night and the next two days went by without any incident. However during the third day, as the caravan crossed a labyrinthic area surrounded by eroded walls a clan of fiery cannibal halflings ambushed them. Besides their natural hunger the clan were angry with Feral because he killed the brother of the clan leader the night before in a bar crawl that started when someone stepped onto someone else's toes. After a strenous battle between the group, the four other mercenaries hired to defend the caravan with them and the halflings the group won forcing few halflings that remained alive to run for their lives and capturing, and later on killing, the tribe leader.
One day later, as the group was waking up someone noticed that Hadi was very ill and unconscious. An old woman part of the caravan examined Hadi and concluded that he had been poisoned by a powerful venom and his life was in danger. She couldprepare an antidote if managed to get some lichen. The group decided to go find that lichen in a nearby cursed temple that Tales had heard about in the past. Before changing their direction towards that temple they first checked everybody in the caravan to search for clues as to who might have poisoned Hadi and why.
Podcast
Caravan through the Red Sea - 1, Part 1 (59min, 57Mb)
Caravan through the Red Sea - 1, Part 2 (60min, 58Mb)
Caravan through the Red Sea - 1, Part 3 (65min, 62Mb)
There is a missing part of the podcast that would have covered the fourth hour however due to technical difficulties that recording is not available.