NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nebulous" data-source="post: 4075057" data-attributes="member: 31465">Adventure #18: Desert AssassinsPart 1: The Gas CamelApril 1st, 1925After disrupting the resurrection of Nitcrosis, Dr. Kafour fears that death squads will target the party.  To continue the hunt for the missing Carlyle Expedition, they must find a mysterious place called the Mountain of the Black Wind where a child of Nyarlathotep is supposedly to be born.  For Worthington Lester Cobblebottom (Jeff secretly hid “Worth-Less” into his name) this journey is both frightening and exhilarating. The group has lost one member, private investigator Morty Jones, but Lester is a worthy replacement.  And to their surprise, young Ma’Moud practically begs these men to bring him along!  They have grown attached to the boy, and although their journey will be dangerous, they don’t consider it much worse than him suffering alone and destitute in the slums of Cairo. Except for maybe losing his eternal soul. They take him anyway. <img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/group.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Their final night together, Ali Kafour tells them, “Contact me when you can, I will be here. Good fortune my friends, and may God be with you. May God be with us all.”The next morning they meet their caravan guide, Ra’eje.  He seems very amicable, and does not question the nature of their journey. Obviously, they are just seekers of knowledge and adventure. Dr. Kafour says that Ra-eje was paid specifically NOT to ask questions. His camel seems curious though. <img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/raeje.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Lester Cobblebottom is all but oblivious to the dangers ahead.  Oh sure, he knows about the Priestess of Bast and the murders in the Museum.  He knows that his companions seek to disrupt a religious ritual in Kenya, and that this ritual can have far reaching consequences, but Lester does not understand the full implications of their mission.  That knowledge will come with time…and madness.Still, Lester has been poring over the Black Rites for a short while now, and has learned some tantalizing hints about the Mythos, about strange, extraterrestrial gods in the center of the cosmos, and dark words that can invoke spirits and magic.  At dusk they head off into the desert, with great Cairo dwindling behind them for the last time. They will not return here. <img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/leaving.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />[GM Note: Each investigator rides a camel, the first time they’ve had to deal with these beasts.  But they quickly find a use for their strength and resilience: a 50-gallon drum of gasoline is strapped to the back of one camel and carefully shielded from the sun. From what they learned beneath Giza, things that go BOOM! can solve problems]. Three days after leaving the city, they find themselves huddled in a tent while a brutal sandstorm howls outside. Ra'eje casually speaks with them, but the investigators are reluctant to share information. Ra'eje begins to tell a story about his childhood, a horrifying story he says, but is interrupted by camels moaning outside. He grows very still, listening.  A few moments later, he says that something besides the sandstorm has disturbed them. He looks out and sees three riders shuffling closer.<img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/storm.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />“I…I cannot tell who they are," says Ra'eje. "Nomads perhaps.”The investigators are immediately suspicious, but the riders are hailing them, and Ra'eje beckons them to join their group in the safety of the tent. It will be cramped, but manageable. Chad Slambody tucks a loaded shotgun under his sleeping mat just in case. Lucifer Lardlover tries to detect a hint of danger [failing his Special Ability check], but senses nothing. The men don't seem armed, but the investigators do spot long bundles on their camels that might conceal rifles.The three strangers soon enter the tent, all Arab men, although only one of them speaks broken English. They make small talk with Ra'eje, and the group as a whole gathers around the central pole.  Lanterns hang from hooks while they wait out the storm, giving them enough light to see each other. Chad immediately spots a concealed dagger beneath the robes of one man, and attempts to convey this information to his boss, Lucifer Lardlover. However, he bungles the attempt and finds the Arab man staring intently at him.Chad gulps, embarrassed.Lucifer and Chad take their discussion outside to the camel circle, where Chad blurts to Lucifer what he saw, but almost as soon as they have left the tent and entered the howling wind, the Arab man jabs a lean finger at Cobblebottom and Chang."KILL THEM!"<img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/ass.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Daggers whip out, the leader slashing Cobblebottom with twin blades, nearly killing him. The wounded scholar staggers back, screaming in pain and trying to shield himself. He has no idea what is happening, blood pouring from wounds across his arms and chest. Chaos ensues in the tent as Ra'eje screeches even louder than Lester and begins digging frantically out from beneath the edge of the tent, throwing handfuls of sand behind him. Chang pulls out his pistols and fires multiple times, but in the cramped quarters, his aim is deflected, followed by a punch to the jaw and a knee in his gut.  One gun drops to the floor, but Chang blasts the attacker with the other weapon, downing him.  The killer writhes in pain and Chang stomps on his head, only to be bashed senseless by their leader, a cold, calculating assassin of no small talent. Assuming attack position, Chad THROWS himself into the melee, hooking an arm around an assailant’s neck and kicking the other in the crotch. An elbow to the ribs flings Chad away, and he realizes with growing despair that the man in their midst is a trained murderer. [And well above their Challenge Rating]The next 7 or 8 rounds features a hectic fight of mostly missed shots by Chang, and gay Chad Slambody putting the wrestling moves on anyone he can catch, trying his damnedest to hamstring the leader who is proving extraordinarily difficult to subdue.It should be noted, and this will be important later, that the camel loaded with fifty gallons of gasoline is precariously close to random gunfire. (Because one never knows when you might need high explosives when fighting otherworldly powers). They’re worried that stray bullets could hit their "Gas Camel," so Cobblebottom and Ma’Moud try to haul the beast away before a Critical Miss explodes the thing in their faces.  Ma’Moud slaps the camel, screaming its name and shooing it, but the animal is stubborn and oblivious to the danger it poses.<img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/camel2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Two of the cultists are finally shot down, but the one with twin knives is a deadly opponent, and he severely wounds everyone except for Lucifer, who manages to stay outside the tent, popping in for the occasional pistol shot.  But his aim is atrocious, and in fact, he manages to wing Chang!  Cursing in the foul language of the netherpits, Lardlover resorts to a magical offense. Chad tries to retrieve his shotgun and put an end to the assassin, but two critical failures later, he drops the loaded gun at his feet (the discharge ripping through the tent and narrowly missing the Gas Camel) and the Arab stabs him yet again. Chad is going to lose this fight, he knows it now. In a desperate move, Lucifer summons his potent magical skills, and throws a wave of force into the tent, slamming into the assassin but also cracking the support pole in half. The tent collapses, but it is already full of bullet holes and buckshot and knife slashes, and now oil lanterns catch on fire.Chad manages to crawl out, but sees the man moving under the canvas and throws himself on top, grappling and kicking, even as the assassin's knife punches through and stabs him yet AGAIN!  Grimacing in pain, Chad rains punches on the killer while Chang pops a few more shots into the tent, and the man is finally subdued from shock, blood loss, and suffocation.He nearly killed everyone single-handedly. Chad staggers away while Lester tries to bind his wounds. Chad has been stabbed over half a dozen times in his arms, legs and torso.  Ra’eje cowers by his camels, praying for the mercy of Allah.  Lucifer sinks to his knees, head bowed, while Chang collapses into the sand and Ma’moud weeps, face buried in his hands. And all around them, the merciless sandstorm continues to rage…Before long the storm dies out, and morning finds them with a vehement cultist cursing at them.  The man did not perish overnight as they had thought, but now that he is conscious, he is quite vocal. He tells them that the Dark One will devour their souls and rend the flesh from their bones. Unperturbed, they bury the man up to the neck in the sand and leave him to die. The assassin's camels were carrying what looks like incensed kindling for a makeshift pyre or shrine, and they deduce that these men wanted to probably burn them alive as sacrifices to Nyarlathotep.The Gas Camel has kept its fuel tank preserved, and for that they consider themselves lucky.  The previous encounter could have been disastrous. But as a relevant side-effect, they realize the strategic value of an animal that can haul large amounts of explosive chemical!  [GM Note: the player’s minds are churning full throttle in meta-game mode now. Finding and using anything explosive becomes priority number one]. They set off toward the horizon.  The last thing they hear behind them is curses from a soon-to-be dead man buried up to his neck in the hot, hot white Sahara sand.</blockquote>

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