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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy" data-source="post: 9788588" data-attributes="member: 4036"><h3>5/7/22</h3>Traveling through the sand is slower than thought, it may take 4 days to reach Bleeding Stone.  The day’s travel is hot and relentless but the Tiny Hut keeps away the chill of the night.  Gribitz learns about the local flora.The cart gets stuck in the sand on the second day.  It takes some time for Gribitz to figure out how to work the different Earth but he is able to smooth the path enough to get the cart going again.  He is fascinated by all the different lizards and snakes and scarabs and desert mice.  Gribitz asks Rho about the Sand Whisperer tribe.  They talk to a lizard and discuss storms.A giant vulture flies down and perches and speaks in Common he asks if he can tag along to Bleeding Stone, Grath says no but Gribitz says yes and asks for a flight around.  It’s a good thing he does as he sees a sand storm sweeping across the desert that will be on them soon.  The party pulls the cart to a stop and Grath summons up a protective dome that holds through the storm.The next day Grath and Gribitz both spot a large section of sand moving and Rho suggests holding very still to see if it passes.  Something shines in the sand as it moves, some kind of silky strand.  Rho recognizes it just as the sand bursts in every direction as the thin layer of material holding it together is shredded, revealing a huge spider snake monstrosity.The creature has a multitude of alien eyes that try to ensnare Veldra in their hypnotic gaze but she just slams her visor down, raises her shield only for her double image to appear next to the creature and slash at its exposed underbelly.  Gribitz however feels an unnatural terror wash over him that chases him into hiding.  But Grath fills the area with his sanctuary and reaches out to Gribitz, reassuring him.  Rho is already facing his fears by returning to the sands of his homeland, when the creature turns its gaze on him it is met only by steely determination.  Black smoke starts to wisp from his nostrils and he leaps into combat with it.  Rho is immediately met by the serpent’s fangs and an immense amount of venom is injected into him.  Kith is super excited to see a creature with so many eyes to pop and opens fire on it.  It tries to entangle Rho in webs before it burrows back beneath the sands.  Gribitz slaps Yip on the butt as it starts to tunnel towards the horse and tells him to run (cart and all) while he summons up a defensive screen of cave badgers around the area telling them to call out when the monster is nearby.When it bursts back up from the sands Rho swings his maul at it, smashing its spider legs aside but its serpentine coils bind him tightly and begin to squeeze the life out of him.  Terrifyingly it vanishes beneath the sands with the large dragonborn still trapped in its coils.  The party fans out searching for them but Rho climbs his way back to the surface on his own.  Grath immediately Banishes the creature when it bursts forth again from the sands, he warns the others it is coming back. The party begins to prepare their best for the return of the monster.Grath drains himself of his own lifeforce as he sacrifices to his Opus to heal Rho of his many wounds.  The red bands bandage and stitch Rho while simultaneously tightening and wounding Grath.  When the monstrosity reappears it is assaulted by the prepared barrage but it weathers it and continues to try to abduct Rho.  However it is unable to escape as Gribitz changed the earth under its arrival spot into a densely compacted soil while it was gone to slow its passage.  Finally it falls as Kith sinks a heavy bolt into one of the many eyes of the aberration and they all close.Rho finally succumbs to all the venom in his system, collapsing paralyzed to the sands.  Grath is able to restore him to mobility again though it gives everyone a scare.  Rho suggests extracting the venom sack but as he just smashed the living hell out of its head it is uncertain how much will remain undiluted.  Three vials worth are extracted.  The party checks in on each other and the orphaned Chris before heading west trying to outrun the storm coming in from the north.The vulture rejoins the party on the third day, Gribitz calls him Gus.  Gus says he spent a long time with a man dressed in cacti.  But he just wants to see a rock that bleeds.  Finally on the fourth day the party arrives in Bleeding Stone.  The guards challenge the party for their business and they announce they are there to see the smith Vigor Ainfun.  The city is largely constructed of sandstone.  The party takes Chris to see Vigor at his place of work.  He’s got a couple apprentices working with him.  He’s a big barrel-chested man.  Grath reintroduces Chris and Vigor, Gribitz intimates that Chris’s parents are dead.  Vigor harrumphs that he can always use another set of hands though his eyes betray his compassion for Chris.  He dismisses the party and suggests they stay at the Smiling Snake inn.  Apparently the proprietor has a knack for magical things.  The Smiling Snake inn looks more like a repurposed ancient temple.  Behind the counter is a gentle faced old man with the body of a long serpent.  Gribitz shoots his mouth off and gets muzzled.  He makes several cracks about the proprietor not having hands to Grath’s mortification, but actually the goblin is working up a sales pitch and offers to sell the naga a magical animated broom and bucket from Lazandrias's dungeon.</blockquote>

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