The party decides to stay with the caravan at Altaruk. The caravan is going to head north after another day of rest. The party decides to stay with them.
We give the metal sword to Goren, who is going to move over his magical weapon's abilities onto the new metal sword.
Nnn'Ckk and Hadren are sitting on top of the mobile cart. Nnn'Ckk sees a section of the ground move, and can tell that it is a cloak that is the same color as the terrain. He uses the compass to ensure the people sneaking up are part of the group from the same evening.
If Thri-kreen could smile, he would, as he releases a magic missile at them. Hadren can see them jump up, as they are yelling something at the caravan and raising their fists in anger. Hadren chuckles and says to Nnn'Ckk "Nice shot."
Nothing else of interest happens that day.
The next day, the caravan heads off to the north.
The captain comes up and says "As we are traveling so close to the Silt Estuary, we do trade with Giants. So unless a boulder comes in and crashes on top of us, assume we are trading with them, OK?"
As it happens, that first day it is very boring travel and yet the party spies some giants in the distance. The caravan stops and opens up their wares to them. The entire day is wasted in bartering, but nobody can complain as this is what the caravan does.
The nomads say they have heard of no problems around there.
The next oasis is called Abalath. The caravan has been there many times and it will take a few days to there.
As the party looks around, some of the more observant members wonder if....the people watching the caravan are playing a joke and going through the motions. It is obvious it is the elf tribe following the caravan. But when the group stops, the elves disappear. After that, the elves are not seen again.
The third day of travel, the caravan arrives at Abalath. The interesting thing to the group, is that as they come up to the oasis, there was a sandstorm at some time that opened up some ruins.
"I would like to check out the ruins," asks Nnn'Ckk, realizing there is at least 12 hours to search them out.
The entire party goes with, it is kind of quiet at the start of the search.
Eventually, Nnn'Ckk says "There are no orbs for us to find here. The orb we are looking for is still up to the east."
The party moves into the ruins. Igne uses the "find treasure" ritual, and determines that there is treasure in them thar ruins.
Hadren sees a motion behind a 4' wall. He looks closer and sees five creatures lurking there.
Hadren helps Nnn'Ckk with his initiative, then moves up a bit with his bow and shoots at the brain ID, hitting him for 6 points damage.
Nnn'Ckk casts a stinking cloud at the center of the ambushing monsters. He hits all four of the Howlers, killing them. He also manages to hit IDC and ID for 27 points damage. The brains are in essence hidden in the cloud, but they cannot see out either.
Goren rushes up to the last howler, and hits him for 26 points damage. He had to be careful, because the howler's spines can hit if an attack misses.
Brain ID starts in the cloud and takes 23 points damage. He moves out rushes at Goren, stops, steps back a few steps recalculating...like brains do....and casts a mind shock at the party. 10 points psychic damage, dazed, and slid a square. Only Goren and Hadren are hit.
Destriani moves up and swings he sword, using a bedeviling assault on the Howler, striking through a dimensional rift for 21 points damage.
Igne attacks WITH A CRITICAL attack at one of the brain. He hits for 67 points damage on IDC with an energy strobe of psychic damage as he maxed the damage type as well.
Unndua casts a water spout at IDC but misses.
Brain ID starts in the cloud, takes 23 points damage (taking him into single digits) and moves out of the cloud. He rushes at the party and does an attack by jumping through the air to attack Hadren with a clinging attack. He manages to grab on meaning Hadren will take ongoing 5 psychic damage.
The Howler does it's terrifying howl against Goren and Destriani. He hits Destriani.
Hadren performs a renewing strike against the brain attacking him, hits with a lightning strike killing the creature, and then throws off the dazed effect.
Nnn'Ckk casts lighting, hitting the brain for 25 points damage, melting it. The bolt then flies over and hits the howler for 22 points
Goren throws off the dazed attack, but was unable to throw off the psychic attack.
Destriani attacks with her farslayer for 12 points damage to the howler.
Igne hits the howler for 16 points damage, blasting the howler apart.
Hadren follows Igne over to where Igne said the treasure was located. They find a door covered in the sand, and Igne opens it. Igne then casts a light spell seeing a creature down there motioning. It turns out we are looking down from a trap door in what was the ceiling of the room below.
"Oh, what luck! You can do arcane spells right! you can call me Vicier. I need your help, I'm trying to create something...I think...I'm following a ritual." The creature turns around and begins muttering again.
The creature is obviously outer-planer, but nobody in the party has an idea any more than that.
The creature is using a ruby to trace lines in the air. As Igne watches, the ruby looks like chalk that is being used up as it is being used. Nnn'Ckk and Igne can tell that the magic is some sort of summoning maybe, but they are not certain.
"What are you trying to create?"
"Well, if you help me I can finish!"
"But what is it? We don't want to help if we don't know what it is."
"Well, I don't think your world has a name for it...." as he pulls out a sapphire and begins to draw some more runes. Then he pulls out a wand and the runes all start to glow together as they combine together. It does have remnants of a portal, but it reminds them ore of the dismissal to make a boundary stronger, not thin. But it looks like this ritual is making the area stronger even as it creates the portal.
Igne jumps down. Goren quickly follows. Nnn'Ckk jumps down after followed by Hadren. Destriani stays up top with Unndua.
Suddenly, Igne's orb says something. He doesn't catch what it is saying.
Vicier pulls out a ruby and a diamond, and asks Igne which one is next.
Igne shrugs and says "use the diamond."
As he is etching, the rune crackles and creates resistance, he calls "Help ME!" and Igne rushes up to help. As soon as Igne gets close to try and help, he suddenly has an idea of what to do and starts to redraw it. The rune this time makes a clear path and all the runes shine very brightly.
"What did you just do?" asks Hadren.
"I don't know...but it worked..." calls back Igne.
Another creature appears, it is a large dragon like creature who calls out "Who has called me here...."
The dragon is about 30' long.
"I did" says Vicier, and then he points to Igne and says "And he helped me!"
"Oh, well, thank you I think. " says the stone dragon. "I am from Varates"
The dragon then turns and says something to Vicier in a language nobody can understand.
Half the party watches the dragon as he says that, and the dragon looks puzzled. He says something else to the dragon, looks up towards the opening in the ceiling and says "Ok, stay out of that corner" and it mutters a few words and the ground start shaking and cracks appear in the floor and a 15x15' area collapses, filling the area with rubble.
The dragon goes over to there and easily leaps out of the room, up by Unndua.
Unndua takes a step back as someone in the room yells "Get him Unndua!"
"I think he can hear you!"
Laughter can be heard from below.
The dragon leaps up into the air and starts flying to the northwest.
"Where is he going?" Goren asks Vicier.
"Well...tell you what. Help me with the next one and I will explain."
"Tell you what, explain and we may help you with the next one..." says Nnn'Ckk.
"How about this! For every rune that we draw, I will explain a part. The fourth rune is drawn, you will know everything that I am trying to do."
" I thought there was just one dragon, but it's like there is a species or something. It's what the sorcerer kings have been trying to become, haven't you been listening!" says Igne's orb to Igne.
"I would not want your dragon to think I am summoning competition" says Vicier, "Because I'm not. I'm summing because that is what someone asked me to do."
"Was it kalid'ma?"
"No, I don't know that name. And I don't know if this is technically what they meant me to do, but I think it has some humor potential."
"So, if this is the humor, will the next part be the meat part of it?"
"No...it's all the same thing. The master, who I can't name, told me to do this."
"Is it Rajet?"
"You know him! You've dealt with him? But you still have your soul?" he asks as he touches Igne on the chest. "It was not he who you named that put me on this task, I just know of him. I can't use the name you use, but I can call him 'war-bringer.' Apparently, he helped start the cleansing wars here {rise of the sorcerer kings when they went to kill off the other races}. He must like you if he didn't ask for your souls. How long did he give you to complete the task? A year, ten years, more? Did he just say 'here is a bunch of power, goodbye?'" Vicier looks dumbfounded.
"Would you allow me the ability to cast arcane sight onto myself to look at you?"
"What ritual is this?"
"I just know it as arcane sight, watch me cast it?"
The party talks among themselves, and it is determined that if Igne can see what Vicier says, he would let him.
Vicier allows him to cut and take some blood and casts the spell. Igne, watching see's him pull out a pouch and pulls out some powder. He tells Igne to mix it and put it on Igne's eyes, as Vicier does it and smears it on his eyes. The mixture on Igne's eyes and on Vicier's eyes both begin to glow. Essentially, Igne uses the blood to protect himself and see what he sees.
Igne and Vicier looks closely at each of the party members. The thing Vicier is looking at the most closely, is that he sees a spot of bright light on each of the party members. "See that? It's a bit of his power he has given to each of you, and there are no conditions! You can do with it what you will! OH, wait, and do you have astrological signs? All of you were born under the auspices of the dragon! I don't know what that means, but it is very powerful. I just don't know much about this world."
When Igne looks at Vicier, he can see within his aura that which Igne desires. He realizes he isn't really seeing anything more than that. He can tell he has magic and such, and at that point the sight ends.
"Wow," and he turns to Igne, "I apologize...will you allow me to serve?"
"Why would you want to serve us?"
"It would be my honor. If you accept this, I will do what you command. I will serve all of you equally and to the best of my ability. What I would like to do is be fully manifest here. It would decrease my abilities, but I think I could server you much better. Otherwise, I could be conjured or summoned by others, such as the one that set me on this task."
The party, loving to live on the edge, says "Sure."
So Vicier swears on his true name {Khuium} and makes it a blood oath to serve all of us to the best of his abilities until the end of his days. He then puts a blood in a vial and gives it to each of the members. It is a symbolic gesture as each of us are now part of his summoning. As he finishes the ritual, magic courses through him, and he truly becomes human.
"Now, everything that I have is now yours!" as he takes off a staff and his clothes and the gems.
"No, keep your clothes and gear!"
"So let him summon another dragon!" calls out Hadren.
Vicier smiles and says "Yes, I was trying to summon a mate for the first one. I was commanded by a sorcerer king to create a distraction for the sorcerer king of Yorik. It was left up to me on how to do it, and I thought this would suffice. I was also going to also create something that would induce some laziness into the population with a plant of some sort."
As the party is talking, suddenly Vicier calls out "Gods it is hot here!!!!"
There is some more talk among the group, talk of the dragon comes up, Vicier is again shocked and mentions being able to write songs about the group. There are more jokes about paper and such, and finally Hadren says "can we get this ritual going!"
So with Nnn'Ckk as the primary and Igne as the secondary, the group successively conjure a second dragon. It takes about 30 minutes to do. The first dragon was a female, this one is a male.
"So! Why do you bring me here?"
"She went that way."
"She? How many suitors does she have?"
"Just you."
"I smell her!" and he flies out the opening.
Each one of the gems we have been using has weighed about an ounce. This bag holds 1000 pounds of gems.
The party is laughing at the results of this, and it takes no time at all for the party to decide to summon the next two.
The next dragon is a fire elemental type dragon, who finds it cold here, but otherwise doesn't complain. They take off and fly away.
We give Vicier back all his stuff, even the bag of gems, and head back to the caravan.
As the sun strikes Vicier, he cringes. Nnn'Ckk sighs, as best he can, and gives him his hat saying "it's a loan"
The group works their way back towards the caravan. The captain is there, and everyone is staring at us.
"What did you do! We saw them! The big lizards that flew around!
Igne and Goren say one thing, Nnn'Ckk says another. Hadren and Destriani says something else.
It is certain that the rumors about what happened will be amazing as time continues.
The party continues travel north the next day, getting about half-way to Silver Springs.
The next day, Vicier is AMAZED at the heat. He just can't believe it. Igne plays with Vicier as he changes from Fire to Earth aspect. He eventually explains he is a jenasi, and Vicier seems to know what that term means.
That night, there are a couple of scuffles as people are fighting over the rumors. The rumors are strange and bizarre. There are slavers and traders and defilers in the stories now, as well as some elemental drakes and other things like that.
The captain comes up to the group to speak with us privately. He says "alright you jerks...WHICH STORY IS TRUE!"
Everyone starts laughing. Igne says "none of them are. They are all lies. Do you really want to know?"
"yes, yes I do. I won't tell anyone, but I want to know."
"Well, you know the dragon? Well, there are four more now."
"You're telling me, you conjured four....well, if you weren't going to tell me the truth you could have just said so."
We talk, and think that we don't want him saying that at a bar while drunk, so Nnn'Ckk comes up with a wonder and more believable story about defilers and illusions. We then give a couple gems to the captain to make up for any damage created by the fights. This all seems to make him much happier, and Nnn'Ckk is happier that we haven't alienated a good contact.
We arrive at Silver Spring: This is a nice trading with many silks and other trading goods. The caravan will be heading north at this point, and so we have to separate from them at this point.
We check the compass, and one is north east and one is east. Hamass comes up and says "You are not going alone? Surely someone is going where you are going, let me check with them? I know that in the next 3 days, there is a caravan heading out towards Nibinea, would you like me to check?"
We say yes, and he goes off and finds what we need and puts a good word in for us with the caravan leader. He comes back and says "Ok, it is a caravan, but it is with one of the brides of Nibinea. The city was named for the ruler, and this is one of his brides and templar's. They have some strange functions and she is a hard liner. She is not allowed to have clothes for example, is that going to be a problem?"
"I just say this because as a templar she will expect some respect, that is all."
Later he returns with the dark haired woman who is the caravan leader. "I am Hadren, allow me to introduce my party..." and he does so.
"Well, I am Megan, but you may refer to me as priestess." then she asks the party, "Is it true that Kalid'ma does not mind non-humans and that he will allow anything that does not interfere with trade?"
"Well, he tolerates us."
"Ah, well then, that makes sense. So are you going all the way to Nibinea?"
We tell her we might leave at hte crossroads.
"Are you passengers or guards then?"
We say we will help with defense, and she seems to be amused to haggle with Nnn'Ckk for the details. We end up getting a very good price for the ride. We purchase a few mounts to have for the ride as well. We have two days to look around.
The caravan departs and travels for a few days. We make it to the crossroads when the sandstorm hits. This caravan has 40 wagons pulled by inexis, along with 20 half-giant guards, and about 100 people making up the caravan. There are another four templars in the group as well. Last, there are about 50 slaves being transported.
Vicier, Hadren, and Igne all have issues with their supplies. Next Vicier and Unndua and Nnn'Ckk had issues. The third day everyone makes it. The last day Destriani and Igne have issues again.
After the sandstorm, the entire group is beat up and tired. There is sand where it should never be. By the time the caravan gets to Sha'Zlim, the group uses 119 survival bits out of the 200 we had purchased.
The city is fairly good sized with several hundred permanent residents. The party finds the most expensive place here and pay to stay there. We also pay for Vicier who is very happy with the pampering.
This town is so far away from everything, that there are all sorts of people that have settled here.
Using the compass here, we see the orb is NE and the other one is SE.
As we continue and then come to the crossroads. When we decide to leave at that point, everyone is very happy with us and we leave on terms. Vicier, who has overdone everything from food to water to sleep, has some issues with women he is saying goodbye too. Fortunately, none of the templars!
As the party makes their way north east along the road, five giants rise up out of the silt and ambush the party.
Igne attacks Giant 1 and hits for 47 points damage to GR. Then he used an action point and attacked with a chaos bolt for 21 points psychic damage.
Giant 1 rushes up to hit Igne, an interrupt goes off and he teleports away as he attacks the giant 1.
Nnn'Ckk then casts a fire scythe as an area burst 2 attack that can hit Giant 1, Giant with a critical, and the third hit smacked giant GR. 70 points damage on the critical, bloodying him as he bloodies the other two as well. Then, using an action point, he does an area burst 2 to get the same three again in a shock sphere for 32 points damage versus reflex. All three hit and all take ongoing 10 save ends.
Hadren charges at one of the giants Nnn'Ckk had attacked, and does 28 points damage to the giant, killing him.
Goren then charges GR1 and attacks but misses with a natural 1.
Destriani moves up and flanks GR1 with Goren and attacks with and entropic blow. She attacks with a 27 but misses. So she uses her ring a recall and an action point for 30 AC, and manages to hit! She does 29 points damage. The giant takes a -2 AC until her next turn.
Vicier moves up and aims his scepter and a hellfire bolt shoots out. Unfortunately, the blast misses.
Giant GR takes 10 points ongoing damage as it is now the giants turn. He throws a shattering rock against Vicier and Unndua for 15 points damage and dazed if hit. He hits Nnn'Ckk, Unndua, and Vicier.
Giant 2 rushes up to do a brutal slash on Destriani as he flanks her. He hits her for 39 points damage.
Giant 1 takes 10 points damage and charges up at Destriani. He hits her for 36 points damage.
Igne moves up and casts a chaos bolt. It flies out and hits the two bloodied giants and kills them doing 19 and 16 point damage.
Giant GR1 swings at Goren but misses.
Nnn'Ckk casts an area effect but only hits GR1 for 59 points damage with a blood pulse.
Hadren rushes up to GR1 and attacks for 43 points damage, killing the bloodied giant.
Goren rushes the last giant and attacks, augmenting with a mind snare, hitting.
Destriani attacks and hits the giant.
Unndua heals Destriani and saves so he isn't dazed.
The last giant begins running, forgetting about the blood pulse...so he takes 100 points damage...and dies.
Vicier was quite impressed, talking about wondering who to sing about...maybe the beating of Destriani!
XP: 2043
GM Notes