Explorers of Calemor, Chapter 1: A View from Afar

[RMcCall]

"No, no, the KING was the dragon. Psychic dragon. I think those are purple. Nunpoldrn wasn't the dragon, that wouldn't make sense for the story! The king would just be like, 'Everyone, kill that dragon!' instead of just 'No, you can't have my daughter.' But maybe things were different back then." Cinthia doesn't seem to entertain the idea that the story could have changed over time for any number of reasons. She tends to accept them as they are; stories, not fact.

"As for what the girl wanted," she adds, "I just figured the king was pretty cruel and wouldn't let her decide anyway. Besides, adding that in would make it sound too...modern. It would take away the authenticity of the story." Cinthia looks like she could keep talking about story theory all night, with the help of the beer.

Looking at the map, the ruins do not seem to be exactly in the center of the desert, but it is far from any border. However, the map mostly relies on landmarks instead of exact distances, so there's no way of telling exactly.

If you want to get the proper supplies for the trek through the desert, you'll have to wait until tomorrow, as all the shops in town are closed.

Someone could make a Dungeoneering check to know exactly what gear you'll need for a desert journey.

 

[Shayuri]

"He could have just said that anyway," Talashia observes dryly. "A man is easier to kill than a dragon, for a cruel king." She shrugs, dismissing the story entirely. It was fun to poke holes in the tales of bards, but this one was still deep in her cups and not much of a challenge.

"Anyway, the point is that the story that man told us is clearly just a traveler's tale, with as much sense as a pixie's whiskers. Which begs the question...what is he really after?"

She waggles a finger. Though not a wizard, she often claimed to have studied with them, and certainly had enough sense of the dramatic to imitate their know-it-all mannerisms. Sadly, she rarely had the 'know' to back that mannerism up.

"If we walk away now, we'll never find out. And he'll just find some other poor pack of sods. I say...let's follow this trail of breadcrumbs and see if we can't steal the cheese from the trap!"

She had no problem with mixing metaphors either, it seemed.

 

[RMcCall]

The next day dawns early, quite metaphorically, on the explorers as they prepare to set out on their journey.

The map seems to indicate that there are two paths to start off on. One heads directly towards the destination, but seems to be filled with red X's and warnings of danger; the first landmark is a field of whirling sandpools. The second path takes a longer and safer route; the first landmark is a mesa shaped like an anvil.

Of course, the journey will be very difficult no matter what if the proper equipment is not bought.

 

[Herobizkit]

"Desert not easy place for not-hunters to live," Howl says matter-of-factly. Turning his head to his jackal companion, he adds, "Fury can hunt food, but you not-hunters have hard time with no colors for hide and no water for drink."

"I see many not-hunters try to look in ruins for things. Us stay much time in ruins and see things not-hunters bring."

OOC: I don't know how the roller works on here yet, but I have a +11 to Dungeoneering.

 

[RMcCall]

You can make a roll by typing (roll)1d20+11(/roll), but using brackets instead of paretheses. Dungeoneering Check: [roll0]

The jackal and the warforged head around town to search for supplies. Even if Howl doesn't quite understand the concept of a "store," he can recognize a sun-protecting headwear in a window when he sees one (even though warforged don't use sun-protecting headgear...but that sounds like how Howl would describe it). The store also has dry food that can last for weeks and dousing rods to find water in the wilderness.

 

[Shayuri]

Talashia stubbornly starts out on her own, but quickly realizes she hasn't got the first idea of what to buy for a trip into the desert. After a suitable pouting interval, she catches up to the others and throws her money into the pot for the expedition funds.

 

[RMcCall]

200 gold gets you all the equipment and food you'll need for a ten-day trip through the desert, and that's about as much as you can carry. According to the map, the journey there should take three to five days, depending on which path you take. Do you want to head out on the short but dangerous path, or the long but safer path?

 

[shamgar001]

200 gold gets you all the equipment and food you'll need for a ten-day trip through the desert, and that's about as much as you can carry. According to the map, the journey there should take three to five days, depending on which path you take. Do you want to head out on the short but dangerous path, or the long but safer path?

200 for all of us? I've only got 40gp.

And I vote for the dangerous path.

 

[fireinthedust]

OOC: yes, 200 seems a bit much for ten days of food. Consider that 10gp is said to weigh approx 1lb, that's 20lbs of gold for a shopping spree... I mean, we couldn't carry that much around, and merchants couldn't possibly make change... Then again, we are 5th level characters, so maybe we have extra gold? I admit that I have been uber lazy on this game (sorry!) and I'm not really sure what my equipment is beyond what Herobizkit was kind enough to put through on the CB for me (thx again!).

Anyhoo, Elandra will pitch in as needed.

Also, she solidly votes for the short path, because Adventure!

 

[Shayuri]

"The less time we're in the desert, the less we'll need to carry," Talashia opines. "We can deal with dangers."

"Maybe we should get a pack mule or...desert...thing. Those big beasts they use in deserts? Can we get one of those?"