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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy" data-source="post: 9794301" data-attributes="member: 4036"><h3>6/4/22</h3>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.</blockquote>

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