Our next play session began with a gruesome scene, as our Silonar mounts ate their fill on the carcasses of the Mologoths that unsuccessfully tried to make us lunch. We continued on the trail that would lead us to the Durylops tribe, heading south and west on the edge of the sandy desert. Our ranger reported back that he had found a large pavillion tent that served as the basis of an encampment of humans.
The party scouted the encampment from atop a ridge. Sir Peter used his heraldry skills to determine that the banners that were flown belonged to the Order of Lamps, a special detachment from The Domain of Man in the Eastern Territory. This marked the third expedition backed by a major world power! Something was definitely amiss in the southern regions of the Stony Desert.
The party considered their previous encoutner with the Wolfen expedition, which was currently still engaged with an Orcish raiding party. Deciding to use the animosity that Eastern humans usually harbor for Wolfen to their advantage, the group hastily penned a note detailing the exact location of the Wolfen band, and delivered it to the encampment via magical hawk from Tharzak’s amulet. The party then swung wide around the encampment of the Order of Lamps and continued on their journey.
Next, the party stumbled upon the burnt ruin of a village of various Wastelander races. Dead quillback, eandoroth, and Gosai littered the terrible scene. Tharzak used his tracking abilities to determine that the party that had laid waste to this village originated in the same direction we were heading! A conflict seemed inevitable. He was also able to surmise that the attackers were humanoids, but larger than human. The party searched the ruined village for survivors, to no avail.
Continuing on, the heroes stumbled across the corpse of a minotaur impaled on a spear. Kierjan studied the black robes that adorned the corpse and able to identify the body as a witch of the Old Ones! Tharzak was also able to match up the tracks of whoever attacked the village with the size of the minotaur. Searching the witch, the group found three curious items: a necklace, a totem, and a black sword. The Bard appraised the sword as high quality, even though it did not show signs of enchantment.Taking the sword, we left the other items alone, as Kierjan was able to identify them as items of evil.
Our curiosity as to the witch’s fate lasted only seconds, as soon we were set upon by a roaming band of Gromek. We bested the winged monsters, severely wounding 3 and driving off the other two. The survivors told us of their victory over the minotaur witch, but were not cooperative when we tried to get other information from them. We let the desert decide their destiny and moved on.
Our final encounter for the evening was a Eandroth caravan. We offered some of the gromek’s considerable weapons in trade, but they only seemed interested in the black sword we had retrieved from the witch’s corpse. My character rolled every lore and history skill he possessed and made all of them. Upon closer inspection, I remembered a lore lesson on a sect of minotaur that had discovered some kind of pre-cursors to rune weapons. The caravan had already made a very generous offer of gems in trade for the sword. We knew they meant business when they sensed our newfound hesitation and doubled their offer. We wrote in the book to the Order for more information, and they instructed us to keep the sword if we could. Greed got the better of us and after a successful appraisal of the gemstones they we offering, we accepted their barter. Tharzak and El Franko, each possessing great wealth, decided to take pity on the poor characters (Peter, the Bard, and myself) and allowed us to split the earnings among ourselves.
We ended our session by taking a quick inventory on where our quest stood:
Miles deep into one of the most hostile climates on Palladium? Check.
Surrounded on all sides by expeditions launched by three of the world’s most powerful empires and strongly suspecting they’re here for the same reason we are? Got it.
Minotaur Old One cult, territorial gromek, and a roving death-band responsible for the murder of an entire town? Yup.
Still in search of a nomadic tribe whose fate is a complete unknown? Yeah.