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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy" data-source="post: 9807404" data-attributes="member: 4036"><h3>6/11/22</h3>In the morning Grath checks with some hunters getting ready to set out and they provide him a map of possible locations watering holes could crop up.  The desert has underground water reservoirs but they surface periodically in the unstable magical desert.  Rho consults the map with Grath and tries to plan a route that hits the various locations over the next couple weeks.Veldra suggests asking after places it has struck before in the hopes that it will return to places it was successful before.  Grath and Rho head off to ask, leaving Koaphen to talk to Veldra about the green dragonscale armor she wears.  Veldra bluntly responds it is green dragonscale with no further explanation, running the green dragonborn off quite quickly.Meanwhile Grath hears some rumors of the last sightings of the White Death but it was delivered by an exasperated dragonborn that dismissively gestures to a general area on the map.  As Grath turns to walk away, the mocking dragonborn suggests the little priest just go away and forget about this whole thing.Rho intercedes on Grath’s behalf which was probably a good thing as Grath was feeling easily offended and is sometimes prone to outbursts when people don't act as he believes they should or treat him in a way that he feels is unbecoming of his ability.  Rho, being much more humble and willing to take hits if it will smooth things over, frequently acts as the shield for his friends both in battle and in social situations.  Sadly, he frequently has to protect them from themselves and some of the consequences of their more base natures.Gribitz tries asking Koaphen about White Death poo but she is incredibly derailed by the question or rather its delivery.  When he attempts to demonstrate the variety of information you can get from poo by defecating in front of her she immediately excuses herself.  Koaphen says her goodbyes to Rho and explains she has no intention of hunting the White Death with us as it terrifies her.  She gives Rho a silver necklace with a red ruby set in it as a remembrance and even places it on him.  Rho is taken aback and confused by the gesture but assures her he has never forgotten her.  In return Rho slides his ring onto her finger.It is a very touching moment.  Totally not spoiled by Gribitz and Grath behaving like children at the genuine exchange of devotion.As party sets out on their expedition, Grath and Gribitz tease Rho a little more until Grath wheels on Gribitz and screams at him for an hour about his manners and specifically his public defecation.  The priest backhands the goblin, picks him up by the antlers and shakes him, and otherwise batters the goblin into acquiescence whenever he tunes out, fails to understand, or deliberately plays dumb to provoke Grath.  Such treatment continues to be perfectly normal as far as the abused goblin is concerned.The party travels through the desert, there are some small lizards and buzzards and one of them relates to the druid that he has seen a spiky man with a stick wandering the desert ahead of us.  The party eventually comes across the man who is even more odd than they had imagined.  He resembles a walking cactus wandering aimlessly through the endless dunes.He is some kind of shaman or druid and asks about the forests to the north.  He and Gribitz talk excitedly and the somewhat crazed ramblings of a man who perhaps has been out in the sun too long make perfect sense to the nonsensical goblin.  Gribitz asks him about White Death, only for the cactus man to warn he can feel its presence in the sand right now.  He describes it as drinking from the soil and emerging to eat.  However it is a "movey-boy" and the mad shaman has no better advice than to keep searching for it.  It is blind and hunts by feeling the tremors on the earth above.  After the shaman departs, the party discusses how to attract the White Death.While traveling, Owlie, one of Gribitz's spirit companions, spots a watering hole and the party heads that way.  Night has already fallen by the time the party makes it there.  Grath seeds the area with ground tremors to try to attract the White Death.  But nothing happens.  The party sets up watches to continue making noise but does not succeed in attracting the worm.The next day there is more travel and more scouting, there is an enormous tunnel that is spotted that is in the process of collapsing in the sand.  Gribitz guesses that it is 15 hours old or less.  The tunnel is still open enough to get into but it is in the process of collapsing as sand is pouring into it.  It travels down and in the direction of one of the water holes on the map Grath had acquired from the hunters of the Sand Whisperers.When the party arrives however, there is greenery as if there was a watering hole there at some point though there is no sign of it now.  There are signs of a struggle, like something large burrowed up and snapped up something watering and drug it down below. There is another large hole in the ground, this one seems much more recent.  Gribitz suggests going into the hole after the White Death.  There are several branching tunnels under the ambush hole that look like they form a network underground.During conversation about the White Death and the armor comprised of plates of a purple worm that Rho had made for Gribitz, Grath is smote by the realization of what Veldra is wearing.  For the first time it occurs to the priest that they were in a camp of tribes that revere dragons wearing the skin of slain dragon.  Rho tries to reassure him that such practices are not unknown among the desert tribes, Grath in inconsolable and and hurls himself in the hole wailing about the rudeness.  The party decides to search about the tunnels and hope they happen across the White Death or some sign of which way it went.Along the tunnel the party finds a haunch of shattered wildebeest leg. The tunnels diverge further on.  While the blood went left, there are signs of movement to the right that is more recent.  However the tunnel narrows along that way and eventually closes in a collapse.  Thwarted, the party backtracks and heads down the left tunnel.  This tunnel eventually surfaces not far from the oasis.  Something exited here and headed off into the desert, vaguely in the direction of another watering hole on the map.The party joins back up with Kith and Yip on the surface at the cart and sets out in the direction of the exiting creature.  Grath starts summoning up tremors again that night when there begin to be answering tremors from all around the camp, he has just enough time to wake up the others when the massive head of the White Death erupts from the sand backlit by the moon.Gribitz falls backwards out of the wagon and runs away with various mushrooms sprouting from the sands and bursting into the little light forms of his fey friends that start peppering the enormous sand worm with various poofs of colored smoke and glitter.  Rho charges at the enormous worm even as Grath follows behind chanting prayers and turning over his small hourglass.  Time seems to slow to stop as Grath takes to the air as warm twilight begins to spread in a bubble around him into the dark of night.  Finally he completes his prayer and ghostly monks of Ilmater begin to swirl around preparing to combat this colossal foe.</blockquote>

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