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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
Welcome to the Halmae (updated 2/27/07)
- Thread starter spyscribe
- Start date
spyscribe
First Post
Part the One Hundred Forty-Ninth
In which: the party finds that there are many ways to die in the desert.
The party gathers over breakfast to discuss their situation. Although, seeing as their supplies have gone off with their guide in the night, it would be more accurate to say that they gather over a some old trail rations and Anvil’s create food and water.
While going back to Siunethrit is a possible option, it is not a very popular one. Presumably, Djamal is returning to the city, and the party guesses that they are unlikely to get a warm reception upon their return.
“So we press on,” Thatch concludes.
“What are we going to do about food though?” Annika asks, worried.
Anvil counts the party members and does some quick math. “Kettenek will provide,” he assures her. Some members of the party exchange significant glances at this piece of news. Since Anvil is a cleric of Kettenek, the food created by his create food and water is a large quantity of identical beans. (When Eva asked him about this, Anvil’s only reply was, “Beans are the food of Kettenek.”)
At least, thanks to Thatch’s pitcher—“It’s not a pitcher; it’s a decanter of endless water,” Annika protests—the party members (and 21 remaining camels!) have plenty of water.
They pack up their things, and press on.
###
…Come on you stupid camels! Move it. Yes, you… Don’t think I didn’t see that… Oh, you just wait till I get back there. Just you wait…
The party has been trekking through the desert on their own for more than a day and a half, and Lira is starting to get just a little tired of Euro’s constant harassment of the camels.
She can only imagine how the camels feel.
Reyu has taken on the role of chief scout, keeping them moving in the direction indicated by Djamel. She has already steered them around one patch of lightening quicksand, although to be honest, Lira can’t see any difference between that sand and the rest of the sand they have been wading through. She wonders if quicksand would really kill you instantly anyway.
However, Lira’s reverie is abruptly interrupted by a shout of alarm from the front of the column. She looks ahead just in time to see a giant mouth burst out of the sand and swallow Reyu in one enormous gulp.
It looks like some kind of giant snake or worm, a toothy, bulbous mouth on a long, twining sand-colored neck. The creature has no visible eyes, ears, or any other obvious form of sensory input. It writhes back and forth as its powerful throat muscles attempt to pull Reyu down its gullet, towards whatever stomach the creature might have.
Thatch is immediately riding to the rescue, coming up from the back of the line as quickly as Bob can gallop. As he charges past Lira, Eva, and Annika, he draws his longbow and fires an arrow at the underside of the massive thing’s jaw.
Lira blinks. She didn’t even know Thatch had a bow.
Still, there is no time to reflect. Anvil immediately slides off his camel to show the creature the meaning of the wrath of Kettenek. However, no sooner does he dismount than a second head, nearly the twin of the first, bursts forth from the earth at his feet and downs the cleric in a mighty gulp. Anvil struggles mightily, but to no avail.
Lira and Annika both fire off sets of magic missiles which the two snake-like heads do not seem to enjoy in the slightest, but they do not release their prey.
Thatch rides by and slashes at the throat of the creature that swallowed Reyu. A line of blood spatters on the sand, and—close-up—Thatch can see the creature’s neck stretching and distending as Reyu struggles inside. He can just see what look like a set of massive claws scraping out from its gullet, and grins with relish. It would seem that the creature has gotten a bigger mouthful than it intended.
Thatch is just making a tight turn on Bob to make another pass when a third mouth bursts out of the ground, just behind the other two. It seems to have been caught off-guard by Thatch’s quick maneuver, however, and winds up with a mouthful of Bob’s back legs and hindquarters. Bob kicks fiercely, unable to get free, but the creature is not able to swallow the horse either. Thatch leaps from the saddle and prepares to attack the monster trying to eat his mount.
As Eva and Kiara pepper both giant snake heads with missile fire, Annika decides to up the ante and cast lightening bolt. Although there is a chance that she will harm Anvil and Reyu, she has also noticed the heads begin to make movements that could indicate they are getting ready to retreat underground, and if that happens… well, she’s pretty sure that it will only be worse for her friends.
With a >crack< the dazzling ray of electricity shoots from her hands in a wide swathe, catching all three hungry heads in its path. Two react with piercing shrieks and writhe in pain as their flesh smokes. The one that had swallowed Reyu flops to the ground, dead.
An instant later, a giant black bear rips out of the creature’s throat. Kiara grins and whoops, recognizing Reyu in one of her favored wildshapes.
Meanwhile, in the gullet of the other sandworm, Anvil saws away determinedly with his dagger. He is slightly singed by the electricity that just crackled through his foe, but merely grits his teeth and stabs harder at the walls of muscle and sinew surrounding him. His friends are with him, Kettenek is with him, and he will prevail.
On the surface, another worm head has appeared and attempts to snare Thatch in its massive jaws. However, the fighter is ready and is having none of it.
“How many of these things are there?” Thatch yells as he hacks at a massive neck.
“I think there’s only one,” Annika shouts back. “The question is, how many heads does it have?”
Eva fires an arrow, piercing deep into the sandworm’s flesh. “Too many.”
Lira sees the worm that swallowed Anvil begin to shimmy. It’s badly injured at this point, and she guesses that it is attempting to retreat below the surface. She fires off a set of magic missiles and hopes they are enough.
An instant later the dazzling blue bolts strike the creature and the head flops lifelessly to the sand.
Bob has nearly managed to kick himself free, and the rest of the party closes on the last two living heads. Under the combined assault, the living heads begin to retreat beneath the sand.
Lending credence to Annika’s theory, it appears the dead heads are being dragged down as well. And one of them is taking Anvil down with it.
“Kill it! Keep it up here!”
“Thatch! Cut the head off.”
“He’s going under!”
And then, Anvil’s dagger appears, slicing out of the lifeless throat. Anvil follows, covered in gore, tumbling out onto the sand an instant before the last of the sand creature disappears from sight.
In which: the party finds that there are many ways to die in the desert.
The party gathers over breakfast to discuss their situation. Although, seeing as their supplies have gone off with their guide in the night, it would be more accurate to say that they gather over a some old trail rations and Anvil’s create food and water.
While going back to Siunethrit is a possible option, it is not a very popular one. Presumably, Djamal is returning to the city, and the party guesses that they are unlikely to get a warm reception upon their return.
“So we press on,” Thatch concludes.
“What are we going to do about food though?” Annika asks, worried.
Anvil counts the party members and does some quick math. “Kettenek will provide,” he assures her. Some members of the party exchange significant glances at this piece of news. Since Anvil is a cleric of Kettenek, the food created by his create food and water is a large quantity of identical beans. (When Eva asked him about this, Anvil’s only reply was, “Beans are the food of Kettenek.”)
At least, thanks to Thatch’s pitcher—“It’s not a pitcher; it’s a decanter of endless water,” Annika protests—the party members (and 21 remaining camels!) have plenty of water.
They pack up their things, and press on.
###
…Come on you stupid camels! Move it. Yes, you… Don’t think I didn’t see that… Oh, you just wait till I get back there. Just you wait…
The party has been trekking through the desert on their own for more than a day and a half, and Lira is starting to get just a little tired of Euro’s constant harassment of the camels.
She can only imagine how the camels feel.
Reyu has taken on the role of chief scout, keeping them moving in the direction indicated by Djamel. She has already steered them around one patch of lightening quicksand, although to be honest, Lira can’t see any difference between that sand and the rest of the sand they have been wading through. She wonders if quicksand would really kill you instantly anyway.
However, Lira’s reverie is abruptly interrupted by a shout of alarm from the front of the column. She looks ahead just in time to see a giant mouth burst out of the sand and swallow Reyu in one enormous gulp.
It looks like some kind of giant snake or worm, a toothy, bulbous mouth on a long, twining sand-colored neck. The creature has no visible eyes, ears, or any other obvious form of sensory input. It writhes back and forth as its powerful throat muscles attempt to pull Reyu down its gullet, towards whatever stomach the creature might have.
Thatch is immediately riding to the rescue, coming up from the back of the line as quickly as Bob can gallop. As he charges past Lira, Eva, and Annika, he draws his longbow and fires an arrow at the underside of the massive thing’s jaw.
Lira blinks. She didn’t even know Thatch had a bow.
Still, there is no time to reflect. Anvil immediately slides off his camel to show the creature the meaning of the wrath of Kettenek. However, no sooner does he dismount than a second head, nearly the twin of the first, bursts forth from the earth at his feet and downs the cleric in a mighty gulp. Anvil struggles mightily, but to no avail.
Lira and Annika both fire off sets of magic missiles which the two snake-like heads do not seem to enjoy in the slightest, but they do not release their prey.
Thatch rides by and slashes at the throat of the creature that swallowed Reyu. A line of blood spatters on the sand, and—close-up—Thatch can see the creature’s neck stretching and distending as Reyu struggles inside. He can just see what look like a set of massive claws scraping out from its gullet, and grins with relish. It would seem that the creature has gotten a bigger mouthful than it intended.
Thatch is just making a tight turn on Bob to make another pass when a third mouth bursts out of the ground, just behind the other two. It seems to have been caught off-guard by Thatch’s quick maneuver, however, and winds up with a mouthful of Bob’s back legs and hindquarters. Bob kicks fiercely, unable to get free, but the creature is not able to swallow the horse either. Thatch leaps from the saddle and prepares to attack the monster trying to eat his mount.
As Eva and Kiara pepper both giant snake heads with missile fire, Annika decides to up the ante and cast lightening bolt. Although there is a chance that she will harm Anvil and Reyu, she has also noticed the heads begin to make movements that could indicate they are getting ready to retreat underground, and if that happens… well, she’s pretty sure that it will only be worse for her friends.
With a >crack< the dazzling ray of electricity shoots from her hands in a wide swathe, catching all three hungry heads in its path. Two react with piercing shrieks and writhe in pain as their flesh smokes. The one that had swallowed Reyu flops to the ground, dead.
An instant later, a giant black bear rips out of the creature’s throat. Kiara grins and whoops, recognizing Reyu in one of her favored wildshapes.
Meanwhile, in the gullet of the other sandworm, Anvil saws away determinedly with his dagger. He is slightly singed by the electricity that just crackled through his foe, but merely grits his teeth and stabs harder at the walls of muscle and sinew surrounding him. His friends are with him, Kettenek is with him, and he will prevail.
On the surface, another worm head has appeared and attempts to snare Thatch in its massive jaws. However, the fighter is ready and is having none of it.
“How many of these things are there?” Thatch yells as he hacks at a massive neck.
“I think there’s only one,” Annika shouts back. “The question is, how many heads does it have?”
Eva fires an arrow, piercing deep into the sandworm’s flesh. “Too many.”
Lira sees the worm that swallowed Anvil begin to shimmy. It’s badly injured at this point, and she guesses that it is attempting to retreat below the surface. She fires off a set of magic missiles and hopes they are enough.
An instant later the dazzling blue bolts strike the creature and the head flops lifelessly to the sand.
Bob has nearly managed to kick himself free, and the rest of the party closes on the last two living heads. Under the combined assault, the living heads begin to retreat beneath the sand.
Lending credence to Annika’s theory, it appears the dead heads are being dragged down as well. And one of them is taking Anvil down with it.
“Kill it! Keep it up here!”
“Thatch! Cut the head off.”
“He’s going under!”
And then, Anvil’s dagger appears, slicing out of the lifeless throat. Anvil follows, covered in gore, tumbling out onto the sand an instant before the last of the sand creature disappears from sight.
spyscribe
First Post
Yeah, yeah, John. It's all fun and games until someone loses their guide...
Part the One-Hundred Fiftieth
In which: What? Another encounter? But we haven’t slept yet!
It’s late afternoon on the same day as the sandworm attack and Reyu is on high alert for signs of anything that might be hostile.
Nothing like being swallowed alive to drive home the dangers of the desert.
Currently, she is crouched on the ground examining a patch of sand. The rest of the party stands behind, waiting for her pronouncement. Reyu checks again. Yes, there is no doubt.
“They’re footprints.”
“What sort of footprints?” Eva asks.
Reyu shakes her head. “I’m not certain. They look almost like an elf, or human, but… quite small.”
“Someone like Hue?” Thatch asks.
“Perhaps,” Reyu replies. “I cannot be sure.”
With little discussion, the party decides to follow the footprints and see where they lead. After all, they are only guessing that Djamel was leading them in the correct direction to find Pesshetaup, and even if the person whose footprints they are following is lost, at least they can then be lost together.
However, aware that not everyone in the desert is friendly, they send Kiara in swallow form ahead to scout.
Perhaps twenty minutes pass before she comes winging back to the party, flying as though there were a hawk behind her. Remaining airborne, she shifts just to her hybrid shape and—between halting breaths—tells the party what she has seen.
“I followed the tracks… There’s a giant scorpion fighting… something invisible in the air.”
Anvil frowns. “A giant scorpion did not make the tracks we saw,” he informs her.
Kiara shakes her head as she gets her breath back. “There was as body on the ground. A child. I could hear someone else shrieking. We have to go help. Now!”
No discussion at all is necessary this time as the party urges their camels to their fastest pace, following behind Kiara who is already flying ahead.
As they ride hard over the sand dunes, Reyu turns to Anvil. “How much healing do you have left?”
His expression is grim as he answers. “Some. I would advise avoiding close combat if possible.”
Reyu nods. She does not have many spells left and she is not certain about the others. This is going to be… difficult.
Soon the party can hear the shrieking sound that Kiara told them about. As they approach, the shrieking turns to crying.
When they reach the source of the sound, the giant scorpion is snapping at something the party cannot see. The broken body of the human child lies on the sand a little distance away.
Wary of putting themselves in the path of the scorpion’s giant claws, the party takes what cover they can on top of and behind some scattered boulders in the area, hoping that the scorpion will not be able to easily scale them.
The battle does not start auspiciously for the party.
In the first barrage of arrows and crossbow bolts, only Thatch’s does not bounce harmlessly off the animal’s tough exoskeleton. However, they have succeeded in gaining the monster’s complete attention.
The scorpion skitters forward improbably quickly over the sand on its many-jointed legs, and—to Lira’s dismay—steps easily over the fifteen-foot mound where she had taken cover. A massive claw plunges down towards her.
Reacting before she has time to think, Lira ducks just as the claw comes snapping at her middle, shoving herself away off its tip as it as it closes on the air in front of her. She backs up quickly, firing two magic missiles as she does.
Eva takes advantage of the scorpion’s distraction to tumble past the range of its sweeping claws and tail. She takes a shot as she gets into position, but her arrow cannot penetrate the outer shell.
Kiara flies over to flank as well and—having watched the difficulties of the others—manages to take careful aim and bury her arrow right in the joint of one of the giant arthropod’s knees. It makes a sound unlike any she has heard before, and the creature is clearly not pleased.
The scorpion scampers off the mound after her and in that instant, Annika casts a web spell.
It was a tactic she chose mostly because she was out of lightening bolts and magic missiles, but her choice proves fortuitous. The web anchors on three of the rocky outcroppings, and the scorpion is soon completely ensnared.
Thatch gets into position and shoots the creature twice, both arrows embedding deeply in a joint in its tail. Anvil casts bull’s strength on himself and draws his sword, ready to charge at the first opening.
Kiara hits with another arrow, and Reyu finishes summoning a dire wolf. The wolf launches itself fearlessly into the fray, ignoring the hardening strands of Annika’s web and sinking its teeth into the joint above the scorpion’s right claw. The scorpion tries to jerk away and succeeds in almost ripping its own limb clean off.
That was the opening Anvil was looking for. He closes with the scorpion and calling upon the mighty strength of Kettenek to be with him, he slashes down with his sword. He hits true and severs the creature’s leg.
The scorpion stiffens and then topples over. Dead.
Thatch barely has time to get his breath back when he hears the sound of skittering sand behind him. As Kiara shouts an alarm, he turns just in time to see the giant claw of another scorpion swooping down at him.
There’s no time to get away as the claw snaps around his waist and hoists him clean out of his saddle in its painfully crushing grip.
His comrades look on. For a second they are all frozen, aghast.
But in the next moment, the party snaps back into action.
“Do you have another web spell?” Lira yells over to Annika as she pulls Sheesak’s horn from her belt and prepares to sound it.
“No!”
“Okay,” Anvil directs the troops, “We’ve got to get that thing to drop—”
“Something’s coming!”
At Eva’s shout, those not immediately holding off the scorpion turn. A low rumble trembles in the air, and from the other side of the dune just behind them, a cloud of sand approaches.
“What the—?”
And then, cresting over the ridge, a group of at least a dozen camel-mounted riders come charging towards the party.
Lira watches and suddenly realizes that they are all casting. More than that, they are all casting arcanely. She just has time to register this when a barrage of magic missiles along with two freezing rays come flying at the scorpion, hammering it to the ground.
If the monster knew what hit it, it probably wouldn’t have believed it was true.
The camels come to a stop, skidding in the sand only a few yards from the party. The group is led by a woman, riding a camel who wears an elaborate cloth headdress. The woman throws a quick look over the party and shouts, “Nobody move!”
When the party seems to be heeding her command the woman calls out again. “Tia? Imad? Are you alright?”
A child’s head suddenly appears, upside-down, in the air approximately ten feet above the ground, the same place previously so interesting to the scorpion. “I’m okay. Imad’s hurt.”
“Come down,” the woman instructs the child, “let us see to him.”
The head disappears to be replaced moments later by a rope, somehow anchored in midair. The child climbs down, and two of the riders quickly dismount and come over, climbing the rope and disappearing. A few seconds later, they reappear with the bleeding body of another child.
“He’s alive,” one of the riders reports. “But barely.”
Lira looks over at Anvil, questioning. He gives the smallest nod, and she clears her throat.
“Excuse me?”
The lead woman turns to Lira. “Yes. Who are you?”
“My name is Lira. And you are?”
The woman ignores the question. “What are you doing here?”
“We saw tracks in the desert. We followed them, heard the children in trouble, and came to help. If the child is in need of healing, we can—”
The woman cuts her off abruptly. “Are you military?”
“No.”
The woman looks over at her camel for a few seconds, then back to Lira. “Then what are you doing in the desert?”
Lira debates for a moment, and decides on honest, if not full, disclosure. “We were abandoned by our guide.”
“And why was that?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t leave a note.”
While Lira and the woman are talking, Anvil casts detect magic at the group on camels. He doesn’t see anything. One of the riders, however, notices him casting, and, giving Anvil a look of annoyance, detects magic back at him. As he finishes the spell and examines the party, his eyes go wide.
A whispered report makes its way back to the woman in charge. Lira notices again that she turns to look at her camel before responding, almost as though she is consulting with it.
“If you can stabilize the child, it would be appreciated.”
Anvil nods and goes to see what he can do.
“Might we check on our own wounded?” Lira asks, indicating Thatch, who is tentatively getting back to his feet.
The woman does not appear to have a problem with this.
“I’m sorry…” Lira says, “I hope this isn’t a rude question to ask, but… are you sorcerers?”
There is a tense silence. “Why do you ask?”
“So am I.”
Lira watches carefully, and this time she is sure that the woman is taking cues from the camel. However, before she can decide what that could possibly mean, the woman addresses her again. “If you are willing, we will escort you back to our camp where you may sleep and refresh yourselves.”
“Willing?” Lira asks.
“We would ask that you agree to be blindfolded for the journey.”
Lira looks over at her companions, several of whom are clearly not enthusiastic about that plan.
Lira turns back to the woman. “Is that necessary?”
“Yes. If you do not know where we are, you cannot betray us to those who would harm us.”
Lira sighs. “With all due respect… we’re already lost. Knowing how to get to your camp from a patch of desert we could never find again if we tried is hardly useful information.”
“We would,” Reyu adds, “appreciate the gesture.”
The barest pause. A glance to the camel. “Very well.” Then. “Wadiah.”
Lira is confused. “I’m sorry?”
“You asked my name.”
Although Anvil is not able to heal all of Imad’s injuries, he is able to stabilize him. Meanwhile, other riders have wrapped the body of the third child in a blanket to be brought back to camp. With nothing more to attend to, the party members mount their own camels, and ride off with the strangers from the desert.
Part the One-Hundred Fiftieth
In which: What? Another encounter? But we haven’t slept yet!
It’s late afternoon on the same day as the sandworm attack and Reyu is on high alert for signs of anything that might be hostile.
Nothing like being swallowed alive to drive home the dangers of the desert.
Currently, she is crouched on the ground examining a patch of sand. The rest of the party stands behind, waiting for her pronouncement. Reyu checks again. Yes, there is no doubt.
“They’re footprints.”
“What sort of footprints?” Eva asks.
Reyu shakes her head. “I’m not certain. They look almost like an elf, or human, but… quite small.”
“Someone like Hue?” Thatch asks.
“Perhaps,” Reyu replies. “I cannot be sure.”
With little discussion, the party decides to follow the footprints and see where they lead. After all, they are only guessing that Djamel was leading them in the correct direction to find Pesshetaup, and even if the person whose footprints they are following is lost, at least they can then be lost together.
However, aware that not everyone in the desert is friendly, they send Kiara in swallow form ahead to scout.
Perhaps twenty minutes pass before she comes winging back to the party, flying as though there were a hawk behind her. Remaining airborne, she shifts just to her hybrid shape and—between halting breaths—tells the party what she has seen.
“I followed the tracks… There’s a giant scorpion fighting… something invisible in the air.”
Anvil frowns. “A giant scorpion did not make the tracks we saw,” he informs her.
Kiara shakes her head as she gets her breath back. “There was as body on the ground. A child. I could hear someone else shrieking. We have to go help. Now!”
No discussion at all is necessary this time as the party urges their camels to their fastest pace, following behind Kiara who is already flying ahead.
As they ride hard over the sand dunes, Reyu turns to Anvil. “How much healing do you have left?”
His expression is grim as he answers. “Some. I would advise avoiding close combat if possible.”
Reyu nods. She does not have many spells left and she is not certain about the others. This is going to be… difficult.
Soon the party can hear the shrieking sound that Kiara told them about. As they approach, the shrieking turns to crying.
When they reach the source of the sound, the giant scorpion is snapping at something the party cannot see. The broken body of the human child lies on the sand a little distance away.
Wary of putting themselves in the path of the scorpion’s giant claws, the party takes what cover they can on top of and behind some scattered boulders in the area, hoping that the scorpion will not be able to easily scale them.
The battle does not start auspiciously for the party.
In the first barrage of arrows and crossbow bolts, only Thatch’s does not bounce harmlessly off the animal’s tough exoskeleton. However, they have succeeded in gaining the monster’s complete attention.
The scorpion skitters forward improbably quickly over the sand on its many-jointed legs, and—to Lira’s dismay—steps easily over the fifteen-foot mound where she had taken cover. A massive claw plunges down towards her.
Reacting before she has time to think, Lira ducks just as the claw comes snapping at her middle, shoving herself away off its tip as it as it closes on the air in front of her. She backs up quickly, firing two magic missiles as she does.
Eva takes advantage of the scorpion’s distraction to tumble past the range of its sweeping claws and tail. She takes a shot as she gets into position, but her arrow cannot penetrate the outer shell.
Kiara flies over to flank as well and—having watched the difficulties of the others—manages to take careful aim and bury her arrow right in the joint of one of the giant arthropod’s knees. It makes a sound unlike any she has heard before, and the creature is clearly not pleased.
The scorpion scampers off the mound after her and in that instant, Annika casts a web spell.
It was a tactic she chose mostly because she was out of lightening bolts and magic missiles, but her choice proves fortuitous. The web anchors on three of the rocky outcroppings, and the scorpion is soon completely ensnared.
Thatch gets into position and shoots the creature twice, both arrows embedding deeply in a joint in its tail. Anvil casts bull’s strength on himself and draws his sword, ready to charge at the first opening.
Kiara hits with another arrow, and Reyu finishes summoning a dire wolf. The wolf launches itself fearlessly into the fray, ignoring the hardening strands of Annika’s web and sinking its teeth into the joint above the scorpion’s right claw. The scorpion tries to jerk away and succeeds in almost ripping its own limb clean off.
That was the opening Anvil was looking for. He closes with the scorpion and calling upon the mighty strength of Kettenek to be with him, he slashes down with his sword. He hits true and severs the creature’s leg.
The scorpion stiffens and then topples over. Dead.
Thatch barely has time to get his breath back when he hears the sound of skittering sand behind him. As Kiara shouts an alarm, he turns just in time to see the giant claw of another scorpion swooping down at him.
There’s no time to get away as the claw snaps around his waist and hoists him clean out of his saddle in its painfully crushing grip.
His comrades look on. For a second they are all frozen, aghast.
But in the next moment, the party snaps back into action.
“Do you have another web spell?” Lira yells over to Annika as she pulls Sheesak’s horn from her belt and prepares to sound it.
“No!”
“Okay,” Anvil directs the troops, “We’ve got to get that thing to drop—”
“Something’s coming!”
At Eva’s shout, those not immediately holding off the scorpion turn. A low rumble trembles in the air, and from the other side of the dune just behind them, a cloud of sand approaches.
“What the—?”
And then, cresting over the ridge, a group of at least a dozen camel-mounted riders come charging towards the party.
Lira watches and suddenly realizes that they are all casting. More than that, they are all casting arcanely. She just has time to register this when a barrage of magic missiles along with two freezing rays come flying at the scorpion, hammering it to the ground.
If the monster knew what hit it, it probably wouldn’t have believed it was true.
The camels come to a stop, skidding in the sand only a few yards from the party. The group is led by a woman, riding a camel who wears an elaborate cloth headdress. The woman throws a quick look over the party and shouts, “Nobody move!”
When the party seems to be heeding her command the woman calls out again. “Tia? Imad? Are you alright?”
A child’s head suddenly appears, upside-down, in the air approximately ten feet above the ground, the same place previously so interesting to the scorpion. “I’m okay. Imad’s hurt.”
“Come down,” the woman instructs the child, “let us see to him.”
The head disappears to be replaced moments later by a rope, somehow anchored in midair. The child climbs down, and two of the riders quickly dismount and come over, climbing the rope and disappearing. A few seconds later, they reappear with the bleeding body of another child.
“He’s alive,” one of the riders reports. “But barely.”
Lira looks over at Anvil, questioning. He gives the smallest nod, and she clears her throat.
“Excuse me?”
The lead woman turns to Lira. “Yes. Who are you?”
“My name is Lira. And you are?”
The woman ignores the question. “What are you doing here?”
“We saw tracks in the desert. We followed them, heard the children in trouble, and came to help. If the child is in need of healing, we can—”
The woman cuts her off abruptly. “Are you military?”
“No.”
The woman looks over at her camel for a few seconds, then back to Lira. “Then what are you doing in the desert?”
Lira debates for a moment, and decides on honest, if not full, disclosure. “We were abandoned by our guide.”
“And why was that?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t leave a note.”
While Lira and the woman are talking, Anvil casts detect magic at the group on camels. He doesn’t see anything. One of the riders, however, notices him casting, and, giving Anvil a look of annoyance, detects magic back at him. As he finishes the spell and examines the party, his eyes go wide.
A whispered report makes its way back to the woman in charge. Lira notices again that she turns to look at her camel before responding, almost as though she is consulting with it.
“If you can stabilize the child, it would be appreciated.”
Anvil nods and goes to see what he can do.
“Might we check on our own wounded?” Lira asks, indicating Thatch, who is tentatively getting back to his feet.
The woman does not appear to have a problem with this.
“I’m sorry…” Lira says, “I hope this isn’t a rude question to ask, but… are you sorcerers?”
There is a tense silence. “Why do you ask?”
“So am I.”
Lira watches carefully, and this time she is sure that the woman is taking cues from the camel. However, before she can decide what that could possibly mean, the woman addresses her again. “If you are willing, we will escort you back to our camp where you may sleep and refresh yourselves.”
“Willing?” Lira asks.
“We would ask that you agree to be blindfolded for the journey.”
Lira looks over at her companions, several of whom are clearly not enthusiastic about that plan.
Lira turns back to the woman. “Is that necessary?”
“Yes. If you do not know where we are, you cannot betray us to those who would harm us.”
Lira sighs. “With all due respect… we’re already lost. Knowing how to get to your camp from a patch of desert we could never find again if we tried is hardly useful information.”
“We would,” Reyu adds, “appreciate the gesture.”
The barest pause. A glance to the camel. “Very well.” Then. “Wadiah.”
Lira is confused. “I’m sorry?”
“You asked my name.”
Although Anvil is not able to heal all of Imad’s injuries, he is able to stabilize him. Meanwhile, other riders have wrapped the body of the third child in a blanket to be brought back to camp. With nothing more to attend to, the party members mount their own camels, and ride off with the strangers from the desert.
babomb
First Post
Spyscribe, I just want to say I'm a big fan of this story hour. Not only is it well-written, but you update frequently! I started reading this because my favorite story hours hadn't been updated in months. You average slightly less than one update every six days. (Yes, I counted.)
So, uh, thanks for being compulsive and poor.
So, uh, thanks for being compulsive and poor.
KidCthulhu
First Post
Obey Hypno-Camel!
spyscribe
First Post
babomb said:
Wow! What a wonderful statistic. And one that I--for all of my compulsive qualities--never calculated myself.* Glad to hear you're liking the story, and... because I am passionately curious, I have to ask... did you actually count up all of the updates, maps, and sidebars?
*Yes, I have calculated others. Any story hour author who says they have never swung by the forum to check their view count is a lying liar.
Lazybones
Adventurer
665 posts in and the story is still getting better and better. Love the extended campaign quest idea of the embassy to the four wizards. The characters continue to grow deeper. Luckily I'm ahead in my own SH, for I haven't been writing in the 3 days I've been reading Halmae.
Lazybones
Adventurer
Curses! Just got to the end, and no more updates... well, at least I can come back in a month knowing that there will be at least several new sections to read (unfortunately I cannot access ENWorld at work, so I DL threads to my USB drive to read during... slow spells). Finally a SH author who updates regularly!
Again, great story, thanks to spyscribe and fajitas for your work in sharing the adventures of your group. It sounds like you guys have a great deal of fun.
LB
Again, great story, thanks to spyscribe and fajitas for your work in sharing the adventures of your group. It sounds like you guys have a great deal of fun.
LB
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