Desert Voyage
Gamemaster: DriftingNitro
Type: One-Shot
Session Date: October 21st, 2017
Playtime: 7.5 hours
Number of Players: 7
Contents
Background
In the middle of Ignir, a large nation with vast deserts, a player acting as a chef walks into an inn. He offers pay for protection of him and his goods. He wants to cross the desert. Everyone else, takes the offer and travels to the town of Tabak on the other side. However, not all is as it seems with the delivery. The carriage drivers notice somebody following them from a distance, and the chef seems especially uneasy about anything that slows their travel down. The players can uncover the truth about the caravan, or take their pay and be on their way.
Cast
Results for status recorded at the end of the session.
| Name | Player | Class | Race | Status |
| Raja Rif'a | Beans | Barbarian | Human | Alive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jabbi Rif'a | Mattloaf | Sorcerer | Human | Alive |
| Hemlok Benrato | Sooperphilly | Bard | Catfolk | Alive |
| Eyremoth | Feldspar | Monk | Half-Elf | Alive |
| Bacchus Bertholdt | Trevor | Rogue | Wolfkind | Alive |
| Rosalynd Rosenthal | EldonTG | Orator | Elf | Alive |
| Tymen | FakeSnake | Ranger | Elf | Alive |
Summary
The Galen of Ale
The scene opens at the bar, Eyremoth sitting and pondering to himself. The barkeep asks what he'd like and he asks for water. On his right are two people he hasn't seen around here before, an elf (Tymen) and catfolk (Hemlok). They order their drinks as well and make small talk with the barkeep.
Two more characters enter the scene, Jabbi and Raja, and rough talk a group of shady looking fellas outside the door before entering. They go inside, Jabbi deliberately bumping somebody's chair on her way towards the bar. As they order their drinks, Jabbi tryies to seduce the married barkeep in front of his wife. He denies her offer several times.
The man Jabbi bumped into approaches her. He's pissed because he spilled his drink but she predictably doesn't care. Eyremoth signals to the barkeep who reaches for the crossbow he keeps under the table. The fighter goes to punch Jabbi who skillfully dodges, and Raja jumps to save her sister. The perpetrator of the fight has a friend join in and he exchanges punches with Raja for a little bit both trying to get the upper hand.
The fight starts to get progressively more violent. Raja is close to raging, Jabbi casts Acid point blank at her assailant's face, Eyremoth is about to swing his staff to knock out one of the fighters, and the barkeep nearly shoots Jabbi for murdering someone in his bar. Serendipitously, the door bursts open, everyone freezes, and in walks Rosalynd Rosenthal, the famous elven chef. Bacchus the wolfkind is at his side, looked rather apathetic about finding other people. Rosalynd announced potential work for the patrons of the tavern, speaking over the muffled screaming of a man with acid on his face.
Rosalynd needs safe passage to Tabak through the Bal-Karash Desert. The players gather around him and offer their services. Eyremoth approaches first, bartering for extra pay by boasting his unique expertise of the region. Rosalynd agrees. After discussing the specifics of payment, they head outside to meet in the courtyard with the carriages.
Departure
They enter the courtyard to find a couple of orcs standing near one of the carriages. They shoo them off and get on their way. Jabbi and Raja try to find some red silk to cover their heads with for the journey. However, the merchant only has orange which upsets Jabbi greatly. She storms off. Rosalynd emphasizes that they should leave swiftly and beckons Jabbi and Raja into the back of one of the carriages where they can ride. He locks them inside. After a short panic attack by Raja from being trapped in a confined space, the carriages take off.
As they're riding Hemlok intermittently notices figures in the distance trailing them. Over a span of 6 hours, he notices at least 3 times a figure on the horizon. He attempts to mask their movement with illusion spells.
Eyremoth, who's leading by foot, points out an incoming sandstorm. He knows of a nearby cave they can use for shelter. Rosalynd insists time is of the essence but defers to Eyremoth's advice.
Weathering the Storm
After deciding to take refuge in the cave that Eyremoth led them to, they parked the carriages and rested up for the night. Eyremoth and Hemlok took shifts watching the entrance. Tymen went to explore the cave when he came across a giant scorpion, which he promptly left alone and returned to the others to tell them.
Meanwhile, a couple of smaller scorpions harassed the rest of the players. Everyone failed miserably to kill them. Raja managed to tame one after a strenuous effort. Raja promptly fed it water and beetles and named it Chip, eventually getting a little barrel for it as a home.
Tymen went back into the cave to kill one of the larger scorpions for Rosalynd to cook with. Tymen skillfully sneaked his way back down the cave and placed skillful shots right into the scorpion's head. After struggling to pull the scorpion back over to everyone else, he asked the group for help. Bacchus helped him pull it back towards the encampment. After they started to butcher the scorpion, more scorpions emerged from the cave and a fight ensued. Bacchus was cut by the stinger across the chest, and Raja was pinched around the ankle. Bacchus' wound was treated by Jabbi who used a flame spell on a sword to make it hot enough to cauterize the wound.
A Strange Guest
As they crested a hill, they came across a man donned in white who was injured and exhausted. They decided to make a stop only for a moment so they could bring him inside. The guest, as they discovered, was in some form originated from Pomfae, a city which is famous for having nobody enter or leave. They put him in the cart, gave him water, and warned him that others might not be so kind. He expressed some frustration with the inability to cast spells. He was also holding an advanced weapon from where he came from, that would later turn out to be a rifle, but he would temporarily trick everyone into thinking it was some kind of wooden club.
Ambush at Tabak Pass
As the group moved through the valley, something was uneasy about the ridges. The caravan was ordered to stop by Eyremoth who noticed out of his peripheral something moving. An orc on horseback approached the group asking for "him". Some group members misinterpreted it as the stranger they picked up, however this was clarified as he asked for their "employer". Tymen started sneaking around the side getting up to the ridge for elevation. As he did though, Tymen got ambushed himself by a group of three orcs who told him to stay where he was. Hemlok took the initiative and knocked the man off his horse with a Thunderwave spell, Jabbi made an illusion of the stranger running away. The orc fell for it and chased after the figure on foot.
The group swiftly got back on the wagon and whipped the horses into high speed, as they were however, the first cart driven by Eyremoth with Bacchus and Hemlok hanging on the sides, got surprised by a concussive blast rune the knocked the cart over. Rosalynd, driving the second cart, expertly weaved between everyone and continued on his way at full pace.
The party at this point was forced to engage in combat, as arrows and bolts began being exchanged. As the fight erupted, Hemlok found a crevice in the cliff face and with a successful stealth check remained out of combat for the majority of the fight. Eyremoth began fleeing the battle, seeing it as a losing fight. Hemlok used a message spell to Eyremoth that said "I'm hiding. Please come back for me, I beg of you." Eyremoth took it as a divination from Elenora, returned to combat, and would later change his patron deity.
Jabbi casted shatter on a group of archers on one of the cliffs. One of the archers who rolled a Nat 1 would experience excruciating head pain that would have them writhing in pain for the entire fight. Raja used her chain to pull one of the orcs right into her sword, and split them from the center up. Tymen took skillful shots from the cover of the overturned cart, striking one of the orcs as they rushed down the hill to fight in melee. The stranger from Pomfae shot one of the orcs in the back from his position being hidden inside the overturned cart. Eyremoth began knocking the remaining archers on one of the cliffs off the edge, before being pulled down as one of them managed to struggle pulling him down with them self. Eyremoth deflected arrows with his staff, and when he got close one of the orcs attempted to kick him away. Eyremoth grabbed the attackers leg, and with a swift motion smashed their head into the cliff face they were next to, cracking their skull, before using that same body as a shield against an archer trying to shoot him. Bacchus at this point was sneaking around to ambush the combatants on the other cliff. After taking much care to sneak successfully, he ran up on them as they were beginning to retreat. He thrust the sword into one of their backs, but the other one got a successful swipe across Bacchus' torso. He attempted to tumble down the steep cliff, rolling a Nat 20 acrobatics and landing unharmed, save for his recent injury. As the last orc peered over the edge to find Bacchus they were met with a barrage of arrows and bolts, and fell down the cliff dead.
It was at this point that Rosalynd returned, driving his carriage full speed past the group of dead orcs and injured acquaintances. He halted the cart after passing them, and the stranger from Pomfae shot the horse of their pursuer. Rosalynd came to congratulate them on their success, but the group was not very amused. Rosalynd went to the overturned cart and opened one of the heavily locked chests. Gold and riches spilled out, clearly unable to take it all as the cart was immobilized. Rosalynd told them that they can take as much as they'd like, since he'd have to abandon it anyway. Tymen loosed an arrow into Rosalynd's shoulder, on the basis of treachery and abandonment. Jabbi and Raja started to escape with one of the horses, before Raja's guilt made her turn around and go back. Jabbi was unable to convince Raja to keep going. Everyone ended up riding in the back of Rosalynd's remaining cart, where they would discover his darkest secret he was trying to hide from the party.
