[D&D 5e] The Wild Bunch in Galyria

[Jeremy]

5/21/22​

The party and the naga continue their negotiations with Rho suggesting barter rather than direct sale as both sides enjoy showing off the amazing and sometimes weird objects of power they have collected. Gribitz spots another dragonborn in Snake and strikes up a conversation that quickly turns to the Sand Whisperers they've heard of. Ock’v is a jovial foreigner however who knows nothing about the desert clans but is chatty and enjoys meeting the rest of the party. He warns them that if they are going into the desert that the knee-biters have been very agitated lately.

N’xay the naga returns from his vault with three items. A bagpipe, an hourglass, and a golden sphere. The pipe sings in the wind and summons birds to command. The hourglass can occasionally stop time for a few seconds. The sphere allows someone to fly for a few minutes. Gribitz snatches it up with excitement and starts floating up when he shakes it. He laughs and tosses it to Rho, inviting him to try, but immediately tumbles from the air.

Grath flips the hourglass. For one mile in every direction time stops for 12 seconds. Grath uses the time to flick Gribitz’s nose. It takes a few days to recharge. They trade the broom and bucket for the hourglass and an urn of air elemental summoning for the golden sphere of flight. Rho buys rooms and meals for the party.

Gribitz continues to gremlin goblin until N’xay’s eyes glow white and whispers fill the air and silence everything in the room. All the cups and plates begin to lift up into the air but then magically fill with food and drink. Gribitz is up to the challenge and attacks every plate he can with his mouth. Meanwhile, outside Grath is people watching. He see’s Ock’v has a group of his own and is speaking to a guard. Ock’v is now in heavy armor and a pair of swords. He has a tall robed companion with long hair. There is also an elven archer of fair appearance as well as a priest of some kind. After the guard points out something for them on a map they part ways. Grath approaches the guard curiously after they depart and asks about where they were headed, maybe dreaming of the adventures of a less chaotic party.

Grath also asks the guard about the "knee biters". The guard describes them as bold lately, harder to scare off, maybe even stronger. The lord of Bleeding Stone is offering bounties on their heads, only 5 copper each though. Some kind of desert goblin apparently. Their tribe and encampment is rumored to be to the southwest in the desert.

Rho approaches Grath and they discuss what he knows of desert goblins. They talk about the desert and if Rho misses it at all. Grath wants to wander around and try some shopping and local dishes before he returns. Grath samples local incenses, but when the vendor wants to try to pitch him some mind altering varieties Grath shuts him down hard.

Later on after taking their ease for a while, Rho and Grath discuss some of the watering holes in the area that they might check to see if the Sand Whisperers are there. Grath issues a few Sendings before turning in, checking in with the church, the estate, and the like.

That night Gribitz dreams of a beautiful meadow, later in the dream he hears a song that he follows to a dense thicket. He speaks to the voice of the Green and bids it continue its song but it asks a favor of him. It requests 3 items be fetched for it, a golden comb is the first. He pulls it out of a nearby bee hive and returns it. Next is a silver spool. Gribitz finds some webspinners and has it wrap some of its thread around his finger. The final task is to catch the setting sun in a cup and bring it to the spirit of the Green.

In return the Green presents Gribitz with some fruit and advice beware the things that travel in the sun and the things that travel in the moon and listen to the wisdom on the whispers of the wind. In the morning Gribitz bestows the blessing of the Green on everyone in the common room by calling upon the bear spirit to bless them with vitality.

The party sets out into the desert. After a few hours they hear a goblin marching song. The knee biters are in numbers enough to be kicking up some dust as they march in an oddly organized column west. Gribitz breaks off and runs up to them impulsively. They are yellowish sand goblins, they wear leather coverings, they have slits instead of noses, bulging eyes, and are quite a bit taller than most goblins, though still not human height. Gribitz summons up eight huge bats to ride and make an entrance with. He swoops along on top of the marching column demanding to know what they are up to and who their leader is.

They serve the desert witch and want to know if Gribitz does too. Gribitz lies and says HE serves the FOREST witch of the north. After some discussion, the knee biters ask if the forest goblins want to join forces. They offer to take Gribitz to their desert witch, and he pauses to pretend to consider before grandiosly declaring he must go round up his slaves. Gribitz and his giant bat squadron fly back to the party to fill them in on what he found out. Grath wants to nothing to do with more goblins and wants to continue searching for the desert clans of dragonborn. Rho and Veldra however outvote him and want to take the opportunity to find out what has the desert goblins so active and organized.

With what remains of the duration of the summoned bats, the party flies back to the goblin column riding the horrifyingly large bats and making quite the impression on the knee-biters.

 

[Jeremy]

5/28/22​

The knee-biters sing a marching tune on the way to the encampment. Gribitz is familiar with tune and joins in though he doesn't get the words right. Their encampment is situated in a valley crawling with sand goblins that warily eye the approaching column as Veldra, Grath, and especially Rho stand out. Gribitz is pushed forward to make explanations and lacking the giant bats to make an impression opts for sculpting a sand pedestal and summoning fire in his hands as he lies about the might (and existence) of the forest witch of the north.

There is a swirl of sand preceding the sand witch’s arrival. She is bedecked in leather and gold but very revealing attire. This is not pleasant as she is hideous to behold. She sees right through Gribitz’s childish and outlandish lies and ensorcels him as he amuses her. The rest of the party however is not about to allow someone else to have their goblin jester so they draw steel.

Things devolve into a melee with Rho using his new flight orb and Grath trying his new hourglass, it hasn't recharged yet though and thus does nothing. Rho and Grath go straight for the hag, catching both her and her guards by surprise and pounding her brutally. She tries to fly away under cover of arrows from the other goblins but Gribitz summons again the cauldron of giant bats down to snatch up goblins and carry them up into the sky. The cries of their brethren as they are first snatched up then their screams as they are dropped heavily impacts the rest of the encampent's morale. Veldra quietly moves amidst the distracted knee-biters and surgically dispatches one after another.

Rho and Grath fly up into the air pursuing the desert hag on her flying stick. The hag gets off a lightning bolt before Rho lands a particularly devastating overhead blow that sends her crashing to the earth in a crater. Then he lands with a terrifying crash himself and bellows fire triumphantly, catching several more goblins aflame. Grath’s voice booms over the battlefield, magically augmented, calling for the goblins to retreat. But, unaccustomed to being fearsome, he only encourages the goblins to seek revenge on their mistress’s killer. At least initially.

Fighting continues for a bit but without their leader, the goblins fall quickly and soon surrender and flee. The party searches the goblin encampment but finds mostly goblin junk. There is some jewelry on the mangled mess Rho left of the witch. Afterwards however, the party is unable to find Yip or their wagon. The party searches for signs of what happened when they spot a cloud of dust on the horizon. Yip comes barreling over a dune pulling someone else's wagon with Kith in it. The small kobold is a little banged up but has seemingly bandaged herself at least temporarily. When she arrives she and Yip breathlessly describe how they were ambushed by a sand worm that devoured our cart. They keep talking over each other but it seems Yip bolted and Kith was left alone in the desert.

The party asks about this new wagon she is driving and gets bits and pieces of confused tale of an oasis and some bandits and how the kobold was so much smarter and sneakier than the bandits whose wagon she apparently stole while liberating Yip from their camp. There doesn't appear to be any sign of pursuit so the party checks what provisions or clues this new wagon contains.

In the back are some stacked silver trade bars, a suspicious chest, and a number of barrels. Rho tries to open the chest but it looks empty. Not satisfied, Rho tries dumping out the empty chest. The false bottom gives way and several pouches spill out. The pouches contain some kind of black powder, Rho suspects it is some kind of drug. Veldra had come across it a few times in her previous work, called Black Sugar on the street, it is a euphoric narcotic with the side effect of exhaustion.

In the barrels there are food provisions, more water, and crumbs left over in the empty barrels. Grath creates water in one of the empty barrels. Veldra and Rho ask about the giant worm that ate the wagon. It was big, white, and had lots of teeth. Yip is still a little terrified. The new wagon is much better suited to desert travel and weather as it has a canvas cover the back of it and a number of barrels secured for transporting goods.

It is several days travel towards the oasis Rho directs us to. Nights and days pass uneventfully though it is some time before Yip relaxes and stops constantly reliving the giant worm bursting up from underneath him. Maybe a day or two away from the oasis come scattered sand storms with little warning and various durations. Oddly there are no signs of life in the area, not a single vulture in the air, lizard on the ground, or scorpion in the sand.

Gribitz summons Owlie who has a look about and spies the oasis in the distance. However there are sand storms popping up all between the party and the oasis prompting Rho to wonder if the Sand Whisperers can summon them up defensively. The party continues cautiously towards the oasis doing their best to avoid or shelter through the storms. They pass bodies in the sands and nervously do their best to avoid meeting the same fate when the next storm overtakes them. In the midst of this storm a robed figure approaches and calls out. The voice is feminine and hard to make out yet Rho recognizes it. It is Rho’s old friend and clanmate Koaphen Darvhollen. They have a very awkward reintroduction with Rho being extremely reserved and withdrawn around the suddenly effervescent green dragonborn who is so very excited to see her long lost friend who vanished in the night without a word.

 

[Jeremy]

6/4/22​

The party speaks with Koaphen about how they met Rho and where’s he’s been and what she’s looking for. She doesn’t know and won’t say for how long she’s been searching. When she asks what the party seeks Grath expectantly looks at Rho to answer. When his silence goes on too long, Gribitz blurts out that Rho has been running from his black smoke monster and they are helping him face it. This does not go over well with anyone.

Instead everyone agrees that finding the Sand Whisperer shaman is the best idea. Koaphen is desperate to here of all that the party has seen and done but Grath tries to turn it back to Rho’s clan as he is just as desperate to understand Rho and his connection to Koaphen. Gribitz specifically requests embarrassing stories involving Rho. She relates a story of stealing shaman artifacts and getting caught. She holds her clan in very high regard and this comes across in how she tells her story though it is clear she has particular affinity for Rhoseth personally.

Grath takes Gribitz aside to lecture him about speaking about Rho's condition but Gribitz stubbornly insists that the whole point of coming to the dragonborn was to tell them about it so they can fix it. However he is able to distract the priest with wild theories about the jewelry and gems Rho tends to collect and hide have a purpose and that purpose is obviously proposal to Koaphen.

Grath and Gribitz fly off into ever more animated imaginations of what color a green and red dragon mating make, if they already have secret children, if they are ugly or striped or abandoned. If Rho overhears any of this discussion he does his best to pretend he does not as he encourages Yip to continue towards the oasis. The difference around the oasis is shocking. Soft palms and green life surround the water and the dragonborn presently encamped around it are predominantly blue dragonborn. When the wagon comes near, the party is intercepted by guards with drawn weapons.

Rho formally requests shelter and an audience with the spirit speakers. The guards state that a meeting of that nature requires approval from the clan chief. The party is admonished to be on their best behavior as the guards regard the party suspiciously. The dragonborn are very averse to goblins specifically and offer to kill Gribitz when their eyes fall on the squat, antlered creature. Rho intercedes, though he seems to lose standing for doing so. The party is ostracized by the majority of the encampment and directed to wait some way away.

After a bit, a large grizzled blue dragonborn approaches with a pearly white spear. Gribitz asks if he can get some food but daring to speak is not well received. They ask for Rho’s name and recognize and respect his clan. Rho requests an audience for himself and Koaphen with the spirit speaker. He is rejected outright and stiffens at this news but as they are speaking in draconic, only Grath and Koaphen are able to really follow. The chieftain explains that spirit speaker has cut off nearly all contact, sequestering himself and only permitting a select few into his presence as he prepares some ritual.

However the Darvholla name carries great weight among the Sand Whisperers, so the chief suggests a feat of strength that might bring such honor that the shaman could not ignore him. When Rho asks what trial might be worthy of such, the chief whispers of the White Death. Rho accepts the offered path and asks where the beast may be found. Apparently it hunts much of the south desert by night, but no one knows where it lairs in the heat of the day. The mood in the encampment changes somehow when the chieftain invites the party to rest and eat before their hunt. It feels something like a funeral as the other Sand Whisperers glance furtively at the outsiders. Rho however sighs with relief, the threat of certain death and an insurmountable foe is nothing compared to the weight of duty and honor to the dragonborn, and that at least seems to have been secured.

Rho relays what the clan chief told him explaining some of the nuance Grath had missed. Koaphen is beside herself that Rho is even considering this challenge. Gribitz just asks basics about what the White Death likes to eat or if can be baited or lured out. Koaphen offers what little she knows. She says the White Death’s head is bigger than the wagon and no one knows the full size of its body as no one that has survived seeing it has seen it fully emergy from the sands. As for bait, she suggests large, heavy animals.

Grath works to pull Gribitz and Veldra aside to make room for Rho and Koaphen to reconnect. Rho doesn't notice until it is too late and is terrified by this betrayal. He is left defenseless before the determined onslaught of his childhood friend. Koaphen has thousands of questions and tries to get Rho to open up to him. Rho eventually retreats to the wagon requesting privacy if he is to speak of what happened. In the wagon Rho discusses his journey, though he keeps exclusively to what has happened since he left the desert sands. His hands nervously fidget the whole time until Koaphen presses to hear about the black smoke.

Rho is tight lipped. Koaphen speaks of her own departure from the clan and her search for herself and her destiny. She has been studying the arcane though she has yet to leave the sands. Her stories however soon turn back to her worry about Rho and this new task he has set before himself. When the party is gathered back together they dine and relax among the clan and even spy the Sand Whisperer shaman emerging for his meal briefly. Grath however relentlessly questions Rho as to how things are going with Koaphen. Rho grunts noncommitally and refuses to elaborate.

Gribitz, now free, mingles and asks the dragonborn clan about desert life, predators, watering holes, migrations, hunting, everything about life in the sands. He finds a lot of reticence to even look at him, much less talk to him to the point he slips away and begins a spell. He summons forth the girls and and they magically make him look like a fat, squat dragonborn. He still can't speak the language though he has more luck than as a goblin. Grath invites Koaphen to bed down with the party and winks at Rho.

Seeing Rho side by side with other dragonborn it becomes apparent that he looks quite different from most of them, he is more boldly colored, bigger, stronger. Grath asks about Rho’s parents, Gribitz asks about his clutch mates. Eventually the party beds down in a Tiny Hut Grath summons near the cart as the sweltering desert is actually rather cold in the night.